A security picture: A systematic literature review of social representations of security and associated emotional dynamics in the context of multi-layered citizenship

The political world is inherently a social world, composed of multiple groups and identities that often coexist in conflictual and unstable ways. Consequently, the collective meanings attributed to individuals, social groups, and events are central to understanding political phenomena and behaviors, including public reactions to policy measures. However, existing scholarship across different fields has examined security-related social representations, associated emotional dynamics, and their relationship with multiple layers of citizenship using divergent conceptual frameworks and in a fragmented manner. In this systematic review, we analyzed 92 peer-reviewed articles published between June 1997 and October 2025 to advance understanding of social representations of security and protection and the emotions associated with them across different social groups, conceptualized through a multi-layered citizenship framework and grounded in the political science literature. The findings point to the relationship between (in)security and inequality; inequalities, revealing that security-related social representations are strongly associated with ethnic minorities, crime, and gender identity; and that the emotional dynamics linked to these representations are predominantly characterized by negative emotions, alongside differentiated levels of institutional trust.