Producing an instrumental order. On the social uses of private security in Argentina

In this paper, I analyze the production of an instrumental order in the interaction between private security guards, the customers buying their services and the public. Private security services combine human and material elements organized by specific definitions of reality, which introduce precise classifications of people and things on the lookout for rational risk management. Private guards are primarily concerned by order maintenance, loss prevention and service provision, rather than crime control. They attach importance to communicational skills that separate their work from the original police-style model of private security.