Fostering Agents of Change: Governing, Crime Prevention and Teaching for Security

Abstract

The article scrutinises a specific intervention for crime prevention through education, launched in one municipality of Sweden, in regard to how such education is set-up, the motives for initiating such education, and the kind of subject that such education is about to produce. Influenced by Michel Foucault’s thought on governing, the article is based on interviews with actors involved in establishing principles for security and carrying out specific interventions at school. The analysis illustrates what could be characterised as a will to activate in the intervention in focus, that is, a particular form of governing mobilising the student’s motivation and will to make active choices and active standpoints–in the name of freedom, responsibility, and security.