Entering the Relational Space: Using Field-Analytic Methods in Researching Rural Security

While criminal justice, law enforcement, and security agencies operate within their own organisational hierarchies, there has been a notable shift towards working across vertical lines in assemblages, nodes, and networks. A challenge for criminological researchers who focus on the workings of such systems is to find a methodology that encompasses this broad range of actors and their implications for governance and politics. Hence, we need tools for working in a relational space. In this chapter, we consider two potentially complementary approaches: the left realist square of crime as an actor-based model; and we introduce Bourdieu's field concept and discuss why it is a useful tool for understanding actor relations and actors' strategies. We provide a brief synopsis of Bourdieu's sociological framework for those not familiar with this approach. We then provide a case from our study of rural security and crime prevention initiatives in Ireland and we discuss the merits and challenges associated with this approach.