Urban Security at Distance or from Below? Probing the Role of Private Urban Governance and Legality in Three Cities

Randy Lippert, Associate Professor of Criminology, University of Windsor, has conducted wide-ranging research in the field of private policing and the governance of immigration. Drawing on Foucault-inspired theories of governmentality, his recent book, Sanctuary, Sovereignty, Sacrifice (Vancouver: U.B.C. Press, 2006), explores the complex ways that neglected powers and legal narratives operating beyond advanced liberalism shape and make possible Canadian sanctuary practices (i.e., illegally harbouring migrants in churches), thus questioning some dominant assumptions found in the "governmentality" literature. He has recently co-authored articles on private security in Policing and Society, Criminology and Criminal Justice, and the Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice. His ongoing SSHRC-funded research seeks to lend insight into theoretical issues facing ‘governmentality’ studies in the context of the emergence of new forms of urban governance and security provision that include public CCTV programs and gated communities.

Lundi 26 mars 2007 
11h45 à 13h00 
CICC, 3150, rue Jean-Brillant, local C-4141

Résumé de la conférence : Previous research on policing and physical security in cities that invokes "neo-" or "advanced" liberalism to explain new developments presumes urban security increasingly operates via private agents and auspices "at a distance" from the state. Correspondingly, where it is not making possible brute coercion on behalf of private interests, law is primarily seen to perform the role of "enabling" the movement of responsibility for physical security from public to private domains. This is exemplified in the privately-governed downtown consumption zones and new residential developments with sizeable common spaces made possible by provincial statutes and which have witnessed the introduction of privately-funded CCTV programs, enhanced private security patrols, and related aspects. These forms are typically presumed to serve a risk management function. Based on research in progress that is exploring the role of business improvement areas, condominium corporations, and mundane forms of legality in relation to changing security arrangements in three cities, I discuss some features of a more complex and contradictory picture of urban security that is emerging. In light of this, I consider the question of whether these arrangements exemplify urban governance "at a distance" or urban governance "from below", as well as the implications for a nodal governance perspective. 

Un compte rendu de cette conférence est disponible dans le CICC-info, vol.12, no 2, été 2007.