Metropolitics

Policing Social Housing in Paris: The Role of GPIS

Virginie Malochet & translated by Oliver Waine — 2021-05-28T05:00:00Z

Social landlords in France recently obtained the right to organize surveillance and security operations themselves within their properties. Virginie Malochet studies the case of GPIS, a social-housing security force founded in 2004 in Paris, and explores the rationale and nature of this kind of policing, which reflects both the rise of security concerns and the increased involvement of social-housing organizations in the process of ensuring urban security.
In social-housing neighborhoods in

- From the Field / policing, surveillance, social housing, Paris, public housing, profession, housing projects, night, security, public order, France

Why School Securitization Fails. Lessons from Morrill and Musheno's Navigating Conflict

Andrés Besserer Rayas — 2019-10-08T05:00:00Z

Navigating Conflict describes how pupils are able to address conflicts on their own, and how school securitization policies undermine these efforts.
“Every day when I walk into the campus, I am greeted by uneasy stares and nervous shouting reminding me to make sure I do not have keys or a belt or anything that may alert the metal detector,” a high-school student declared before the New York City Council Budget and Oversight Hearings in March of 2019 (Make the Road New York 2019). She spoke as

- Reviews / school, education, conflict, securitization, security, United States, ethnography

Marielle Franco and Brazilian Democracy at a Crossroads

Natália Alves & Isabella Gonçalves Miranda & Felipe Magalhães — 2018-06-26T05:00:00Z

Marielle Franco's life and death raised questions about the limits of Brazil's New Republic. It revealed the rising stakes, particularly for women and people of color, following the 2016 coup. In this piece, urban activists Isabella Gonçalves and Natália Alves and geographer Felipe Magalhães place Franco's embodied politics as a direct challenge to the regressive policies and aggressive austerity of the current regime.
We live in times when a culture of violence is a vocal minority of the

- From the Field / social movement, security, violence, corruption, neoliberalism, Latin America, Brazil, LGBTQ+, feminism, activism, Rio de Janeiro, queer, critical racial awareness, austerity, militias, queer theory, state violence, coup

You Can't Kill Marielle

Meg Stalcup & Erika Robb Larkins — 2018-05-29T05:00:00Z

Marielle Franco was part of a new generation of progressive activists in Brazilian politics. She was assassinated point-blank on March 14, 2018 by an elite shooter. In this piece, Meg Stalcup and Erika Robb Larkins examine how Marielle's death is revealing of the issues that she fought for in her life. They also ask how she continues to be present in and beyond the unfolding investigation into who killed her.
Violence marked Brazil's 2018 elections, by many accounts the most polarized in the

- From the Field / social movement, security, progressive urban politics, corruption, Latin America, Brazil, activism, Rio de Janeiro, militias, progressive activism

Urban renewal and the “defensible space” model: the growing impact of security issues on the way our cities develop

Camille Gosselin & translated by Oliver Waine — 2016-02-12T06:00:00Z

In transforming the urban planning and architecture of social-housing estates, urban-renewal policies are not just about changing the image or populations of these neighbourhoods. They also seek to control public spaces more effectively. Guided by the principles of “situational prevention”, the implementation of such policies reflects the growing influence of security-related issues in urban development.
The French urban renewal policy initiated in 2004 presented a threefold objective: to

- Essays / France, public space, housing projects, urban renewal, social housing, urban development, housing estates, public policy, security, surveillance, situational prevention, defensible space

The Dangers of Security

Médéric Martin-Mazé & translated by Oliver Waine — 2015-05-22T04:30:00Z

In Against Security, Harvey Molotch highlights – through various examples, including the New York subway, airports, and post‑Katrina New Orleans – the way in which security agencies are increasingly replacing common sense with bureaucratic systems that, despite good intentions, in fact have numerous pernicious effects. In his conclusion, he makes a number of proposals for a more human and altruistic form of security.
No one was able to prevent Andreas Lubitz from sending the Airbus A320 he

- Reviews / public space, public transportation, New Orleans, Katrina, New York, security, mass transit, metro, subway, resilience, attacks, airport, bureaucracy, Featured

Regulating public spaces: the ambiguous role played by new professions

Jacques de Maillard & translated by Oliver Waine — 2013-04-17T13:52:12Z

Despite a hiatus in the debate on community policing in France, the “new professions” involved in regulating public order have been the subject of renewed interest of late. Jacques de Maillard has studied the work of correspondants de nuit (“night-time mediators”) in Paris, and here describes how an alternative – a compromise between repression and abandonment – has been sought.
In the early 1990s, initiatives to manage conflict in public places, on public transport and in social-housing

- From the Field / public space, safety, Paris, proximity, profession, policing, security, public order