Security Meanings, Inequality, and Trust

Politics is not only a set of laws. It is also a social space where many groups and identities meet, clash, and shift over time. In that space, the shared meanings people attach to individuals, communities, and major events can shape political behavior. They can also affect how the public reacts to policy measures.

The review examined 92 peer-reviewed articles published from June 1997 to October 2025. It brought together scattered research on security, protection, emotions, and citizenship. Rather than treating citizenship as one simple status, it used a framework that sees citizenship in several layers and roots the discussion in political science.

The findings show that insecurity does not affect social meanings in a neutral way. It is tied to inequality. The research also links security-related meanings to ethnic minorities, crime, and gender identity. This means people may read the same security issue through different social positions and lived experiences.

Emotions were a major pattern too. The emotional tone in the reviewed work was mostly negative. Trust in institutions also varied across groups. These differences help explain why security can produce different reactions, depending on who is speaking, which identity is involved, and how much institutional trust exists.