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

Invisible Lines in the Sand: Bather Arrests in Early 20th-Century Los Angeles

Elsa Devienne & translated by Oliver Waine — 2018-07-13T05:00:00Z

Can beaches reveal the tensions that run through society at a given moment in time? Here, Elsa Devienne shows how Californian beaches in the early 20th century crystallized tensions resulting from the gradual rejection of Victorian values and exposed, via the way people presented their bodies, the changes under way with regard to moral order and American society.
In the late 1910s, Los Angeles was the scene of a series of arrests of bathers and beachgoers. The individuals arrested, caught

- From the Field / gender, United States, Los Angeles, public order, tourism, order in public, women, beach, California, leisure, social order, moral order, clothing, bathing suit, seaside resort, resort town, Santa Monica

“Enfantillages”: photographing children (and their parents) in public space

Fabien Desage & translated by Oliver Waine — 2016-03-04T06:00:00Z

Why are children photogenic? Political sociologist Fabien Desage reflects upon his practices as a photographer and the reasons that make children in public spaces a particularly interesting and stimulating subject of visual investigation.
---- Series: Children in the City ENFANTILLAGE, n.m. Informal A. The state of being (like) a child. 1. Rare. Physical aspect that is characteristic of a child. 2. [Gen., pertaining to an adult] Lack of maturity; a tendency to act without thinking. (Near-)

- From the Field / public space, children, public order, photography, order in public, parents, street, authority, photogenicity, upbringing

Identity checks and the law

Nathalie Ferré & translated by Oliver Waine — 2013-04-24T10:04:47Z

In France, the issue of identity checks is at the heart of the thorny debate on how to ensure better relations between the police and the public. Against a backdrop of discussions on whether to issue “ID check receipts”, reintroduce uniform numbers or establish a new code of ethics, Nathalie Ferré here provides an overview of the current legal framework.
The existence of proper legislation regarding identity checks in France is relatively recent. Until the 1980s, the national police acted on

- Debates / public space, democracy, police, policing, public order, law, identity checks

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