300060 Austerity, Violence and Social Control in Global South Cities (S) (WiSe 2016/2017)

City governance in the Global South is increasingly portrayed as countering threats. Urban living is supposed to be the result of 'smart' planning, but 'security' and competitiveness seem to be even bigger catchwords. In a context of dwindling urban resources, police or even military presence is as normal as city zoning, gated communities and privatized streets. After a conceptual introduction, the course will focus on the context of global south cities (informality, development, violence), and then look at different approaches on insecurity in cities in order to link debates on austerity urbanism and security.

This course is based on collaborative, discussion-based learning. Students will have to prepare text readings including short memos for class. Each class, two students will act as discussion leads.

Bibliography

Jaffe, Rivke (2013): The hybrid state: Crime and citizenship in urban Jamaica, in: American Ethnologist, 40, 4. 734–748.

Parnell, Susan/Oldfield, Sophie (2014): The Routledge Handbook on Cities of the Global South, Routledge

Peck, Jamie (2015): Austerity Urbanism. The Neoliberal Crisis of American Cities, Rosa-Luxemburg Foundation.

Sevilla Buitrago, Álvaro (2016): Crisis and the city: neoliberalism, austerity planning and the production of space, in: Eckardt, Frank/Sánchez, Javier Ruiz (2015): City of Crisis: The Multiple Contestation of Southern European Cities, transcript Verlag.