Shaping Democratic Spaces: Security and TV Series

Project Information

DEMOSERIES

Grant agreement ID: 834759

DOI

10.3030/834759

Project closed

EC signature date 25 July 2019

Start date 1 January 2020

End date 30 June 2025

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 2 216 375,00

EU contribution

€ 2 216 375,00

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITE PARIS I PANTHEON-SORBONNE
France

Periodic Reporting for period 4 - DEMOSERIES (Shaping Democratic Spaces: Security and TV Series)

Reporting period: 2024-07-01 to 2025-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Since 2001, a growing number of television series have been set behind the scenes of democratic regimes facing terrorist threats. Created in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in the US, these works have become a major genre identified as ‘security series’. Over the last two decades, this genre continued to develop in response to the changing geopolitical situation and various crises, as well as the rapid development of digital platforms and the transformation of viewing practices during the Covid-19 lockdowns.
DEMOSERIES aimed to understand if and how security series play a role in creating and disseminating shared and shareable values. Popular among different population segments and widely discussed online, these series provide shared cultural references concerning the current security environment, characterized by multifaceted and diverse threats, the risk of loss of liberal values in democratic societies, and conspiracy theories. They provide a public forum for exploring democratic values, often raising critical questions rather than affirming state ideologies. TV series can even anticipate real-life events, as is the case of Homeland (terrorist attacks in Europe in 2015) or Servant of the People (the election of V.Zelensky as the President of Ukraine). The porousness of the boundaries between the ‘factual’ and the ‘fictional’ facilitates the integration of these works into understandings of the world.
While TV series have been increasingly recognized as an important subject of academic study, their potential for visualizing ethical issues and enabling a democratic empowerment of viewers had not yet been systematically analyzed. DEMOSERIES proposed to take these series seriously as ‘moral laboratories’ (Laugier 2023) where viewers can explore ethical dilemmas concerning violence, loyalty, engaged citizenship, surveillance, and state secrecy. Ultimately, DEMOSERIES’ objective was to enrich thinking about the ‘soft power’ of television by demonstrating the ways in which aesthetic representations of the world serve as one of the hinges of power, education, and foresight, alongside force and diplomacy.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

DEMOSERIES consolidated an interdisciplinary and international network of partners in academia (in the US, UK, Italy, Israel, Japan), among defense and intelligence actors (the Ministry of Armed Forces, IRSEM, and DGSE in France), and in the TV industry (showrunners of Le Bureau, Homeland, En thérapie, OVNI(s)). These partners have contributed to the DEMOSERIES numerous dissemination events, including international conferences, workshops, master classes, public lectures and discussions.
DEMOSERIES’s results are represented through numerous publications, which include:
-5 monographs: Laugier S.(2021). En confinement. Du care en séries et La 2e vague des séries féministes (Imprimés AOC) ; Glevarec H. & Combes C. (2021). Séries : Enquête sur les pratiques et les goûts des Français pour les séries télévisées (Presses des Mines); Laugier (2023a,b). TV-Philosophy: How TV Series Change Our Thinking and TV-Philosophy in Action (Exeter Press); Glevarec, Combes & de Saint Maurice T. (2025). Des Français·es et des séries au temps des plateforme (Éditions de l’Aube). An additional monograph is forthcomig: Blistène, P. Hidden in Plain Sight: Spy Fiction, Secrecy and Democracy (under contract with Princeton University Press).
-7 edited volumes: Allouche S., ed (2022). 24 heures chrono, naissance du genre sécuritaire ? (Vrin); Laugier, ed. (2022). Les séries - Laboratoires d'éveil politique (CNRS Editions); Allouche & Touret-Dengreville, T., eds (2023). Sécurité et politique dans les séries de superhéros (Vrin); Laugier & LaRocca D., eds (2023). Television with Stanley Cavell in Mind (Exeter Press, 2023); Laugier, Blistène & Krutikova A., eds (2024). L’événement 11 septembre (Mare & Martin); Krutikova & Zhurauliova T., eds (2025). Global TV Series and the Political Imagination (Exeter Press); Diallo A. & Laugier, eds (2025). Women in Security Television (Routledge). 2 additional volumes are forthcoming: De Saint Maurice, ed. (2025) Dans l'ombre du Bureau des légendes (Vrin) and Donatelli P. & Laugier, eds. La vita privata dello schermo. Serie televisive, immaginazione e politica (CUE Press).
-Special journal issues: ‘The Ethics and Politics of TV’ (2022), Open Philosophy; ‘L’autre société des séries’ (2021), Multitudes; ‘Les séries pensent-elles?’ (2022), Revue Internationale de Philosophie; ‘Séries féministes’ (2023), Cahiers du genre; and ‘Violence et histoire dans les séries télévisées’ (2025), Cahiers d’histoire.
-58 peer-reviewed articles in academic journals and 55 chapters in edited volumes.
DEMOSERIES became a major reference point for the study of TV series, with the launch of 2 book series, one co-directed by the PI, ‘TV-Philosophy’ at University of Exeter Press; the other, by S. Allouche and S. Laugier at Editions Vrin.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

DEMOSERIES made an important contribution to the field of TV series studies by developing an original methodology to analyze security series as vehicles of ethical reflection and democratic engagement. Through a transdisciplinary approach, involving reception surveys, field research, and image and narrative analyses, the project demonstrated that TV series are powerful civic artifacts that shape how we imagine and understand the world and society.
First, DEMOSERIES developped an innovating analytical framework by studying the forms and content of a vast corpus of TV series, focusing on the security genre. Next step was to study the transformations in the reception of the genre, some of which were rather unexpected: the digital revolution has given rise to new aesthetic forms (miniseries), and agents (platforms), resulting in rapid changes in the production and consumption of series. A large-scale sociological survey (2022) revealed the specific nature of the reception of security series, showing in particular the crucial importance of attachment to characters and their long-term impact on viewers.

The main results at the end of the project:
-A critical reevaluation of the soft power of series and the security genre in academic and public spaces;
-New analytical tools (ethical and aesthetic) for TV series and revised genre classifications;
-Integration of the study of popular culture into policymaking and the fields of war and peace studies;
-An institutional database of security series, designed as a resource for educators, researchers, and professionals (not OA due to copyright restrictions).

DEMOSERIES also resulted in a critical analysis of the relationship between security series’ creators and security and defense actors in the field of strategic foresight. This trend, prevalent in Hollywood in the aftermath of 9/11, had a profound effect on the next generation of security series, produced in response to new terrorist threats. In France, the November 2015 attacks became a major reference point, informing our in-depth analysis of the series Le Bureau des Légendes and the circumstances surrounding its production as a collaboration between Éric Rochant’s team and the DGSE.
The project also increased recognition of the importance of TV series as an influential cultural and a valuable strategic resource, informing and fostering a national project on CCI, ICCARE.

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