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Urban Violence and Security Policies: Local Public and Private Methods of Securing Urban Space

Annual Call for Projects 2004

Summary

This project, approved by the GIAN in 2004, focuses on security issues in the context of urban planning. Violence and insecurity are two problems that prevail in contemporary urban society and increasingly affect the quality of life and urban development in large cities throughout the world. On the basis of two case studies conducted in the working class areas of Barcelona (Spain) and Bogotá (Colombia), this project will explore public and private tools developed in response to residents' safety concerns. In focusing on how urban planning aims to address the problems of insecurity, this research project will analyse the roles played by safety, insecurity, and violence in the radical transformation of cities and their residents, which in turn can reinforce spatial and social fragmentation. To what extent does sustainable public policy promote free movement within local boundaries? And how does social violence itself redefine territorial boundaries?

Studies show that urban planning can have a significant impact on safety if its policies take a preventive approach, but many areas of research remain to be developed. To ensure that urban planning takes a preventive approach, the roles of all stakeholders need to be clearly defined. The municipality is a crucial actor to be mobilised and whose ability to put preventive plans into force must be promoted. Acknowledging the need for collective action requires a partnership in which all social actors cooperate. The availability and use of weapons such as small arms has important consequences on levels of urban safety, and the need for appropriate public policy regarding this domain must be analysed. A common element in both the North and the South is the need to organise public, private and collective policies. It is useful to have a comparative perspective that permits an inter-urban dialogue and learning from others' experiences.

The objectives of the project are to:

• Review and analyse the lessons learned concerning urban safety policies, focusing on the privatisation of urban space and the policies of desegregation;

• Develop mechanisms of cooperation between cities on the issue of urban violence;

• Provide recommendations on strategies and policies to local and national authorities;

• Help develop tools to evaluate the success and sustainability of urban policies in terms of the reduction of both real and perceived insecurity and efforts to curb urban violence;

• Administer this research project in areas affected by violence and neighborhoods notorious for insecurity in Barcelona and Bogotá, with the goal of integrating it into UN-HABITAT tools for the prevention of urban violence.

Methodology:

This study will benefit from a comparative, interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral approach. It combines a global, theoretical perspective on the issue with an analysis of urban methods used in working-class areas in two cities, one in the North (the El Raval area in Barcelona) and one in the South (the Ciudad Bolivar area of Bogotá). The selected cities were identified on the basis of the following criteria: 1) explicit engagement in the development or the implementation of local crime prevention policies; 2) interest in inter-city exchange; 3) existence of databases and adaptation of analytical tools; and 4) existence of the local capacity to run case studies and engage in a North-South exchange.

A survey will be designed to assess the levels of actual and perceived insecurity among the inhabitants of these areas. Research will be undertaken in close collaboration with the local authorities and their civil society partners, meeting their needs in terms of analysis, evaluation and the development of tools. The international partners seek to help build local capacities through this research project. The proposed analytical techniques will vary and will be applied according to the identified focus areas and issues. These include surveys, focus groups, one-on-one interviews, and statistical analysis. These research activities will subsequently develop a programme of exchange between cities through the UN-HABITAT Safer Cities Programme.

The grant provided by the GIAN for this project totals SFr 260,000

> See shorter summary

Project Team

Mr Mikel Aramburu , Principal Member, Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona .

Mr Fernando Guzmán R. , Principal Member, Universidad Nacional de Colombia .

Ms Laura Petrella , Principal Member, United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) .

Mr Joan Batlle i Bastardas , Former Member, La Mina District Consortium , Province of Catalonia, Spain.

Prof. Rémi Baudoui , Former Member, Institute of Environmental Sciences, University of Geneva (Unige) .

Mr Richard Pétris , Former Member, School of Peace of Grenoble, France .

Related Links

> Urban Violence and Security Policies

Research Output

Urban Violence and Security Policies: Local Public and Private Practices for Securing the Urban Space (Action-oriented Research in Barcelona and Bogotá)
(available in French and English)
> more
Human Security, Urban Safety and Security Initiatives: a Guidebook for Local Authorities
(available in English and French)
> more
Urban Planning and Security Policies (Cahiers du LaSUR)
(available in French, English and Spanish)
> more
Guns in the City: Urban Landscapes of Armed Violence
(available in English only)
> more
Urban Violence
(available in English and French)
> more