Journal of Security and Sustainability Issues

This study is the result of many years of permanent observation of the broadly understood area of security and the area of penitentiary science that is strictly connected with it. Due to the complexity of the undertaken considerations, the author of the study decided to emphasise a certain space, which is of an extremely significant value for utilitarian reasons. However, the issue in question has never been fully described in literature. The conducted research and the data obtained as a result indicate unequivocally that there is a need to examine the management of security systems in penitentiary institutions in Poland by a thorough analysis of its individual components.

The essence of economic and social security as a national and supranational category has been substantiated. The influence of political, economic and social factors on the condition of national and European security has been investigated. Priorities of the economic component of security have been defined: energy security, foreign trade and innovation-investment security, social security. The dialectical interrelationships of economic and social security have been established. The trends in economic and social security have been defined.

Security of societies has become one of urgent issues in contemporary world. Too frequently we started encountering one or another form of malicious behavior, criminal activities or terrorism. New and complex threats highlight the need for further synergies and closer cooperation at all levels. Awareness, preparedness and resilience of societies emerge as key preconditions of further secure and sustainable economic development and general well-being. A special attention in those conditions has to be paid to development of theoretically grounded approach to protection of critical infrastructure (CIP), damage or disruption of which can be immensely harmful to unprepared and therefore vulnerable institutions and society. The aim of this paper is to lay theoretical foundations for theoretically grounded approach towards research in CIP area, in order to formulate, ultimately, an approach towards action, which, employing leadership societal stakeholders would allow to enhance awareness of society actors about the threats, i.e, to develop ability to recognize, prevent, and, in case of disaster, to resist to consequences of critical infrastructure infringement. Hence, enhanced resilience of society to critical infrastructure infringement is and ultimate goal of fostering of leadership for critical infrastructure protection.

The article highlights the importance of the development of the society, as well as the measurement of this development, in the context of security, sustainability and competitiveness and goes much further by guiding to further research focus on the introduced new conception of “Secure and sustainable competitiveness” in the context of globalisation. The definition of “Sustainable competitiveness” was broadened by including new aspect of security. The development of the society was introduced as common output of the globalization which goes hand-in-hand with competitiveness, sustainability and security. The interrelation of certain facets between security, competitiveness and sustainability lead to the proposal to create the new index of “Secure and sustainable competitiveness” with possibility to evaluate the progress by looking back and provide prospects by looking forward. The research findings are in line with policy context and the development of the new index of “Secure and sustainable competitiveness” could be an important research contribution to the European Union Strategy Europe 2020 for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth (2010).

Security and sustainability conception analysis is being provided in the paper. The conceptions of security and sustainability have been selected due to their significance for contemporary globalized world’s issues. Initially, the perceptions encompassing even ancient times are being elaborated. Onward, with an intention to get a more sophisticated view of above mentioned expressions, relevant scientific literature has been critically reviewed accentuating to the dimensions of those two phenomena. The following common dimensions could be proposed: social, economic, environmental. The implication could be stated - security conception provides not only those three dimensions some other important dimensions could be distinguished as well. One more important finding composes the perception of dimensions interactions to analyzed conceptions. Some important implications are being provided in the paper, which elevate the significance of security to sustainability for today’s globalized society - security can be proposed as expression with ponderable value, while sustainability gains this power only with “sustainable development” phenomenon.