Table Of ContentPublic space is constantly contested. Wherever conflicts escalate, control and
order are the foremost responses. This book offers a fresh alternative to this
austere approach. A group of endowed scholars from all around the world discuss
public urban space, expanding critical social geography into a multidisciplinary
view. The book provides a timely critique of contemporary rigid policing and
ubiquitous surveillance. It shows how increasing regulation and normalization
contribute in increasing social exclusion and polarization. The voices of marginal
groups are clearly heard, and the global approach becomes tangible with several
everyday examples.
Hille Koskela, Professor of Geography, University of Turku, Finland
Ranging around the globe and across academic disciplines, Order and Conflict in
Public Space delves into the dangerous dialectic by which urban public space is
made and remade. As the book’s provocative case studies point out, forces of pri-
vatization, surveillance and exclusion now pervade contemporary public space to
the point that its very viability seems increasingly uncertain. At the same time,
the sort of sharp, engaged analysis found in these pages offers hope of something
better than an obituary.
Jeff Ferrell, Visiting Professor of Criminology, University of Kent, UK
(cid:84)(cid:104)(cid:105)(cid:115)(cid:32)(cid:112)(cid:97)(cid:103)(cid:101)(cid:32)(cid:105)(cid:110)(cid:116)(cid:101)(cid:110)(cid:116)(cid:105)(cid:111)(cid:110)(cid:97)(cid:108)(cid:108)(cid:121)(cid:32)(cid:108)(cid:101)(cid:102)(cid:116)(cid:32)(cid:98)(cid:97)(cid:110)(cid:107)
Order and Conflict in Public Space
Which public and whose space? The understanding of public space as an arena
where individuals can claim full use and access hides a reality of constant nego-
tiation, conflict and surveillance. This collection uses case studies concerning the
management, use and transgression of public space to invite reflection on the
way in which everyday social interaction is framed and shaped by the physical
environment and vice versa. International experts from fields including geo-
graphy, criminology, sociology and urban studies come together to debate the
concepts of order and conflict in public space.
This book is divided into two parts: spaces of control and spaces of transgres-
sion. Part I focuses on formal and informal surveillance and the politics of
control, using case studies to compare strategies in spaces including Olympic
cities, luxury skyscrapers, residential neighbourhoods and shopping malls. Part
II focuses on transgressive or deviant behaviour in public spaces, with case
studies examining behaviour in nightlife districts, governance of homelessness,
boy-r acer culture and abortion protests. The epilogue concludes the book with an
exploration of possible future avenues for research on public space, and a critical
appraisal of the concept of public space itself.
This interdisciplinary collection will be of interest to students, researchers and
professionals in the areas of criminology, sociology, surveillance studies, human
and social geography, and urban studies and planning.
Mattias De Backer is a researcher and teaching assistant at the Criminology
Department, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium.
Lucas Melgaço is a researcher and lecturer at the Department of Criminology,
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium.
Georgiana Varna is a Research Fellow at the Adam Smith Business School,
University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK.
Francesca Menichelli is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre
for Criminology at the University of Oxford, UK.
Routledge Studies in Crime and Society
Collective Violence, Democracy and Queer Sex Work
Protest Policing Edited by Mary Laing, Katy Pilcher
David R. Mansley and Nicola Smith
Prostitution in the Community Criminology and War
Attitudes, action and resistance Transgressing the borders
Sarah Kingston Edited by Sandra Walklate and Ross
McGarry
Surveillance, Capital and Resistance
Michael McCahill and Rachel L. Finn Transitional Justice and Legacies of
State Violence
Crime, Community and Morality Talking about torture in Northern
Simon Green Ireland
Lisa White
Flexible Workers
Labour, regulation and the political Why Men Buy Sex
economy of the stripping industry Examining sex worker clients
Teela Sanders and Kate Hardy Philip Birch
Histories of State Surveillance in State Crime, Women and Gender
Europe and Beyond Victoria E. Collins
Edited by Kees Boersma, Rosamunde
van Brakel, Chiara Fonio and Pieter Men, Masculinities and Violence
Wagenaar An ethnographic study
Anthony Ellis
Rape, Victims and Investigations
Experiences and perceptions of law Order and Conflict in Public Space
enforcement officers responding to Edited by Mattias De Backer, Lucas
reported rapes Melgaço, Georgiana Varna and
Shana L. Maier Francesca Menichelli
Understanding Gender Based Policing, Port Security and Crime
Violence Control
National and international contexts An ethnography of the port
Edited by Nadia Aghtaie and securityscape
Geetanjali Gangoli Yarin Eski
Order and Conflict in
Public Space
Edited by
Mattias De Backer,
Lucas Melgaço,
Georgiana Varna and
Francesca Menichelli
First published 2016
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2016 Mattias De Backer, Lucas Melgaço, Georgiana Varna and
Francesca Menichelli
The right of the editors to be identified as the authors of the editorial
matter, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted
in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-i n-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Names: Backer, Mattias de, editor.
Title: Order and conflict in public space / edited by Mattias De Backer,
Lucas Melgaðco, Georgiana Varna and Francesca Menichelli.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2016. |
Series: Routledge studies in crime and society ; 20
Identifiers: LCCN 2015046948| ISBN 9781138931183 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781315679884 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Public spaces–Social aspects. | Public safety. | Crime
prevention. | Social control.
Classification: LCC HT185 .O74 2016 | DDC 363.1–dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015046948
ISBN: 978-1-138-93118-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-67988-4 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
Contents
List of figures ix
List of maps x
List of tables xi
Notes on contributors xii
1 Preface 1
MATTIAS DE BACKER, LUCAS MELGAÇO,
GEORGIANA VARNA AND FRANCESCA MENICHELLI
PART I
Spaces of control 13
2 Normalising exceptional public space security: the spatial fix
of the Olympic carceral 15
JON COAFFEE
3 Securitization and urban space: the case of a skyscraper in
Mexico City 37
NELSON ARTEAGA BOTELLO
4 The residential normalisation of public spaces: towards a
post- punitive regulation? 62
ANTONIN MARGIER
5 Avoiding encounters with poverty: aesthetics, politics and
economics in a privileged neighbourhood of Cape Town 79
NICK SCHUERMANS AND MANFRED SPOCTER
6 Caution, control and consumption: defining acceptable
conduct in the semi- public space of Czech shopping malls 101
PAVEL POSPĚCH
viii Contents
PART II
Spaces of transgression 123
7 Reclaiming civility in urban nightlife districts 125
ILSE VAN LIEMPT
8 Dwelling without a home: Denver’s splintered public spaces 140
SIG LANGEGGER AND STEPHEN KOESTER
9 Boy racer culture and class conflict: urban regeneration,
social exclusion, and the rights of the road 160
KAREN LUMSDEN
10 Rethinking spaces, sites and encounters of conflict in
twenty- first century Britain: the case of abortion protest in
public space 182
LUCY JACKSON AND GILL VALENTINE
EPILOGUE
Chaos/order and the future of public space research 205
11 The future of (spatial) criminology and research about
public space 207
KEITH HAYWARD
12 Diss and ditch? What to do with public space 216
MYRIAM HOUSSAY- HOLZSCHUCH
Index 221
Figures
3.1 Main facade of Reforma 222 38
3.2 The two slender towers of Reforma 222 45
3.3 Access to shops located in Reforma 222 46
3.4 Glass- roofed interior street 46
3.5 The rear facade, which preserves the remains of a building of
the nineteenth century 47
5.1 The built environment of Tamboerskloof 80
5.2 Fortification of private space and privatization of public space 87
7.1 Utrecht’s nightlife district and our four observation points
(I, II, III, IV) 127
7.2 Rotterdam’s nightlife district and our four observation points
(I, II, III, IV) 128
10.1 A typical set up of Abort67’s display 191
10.2 Members of Abort67 stand with their large signage 192
10.3 A Pro- Choice activist covers Abort67’s signs 193
10.4 The reaction of passers-b y to the models that Abort67 uses to
demonstrate the size of a 12-week-o ld foetus 194
10.5 Members of Abort67 are arrested under the Public Order Act
(Summer 2012) 196
10.6 A PCSO attends an Abort67 display in Sheffield (2014) 198
