SECURITY CULTURE BETWEEN THEORETICAL CONSTRUCT AND OPERATIONAL CATEGORY: EPISTEMOLOGICAL DELIMITATIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS

Abstract

The concept of security culture has gained increasing prominence within contemporary Security Studies, particularly in the context of hybrid threats, cognitive warfare, and the growing emphasis on societal and national resilience. Despite its widespread use in both academic and policy discourse, security culture remains conceptually ambiguous and epistemologically under-defined, oscillating between a broad theoretical construct and a loosely operationalised normative notion. This paper addresses this gap by advancing a systematic epistemological clarification of the concept and by identifying the conditions under which it may be transformed into a coherent analytical and operational category. The study adopts a qualitative meta-theoretical approach, combining conceptual analysis, systematic literature review, and comparative examination of adjacent constructs such as strategic culture, political culture, and societal security. It demonstrates that the ambiguity surrounding security culture stems from conceptual diffusion across paradigmatic boundaries, as well as from the absence of clearly defined levels of abstraction and analytical criteria. Building on these findings, the paper proposes a multidimensional framework encompassing cognitive, normative, institutional, and behavioural dimensions, each associated with empirically measurable indicators. This reconceptualisation contributes to strengthening the theoretical coherence and methodological applicability of security culture as a key variable in analysing contemporary security environments