Human Security and Spiritual Insecurity: Why the Fear of Evil Forces Needs to Be Taken Seriously
![handle is hein.journals/geojaf11 and id is 105 raw text is: Culture&Society
Human Security and Spiritual Insecurity
Why the Fear ofEvil Forces Needs to Be Taken Seriously
Adam Ashforth
In 1994, to much fanfare, the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) introduced the concept of human
security, proclaiming that this idea, though simple, is
likely to revolutionize society in the twenty-first century.
Human security, the UNDP noted in its Human Develop-
ment Report, was a way of moving beyond the emphasis on
the territorial security of national states and the insecurity
arising from the threat of violence by other states. Previ-
ous thinking about security, the report suggested, neglected
the legitimate concerns of people who sought security in
their daily lives. The revolutionary new concept of human
security was to be people-centered. The 1994 Report out-
lined seven basic components of human security: economic,
health, food, environmental, personal, community, and
political security.'
The concept of human security has emerged as a staple
of international development policymaking and analy-
sis, embodied in, among other things, the UN Millen-
nium Development Goals.' Opening the study of security to
encompass issues beyond the traditional domain of relations
among states has allowed global actors to do important work
on global poverty, health, and violence that would not have
Adam Ashforth
teaches in the Center
for Afroamerican and
African Studies at the
University of Michi-
gan. He is the author
of Witchcraft, Violence, and
Democrac in South Africa
(2005), which was
awarded the African
Studies Association's
Herskovits Prize.
Winter/Spring 200 [99]](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/geojaf11&div=16&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Human Security and Spiritual Insecurity: Why the Fear of Evil Forces Needs to Be Taken Seriously
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