Nodal governance and security provision: the University of Manitoba Security Service

Abstract

Security has consistently been identified as a State prerogative whereby the State holds a monopoly on the governance of all such activities within itself. This understanding has been challenged over the past two decades by the proliferation of security providers in both state and non-state forms. The frameworks of anchored pluralism and private governance have expanded criminologists’ understanding of security governance, moving it beyond a state-centric model. The nodal governance paradigm encompasses these concepts and develops them by emphasizing an increasing ‘pluralisation’ of security governance. This study focuses on the University of Manitoba Security Service as an institution, mapping the ways in which it forms relationships with other security nodes to form a complex system of governance. This thesis illuminates that the University of Manitoba Security Service is a node of security governance, and thus it uses both formal and informal mechanisms to network with other security bodies.