The hegemony of Prevent: turning counter-terrorism policing into common sense

The British government’s Prevent Duty puts an obligation on specified public sectors to “keep people from being drawn into terrorism”. The policy has been a point of contention within the public discourse, but interview data shows that there is a grudging consent for Prevent policing amongst the civilians implementing it. This article explores how this consent is manufactured and what this tells us about the changing nature of counter-terrorism policing in civic life. Using Gramsci’s concept of hegemony, this article will explain how Prevent is being transformed from a coercive statutory instrument into a common sense approach by the co-optation of civic norms. This enquiry is informed by the findings of interviews conducted with Prevent co-ordinators and employees of specified authorities in England. These interviews provide insights into how counter-terrorism monitoring is diffused within civic spaces and the nature of consent for this policing. Analysing these findings through a Gramscian lens explains how Prevent is normalised as a civic duty. It also helps chart a course for this hegemonic regime, which is moving beyond specific sectors towards a community of counter-terrorism citizens conducting surveillance as common sense practice.