Chapter 2 - Global cities, segregation and transgression BLOCK 1, BOOK 1 Flashcards
URBAN AND SPATIAL SEGREGATION (36 cards)
PACIFICATION POLICY
RIO (BRAZIL)
Pacification policy programme was designed by the RIO STATE GOVERNMENT in Brazil to bring normality to the ‘favellas’ (slums) by putting in permanent police stations before 2014 world cup and 2016 Olympics.
It was designed to pacify the favellas but just caused disruption to a slum that had experienced relative peace in previous months. Indeed i think a person died.
HISTORICAL REPRESENTATIONS OF THE CITY.
HOW THE CITY WAS VIEWED.
CHICAGO is example used.
Historical representations of the city - focus was on the urban/city as having a ‘causal role’ in crime and violence.
Chicago school sociologists argued that neglected areas of Chicago allowed for crime and vice to become the dominant form of living in the city.
These areas became known as ‘ZONES OF TRANSITION’ (Burgess, 1967) - neglected areas of crime and violence.
ON ONE HAND - city is viewed as social/moral problem, a place of transgression,
ON THE OTHER HAND - city is viewed as a place of accomplishment/civility
CONTEMPORARY REPRESENTATIONS OF THE CITY.
HOW THE CITY IS VIEWED NOWADAYS.
Cities in 21st century offer up diff reps and problems
Cities are becoming ‘dominant form of living’ globally
NOWADAYS - cities imagined as ‘fragmented places’ whereby on one hand there are poor marginalised inner city areas/council estates of crime and disorder
and on the other hand - the AFFLUENT attempt to build a sense of security in urban villages such as primrose hill (Mooney, 2009)
SEGREGATION DEFINITION
The ways by which people/places are separated from one another according to system of classification or differentiation
RACIAL SEGREGATION - Jim Crow laws
HISTORICALLY.
In 19th Century, Jim Crow laws segregated blacks from whites in transport, schools, housing, jobs, public spaces, public transport. This was an example of racial, economic, social, and spatial segregation.
In South Africa - black and white people were segregated during apartheid
These systems of segregation no longer exist, but there are still racial tensions.
NEW ‘SPATIAL SEGREGATION’ IN CONTEMPORARY TIMES
Contemporary cities have created NEW SPATIAL SEGREGATION across access to wealth and cultural goods.
Also - discrimination marginalises particular social groups spatially, i.e ethnic minorities.
WHAT IS ‘MAPPING’ OF CRIME, FEAR AND INSECURITY?
Relationships between spatial segregation, crime, transgression, crime control are represented through processes of MAPPING.
NOWADAYS - MAPPING is a dominant TOOL in crime prevention and detection through Geographical Information System (GIS) computer packages.
MAPPING is a way of:
- understanding how social problems and social phenomena can be geographically distributed
- classifying and demarcating social and city life
- presenting idealised versions of actual space
- expressing constructions and representations of relationships between crime and place.
3 MODELS USED FOR MAPPING of crime through segregation.
- Model of concentric zones (Burgess, 1925)
- Ecology of fear model (Davis, 1998) - This was used on Los Angeles (LA).
- Geographical Information System (GIS) mapping of distribution and crime.
- MODEL OF CONCENTRIC ZONES (Burgess, 1925) for spatial segregation.
Burgess’s map was a construction depicting spatial segregation as evolving from ‘natural’ and ‘biological’ competition.
rather than social processes such as reversible policy decisions by businesses and the wealthy.
By this - showed how different nationalities and ethnicity were segregated in particular areas within city.
- ECOLOGY OF FEAR MODEL (Davis, 1998) - used on LA CITY.
and
involves ‘SECURITISATION’ MEASURES.
Davis sees social, economic, political, and psychological factors as significant for city segregation.
This is unlike Burgess’s model that sees segregation as a natural process.
Davis map represents how fear of crime and racial difference shapes security and physical layout of the city, as affluent whites seek to protect and segregate themselves from crimes of the poor.
This map reveals a dangerous inner city and an affluent outer suburb protected by ‘securitisation’ methods/measures.
Therefore - methods of ‘SECURITISATION’ are used such as gated communities, CCTV, barriers, neighbourhood watch, driving SUV’s etc
- GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEM (GIS) mapping of distribution and crime.
This is an Anti-crime measure according to spatial distribution of crime.
It is used to identify ‘hotspots’ for particular types of crime. Map shows criminal activity in problem places by problem people.
It is influenced by situational crime prevention (SCP) and Crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED).
By this - policy and crime control initiatives secure such spaces through architectural design of housing and public spaces, i.e CCTV and ‘SECURED BY DESIGN PROJECTS’ run by police.
‘SECURED BY DESIGN’ - changes physical space, increases natural surveillance ( visibility of spaces to people), puts spiky plants around buildings, and installs security gates and locks etc.
Boundaries, differences, and spatial segregation in an urban context.
Historical ideas of spatial segregation
and
Contemporary ideas of spatial segregation
HISTORICALLY - Society was broken down based on biological/physical characteristics, i.e the born criminal (Lombrosso, 1876). For instance, someone with particular physical characteristics would be considered to be criminal.
or - society was broken down based on class, ethnicity, ethnicity, age, gender etc. This was rigid.
NOWADAYS - Boundaries between gender, classes, and ethnic communities etc are blurred and porous, and are exemplified by moral panics in the news.
Modern example of moral panic around segregation involves shift from home to inclusion in the work place and society. By this, there is a moral panic around their infertility, binge-drinking, neglect of kids, late motherhood etc.
Contemporary ideas of spatial segregation for ‘CRIME CONTROL’.
I.E) - Methods used to segregate criminals from the rest of the population.
Crime control through spatial segregation techniques include:
- committal to a psychiatric hospital
- prison
- transportation
- electronic tagging
- ASBO’s
- genocide (pop excluded through mass murder).
By this - separating good (normal) from bad (abnormal) is embedded in western society (SIBLEY). This is SPATIAL EXCLUSION. By this boundaries are created.
PERCEIVED CRIMINAL TYPE IS……………..
Perceived criminal is:
- young
- male
- from deprived inner city
- and is of a minority ethnic group
SEGREGATION BY DISCOURSE
From a social perspective -Sub-cultural groups such as mods/rockers were depicted in discourse as responsible for the ‘moral decline in society’.
As a result - Moral Panics (Cohen, 1973) are caused by the media through amplification, i.e about mods, rockers
(folk devils), young people, the shift in women going to work etc
VINDICTIVENESS - This leads to increased enforcement, public campaigns against YP, and new laws.
By this boundaries are created - this suggests that ‘otherness’ is a problem for society
HOW DO BOUNDARIES INTERACT WITH SPATIAL SEGREGATION?
Traditionally - systems of exclusion and segregation were relied on to ‘order’ society.
However - nowadays - these systems have broken down, and boundaries are blurred and porous. This has in turn created ANXIETY.
As a result - society is afflicted by cultural and policy ‘vindictiveness’ (Young, 2007) towards certain groups, i.e young people.
By this - ‘new anxieties’ are created through discourse about youth violence, feral youth, and certain social groups are punished by crime prevention policies and technologies such as THE MOSQUITO ALARM to stop young people congregating in public spaces (ordering)
MOSQUITO ALARM - Piloted by government as a crime prevention technology to stop young people congregating in public spaces by making a high-pitch sound.
POSITIVES AND NEGATIVES of this technology include……………
POSITIVES: AIM - (DRAKE AND MUNCIE, 2010).
- Part of policies and new technologies aimed at preventing crime and disorder to manage criminal and antisocial behaviour before it happens
- Way of ordering public spaces/private residences
- Stop young people congregating in public areas
NEGATIVES
- Enforcing boundaries perceived to be porous is a problem as teenagers hang around public spaces unsupervised like adults, but still have the mentality of young people, so their behaviour is unpredictable and not consistent with boundary creation (SIBLEY, 1995)
- Criminalises kids - treats them like animals
- detrimental to development because kids need to play, and policies have written out any play not concerned with consumption, so this stops play. So it causes harm.
- By not allowing kids to play - Young people will not be able to communicate with people not like them if they are segregated from public spaces, and this may exacerbate ASB/isolation/obesity/development etc (Bauman, 2000).
- This was not implemented.
SUMMARY AROUND SEGREGATION OF YOUNG PEOPLE - IMPORTANT
the consequences of ‘STRATEGIES OF SEGREGATION’.
- Control and ordering of social problems in particular societies involves ‘STRATEGIES OF SEGREGATION’
- But - ‘social changes’ nowadays have created more fluid, porous boundaries. They are not rigid.
- These fluid, porous boundaries have caused anxiety and unsettlement in society.
- this has led to VINDICTIVE demands for greater control, segregation, exclusion of young people through policy and discourse.
- Also exploitation and violence towards women as a result of their shift from house to work/society is evident, as they are ‘othered’ and seen as ‘perps’.
As a result - STRATEGIES OF SEGREGATION against young people can lead to more harm, i.e marginalisation, violence, alienation, more anxiety, more segregation.
SLUMS: (CASE STUDY) - URBAN AND SPATIAL SEGREGATION OF THE POOR
FACTS
- The global poor are warehoused/excluded
- Slums epitomise the ‘4th World’ (CASTELLS, 1998)
- SLUM CHARACTERISTICS include:
poor access to water/sanitation/infrastructure/poor structural housing/overcrowding/insecure residential status
- UN-HABITAT (2006) STATE:
a) 1 BILLION in slums today, doubled by 2050
b) There will be an additional 400 million by 2020
c) There are 200,00 slums across the world
In Brazil - increased urbanisation is accompanied by increased ‘FAVELLISATION’ (increased no’s living in Favellas).
POLICY CONCERNS FOR SLUMS
Dominant understandings of slums are relevant here.
- In policy imagination - the dominant understanding is that Slums are equated with crime and violence. They are seen as segregated places that produce social harms such as poverty, crime and violence. They are seen as places by which anxiety is caused through being warehoused/excluded.
- Getting rid of slums important for ‘social reform’
- Image of slum is mobilised and reinforced in academic discourse, media, and film as place of disease and violence. As a result - stigmatisation of slums produces more social harms such as discrimination, marginalisation, exclusion etc.
- In policy - marginalisation and poverty is seen to produce crime and violence, but insecurity produced by crime and violence can reproduce marginalisation and poverty in a vicious circle (KOONINGS, 2007). Thus policy initiative would be to eradicate insecurity.
DIVERSE COMMUNITIES IN SLUMS (NEUWIRTH, 2006)
NOTE - The boundaries imagined and seen as rigid in policy are more fluid, as different people within slums are able to move across boundaries.
- Policies imply there are rigid boundaries in the segregated space of a slum.
- However - NEUWIRTH (2006) argued there are different and diverse communities in slums. By this, Slums are shaped by their heterogeneity and diversity, whereby people try to build ordinary lives in extraordinary circumstances.
- SLUM ECONOMIES - are central to wider economic functioning of cities/ and transnational companies.
- SLUMS are not only an illegal economy, they also provide a legitimate workforce that is central to multinational corporations (Davis, 2006). In other words slum dwellers service the rich and powerful.
- ACCORDING to studies of RACIAL GHETTOS: Economic marginalisation can produce economic innovation whereby some slum dwellers create small business etc
- As a result - segregation does ‘not’ stop movement across boundaries found in slums, as slums contain different housing conditions for a heterogeneity of people doing diverse activities and jobs.
DISRUPTING DOMINANT UNDERSTANDINGS OF SLUMS as places of crime and violence.
- People can feel safer in slums than in areas outside
- They can feel more protected, less at risk.
- Organisation, rules, social order are characteristics of favellas/slum life.
- Whilst criminal enterprises in slums do reproduce slum life, boundaries between legal and illegal are ‘entangled’ as some dealers donate to charities, protect people, as the state withdraws security and support for slums.
‘URBAN’ AND ‘SPATIAL’ SEGREGATION OF THE ‘AFFLUENT’
CASE STUDY - MANAGUA in NICARAGUA
- REVEALS ‘NEW FORMS OF URBAN SEGREGATION’ in this locality.
I.E - 1. FORTIFIED NETWORKS
AND
- URBAN SEGREGATION FROM BELOW (DRUG DEALING ELITE).
- Affluent segregate themselves from rest of society due to anxieties and insecurities produced by crime and fear of crime, violence, AND disorder viewed to manifest in slums.
- Poor and affluent segregation do interact and they do coexist.
- EXAMPLE - MANAGUA in NICARAGUA - NEW FORMS OF SEGREGATION appear as, instead of gated communities, a ‘fortified network’ is created for the ELITE whereby high speed roads connect them to their homes, businesses, shopping areas, airports etc (RODGERS, 2007).
- HOWEVER - The poor are excluded from these locations by private security.
- ALSO - There is a new form of URBAN SEGREGATION ‘FROM BELOW’ (RODGERS). By this -drug dealing in barrios contributes to new forms of economic activity which is reflected in the conspicuous consumption of a barrios elite (DRUG DEALERS).
- As a result - drug gangs use violence to secure a new hierarchy of power,
- Segregation is evident here as the elites look to reshape the city through offering protection and security in Managua (NICARAGUA).
- By this, the barrios fracture into GANGLANDS’ where social order and regulation are achieved through violence. This causes insecurity and anxiety.
- By this - zones of the city reserve for the powerful elite coexist alongside ‘ZONES OF EXCLUSION of exclusion’ where the marginalised poor live. Here urban insecurity/violence/fear are the everyday occurrence.
AFFLUENT SEGREGATION, TRANSGRESSION AND VIOLENCE.
SEGREGATION by ‘GENTRIFICATION’.
- GENTRIFICATION coined by Glass, 1964.
- GENTRIFICATION - involves transformation of working class derelict city areas into middle class residential or business/commercial locales.
- This involves re-branding to appeal to the more affluent/middle/creative classes (FLORIDA, 2005).
- However -AS A NEGATIVE - this segregates the privileged from the less-privileged and excludes less affluent populations and existing populations who already live there, as housing and cost of living become more expensive in these areas. As a result, people become segregated on account of class, wealth, and ethnicity (TALBOT, 2007).
- This SEGREGATION OF THE AFFLUENT can be viewed as a an ‘expression’ of fear, crime, social differences that seem threatening (YOUNG, 1999).
- So - the use of Gated communities, CCTV, bridges, roads and security guards can be seen as an ‘expression’ of the ways people protect themselves from PERCEIVED THREATS and INSECURITY (JEWKES, 2008).
- By this - BAUMAN says that community from this perspective involves HOMOGENEITY, sharing a common identity with like-minded people.
- HOWEVER - BAUMAN states that cities are are not like, this as they are places where diverse population s interact with each other.
