Zero Tolerance for the Industrial Past and Other Threats: Policing and Urban Entrepreneurialism in Britain and Germany

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed changes in the discourses and practices of urban policing towards 'quality-of-life offences' and the presence of unwanted groups (beggars, drug-users) in city centres. The authors argue that the change towards a more 'law-and-order' style of law enforcement, often referred to as Zero Tolerance Policing, has to be examined not solely as a means of crime prevention but also in the context of interurban competition. Thus, it constitutes a moment of the urban political economy, often referred to as urban entrepreneurialism : especially for old industrial cities, safe and clean city centres are regarded as a necessary asset for competition and image promotion. These arguments are developed by discussion of two empirical studies: Glasgow, Scotland, and Essen, in the Ruhr region in Germany.

Phone centres and the struggle for public space in Italy: between revanchist policies and practices of resistance

“…The literature on revanchism and the missing attention to politics While Smith referred specifically to New York, and other scholars concentrated on the North American context (Slater 2004, Wyly andHammel 2005), discussions on revanchism have been also empirically grounded in Britain (McLeod 2002, Macleod and Ward 2002, Atkinson 2003, Western Europe (Belina andHelms 2003, Uitermark andDuyvendak 2008), South America (Swanson 2007), and India (Whitehead and More 2007), in relation to public space, policing, the housing market and welfare retrenchment.…”

Unpacking new labour's ‘Urban Renaissance’ agenda: Towards a socially sustainable reurbanization of British cities?

“…(MacLeod, 2002, p. 605) In contradiction with a rhetoric of social mix, diversity and inclusion, a number of authors have demonstrated that the physical and economic renaissance of urban spaces is often accompanied by new forms of social control that can actually stimulate processes of exclusion and marginalization (MacLeod, 2002;MacLeod & Ward, 2002;Holden & Iveson, 2003;Lees, 2003;Raco, 2003c;Johnstone, 2004;Coaffee, 2005). Before New Labour came into power, there was already evidence that the (Labour-led) 'entrepreneurial' urban regeneration politics of various city councils had been accompanied by new practices of redesigning, reordering and controlling public spaces (MacLeod, 2002, andBelina &Helms, 2003, on Glasgow). More recently, however, it has been stressed that the promoted visions of the 'urban idyll' and the 'good city' often exclude those groups perceived as a threat or those who cannot participate, i.e.…”

Racism, criminalization and the development of night-time economies: Two case studies in London and Manchester

“…The concern for 'safer cities' became a central theme in the course of the reinvention of cities and interurban competition in the 1980s and 1990s (Taylor et.al.1996, Taylor 1997, Belina and Helms 2003, and the preoccupation over safety played a major role in shaping a response to black cultural forms. In addition, while capital investments into residential developments in the city centre have certainly accentuated the role of the night-time economy in the city's transformation in the 1990s, it is the often-underestimated role of a local critical infrastructure and their cultural capital that shall be emphasized here.…”

“…The concern for 'safer cities' became a central theme in the course of the reinvention of cities and interurban competition in the 1980s and 1990s (Taylor 1997, Belina andHelms 2003), and the preoccupation over safety played a major role in shaping a response particularly to black cultural forms.…”