Hyper-securitization, Everyday Security Practice and Technification: Cyber-security Logics in Switzerland

This contribution to the SPSR debate about technology and security in Switzerland looks at how and by whom cyber-security is constructed in Swiss security politics. Using three securitization logics as developed by reflexive Security Studies - hyper-securitization, everyday security practices, and technification - it illustrates how Swiss actors have sorted out roles and responsibilities over the years. The article suggests that all three logics are present in the political process, but that 'technification' - a way to construct the issue as reliant upon technical knowledge and the supposition that this serves a political and normatively neutral agenda - is currently the dominant one. For democratic politics, technification is a big challenge. Assigning an issue to the technical realm has a depoliticizing influence and makes contestation from those with less technical expertise very hard.