Security has become a central topic of social debate. The focus lies on the ambiguities and risks of modern technologies, the tougher environmental hazards and the uncertainty regarding global economic, social and political upheavals, which are manifested in new forms of transnational terrorist and criminal threat. These discussions about the radical changes in the risk, threat and vulnerability situation condense on the issue of a new security architecture.

The Freiburg Competency-network intends to establish an in-depth contextual knowledge to the creation of a new security architecture. In a wide range of access it explores the conditions, the reach and the impact of change in security thinking and security practices. It combines basic research with application-oriented tasks.

The research topics are moving in three dimensions:

• Principles of security thinking: democratic theory and political-anthropological foundations, present diagnosis of security thinking
• Principles of security architecture: basic legal issues, security- economy, internationalization of security regimes
• Technicalization and security: data protection issues, implementation and acceptance of security technologies, evaluation research

The Location

In recent years, Freiburg has made its mark on the European - if not to say the world - research map and established itself as an outstanding location for innovative research on civil security. This is particularly evident when one looks at the large amount of third-party funds allocated in the framework of the BMBF program for research on civil security to research institutes in Freiburg. Building on the research strength of the university, the institutions of very different disciplines provide ideal conditions for the transdisciplinary collaboration needed to effectively conduct security research and develop new technologies.

The Centre for Security and Society

In order to press ahead with the successful collaboration between the various institutes and disciplines, the Centre for Security and Society officially started its work at the University of Freiburg in November 2009. With the Centre's foundation, a platform was created to pool the various research activities in the area of security. Currently, five faculties have members at the Centre: the Faculty of Law, the Faculty of Humanities, the Faculty of Philology, the Faculty of Economics and Behavioral Sciences, and the Faculty of Engineering. Each faculty appoints a member to the Centre's directorate.

The members receive support from the central IT computing center and the Institute of Computer Science and Social Studies (IIG); in its function as a central research institute at the university, the IIG has already been active for several years in the area of information security. Outside the university, collaborations with the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law and the Fraunhofer-Institute for High-Speed Dynamics, Ernst-Mach-Institute, are a further valuable component to the Centre.

With their individual core competencies, all members make the Centre one of the leading players on the field of security research.

The Research Areas

The concept of resilience is becoming more and more a central part of the security debate. Concepts originally developed in the technical sciences and ecology for the stabilization of highly complex systems are being discussed as a possible basis for new security concepts. The starting point is the realization that not the management of crises should stand at the center, but rather the establishment of crisis-resistant structures at different levels of society and economic activity.

It must be ensured, however, that new concepts do not compromise the openness and the ability of democracy in society. This field of tension will be examined in a trans-disciplinary debate. The symposium highlights and addresses the legal, the anthropologic-psychological as well as the technological and economic aspects of this altered term of resiliency.