Selling security: the social construction of private security markets in Argentina

Abstract

This article presents a systematic analysis of the private security market inArgentina. Whether the production of surveillance and protection services is organized as anindustry and if the exchange between producers and consumers is organized as a market, couldwe not use the contributions of economic sociology to consider a reality that to a certain pointis a special system of market relationships? I first analyze the ties and power relations thatstructure the space of producers of private security services, considering the diversity ofservices offered and the framework that unify them. I then discuss the rhetoric of prevention thataccompanies the marketing of these services, how they adapt to customer demands and theneeds groups and organizations meet with the consumption of such products.