In the post-9/11 context, security issues have become increasingly central to the hosting of sport mega-event (SMEs). Security budgets for events like the Olympic Games now run into billions of dollars. This article seeks to advance the emerging field of SME security research in substantive and analytical terms. We identify three sets of issues and problems that are taking shape within this field: first, comparative issues in relationship to the Global North and Global South, notably given the growing number of SMEs set to be staged in the Global South; second, various risks and security strategies that are specific to different SMEs, including perceived terrorist threats, spectator violence, and broader risks associated with poverty, social divisions, and urban crime; and third, the security legacies that follow from SMEs, such as new surveillance technologies, new security-focused social policies, and security-influenced urban redevelopment. We argue that future research into SME security governance should be underpinned by a synthetic theoretical framework. This framework brings together three particular strands: first, a sociological approach that explores the "security field," drawing in part on Bourdieu; second, critical urban geographical theory, which contextualizes security strategies in relationship to new architectures of social control and consumption in urban settings; and third, different strands of risk theory, notably in regard to reflexive modernization, governmentality, and cultural sociological questions.
Drawing upon Michel Foucault's approach to power and governmentality, this paper explores the internal logics and dynamics of software-mediated techniques used to regulate and manage urban systems. Our key questions are as follows: what power and regulatory dynamics do contemporary smart-city initiatives imply? And how do smart information technologies intervene in the governing of everyday life? Building on the Foucauldian distinction between apparatuses of discipline and apparatuses of security, the paper approaches these questions on three broad levels, namely: how contemporary 'governing through code' relates to its referent object (referentiality axis), to normalisation (normativity axis), and to space (spatiality axis). Empirically, the paper investigates two high-profile pilot projects in Switzerland in the field of smart electricity management, aimed at (1) the assessment of customer needs and behaviours with regard to novel smart metering solutions (iSMART), and (2) the elaboration of novel IT solutions in the field of smart electricity grids for optimised load management (Flexlast).
Dating from 1563, Bernard Palissy's essay De la Ville de Forteresse (1) provides a powerful starting point for the problematic of this paper, which is to reflect upon the`splintering spheres of security' in the contemporary`fortress city' (Davis, 1990; Low, 1997). A firstgeneration Huguenot and one of the most renowned artists and scientists of the French Renaissance (Lefaivre and Tzonis, 2004, page 138), Palissy was heavily exposed to the ferocious Catholic persecutions of the time. The aim of his essay, a study of the``design and arranging of a fortress city that is the most unassailable ever heard of '' (Palissy, 1988[1563]), was thus driven by the immediate need to protect both his own life and his coreligionist community in the city of La Rochelle.`H ave you ever seen anything made by the hand of man that it fits so precisely as the two shells and attachments of the aforesaid cockles and scallops? ... Do you think that fish which erect their fortresses in the form of a spiral or an Archimedean screw do so without reason? ... And I began to think that I could find no better counsel for the design of my Fortified Town and began to observe in order to find the fish that are the most industrious in Architecture and to take counsel from their industriousness. ... And having seen this, I found no better solution for the construction of my Fortified Town than to take as my example the fortress of the aforesaid purple whelk and therefore took up my compasses, ruler and other necessary tools to make my drawing thereof. Firstly, I drew the plan of a great rectangular square around which I drew a great number of houses, to which I added windows, doors and workshops all facing towards the outside of the plan and streets of the Town. At one of the corners of the aforesaid square, I drew a great doorway on which I marked the plan of the house or residence of the principal Governor of said Town in order to ensure that no person should enter said square without leave from the Governor. ... I drew the beginning of a street starting from the aforesaid gateway, surrounding the houses I had drawn around said square, setting out to build my Town in spiral form and line, following the form and
Abstract. Camera-fitted drones are now easily affordable to the public. The resulting proliferation of the aerial gaze raises a series of critical issues, ranging from the changing regimes of visibility across urban and rural space to the novel risks and dynamics of control implied by current drone developments. The paper argues that a distinct "spatial curiosity" and "power sensitivity" are required if we are to grasp and explore these issues. On this basis, and grounded in an extensive literature review, the paper outlines a politico-geographical research agenda for the investigation of the making, functioning and implications of drone systems. Such an agenda, it is claimed, could afford deepened insight into the driving forces that are behind current drone developments, would show how drones work in different institutional contexts, and could highlight how drones impact on the envisioned reality. This in turn would provide a deepened understanding of the "politics of visibility", "politics of the air" and "politics of the ground" conveyed by drones, and open up a wider conceptual reflection on the role of the aerial dimension in the projection of power across and within space.
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