IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v58y2021i12p2514-2530.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Controlling risks in the safe city: The rise of pre-emptive practices in law enforcement, public surveillance and mental health and addiction care (1970–2020)

Author

Listed:
  • Wim de Jong

    (Open Universiteit, the Netherlands)

  • Litska Strikwerda

    (Open Universiteit, the Netherlands)

Abstract

This article describes pre-emptive practices in law enforcement, public surveillance and mental health and addiction care in the Dutch city Amersfoort and the Netherlands in general between 1970 and 2020. These developments are driven by top-down as well as bottom-up interactions on an urban level. The development of this ‘preventive gaze’, though intensified by 9/11, has deeper origins in the urban crisis: the struggle against communal crime and the heroin epidemic in circumstances of austerity encouraged a shift from post-hoc repression to prevention of public nuisance. This shift is analysed in light of the concepts of the risk society, the culture of control and the Disneyisation of inner cities, and its legal and moral implications are assessed. Aiming at unknown future risks, the ‘precautionary culture’ itself risks encroaching on the freedoms of citizens, ultimately making cities less safe.

Suggested Citation

  • Wim de Jong & Litska Strikwerda, 2021. "Controlling risks in the safe city: The rise of pre-emptive practices in law enforcement, public surveillance and mental health and addiction care (1970–2020)," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(12), pages 2514-2530, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:58:y:2021:i:12:p:2514-2530
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098020952669
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098020952669
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0042098020952669?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paz-Fuchs, Amir, 2008. "Welfare to Work: Conditional Rights in Social Policy," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199237418.
    2. Jason Hackworth, 2019. "Urban crisis as conservative bonding capital," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(1), pages 53-65, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Molander, Anders & Torsvik, Gaute, 2013. "Getting People Into Work: What (If Anything) Can Justify Mandatory Activation Of Welfare Recipients?," Working Papers in Economics 03/13, University of Bergen, Department of Economics.
    2. Sarah Johnsen & Beth Watts & Suzanne Fitzpatrick, 2021. "Rebalancing the rhetoric: A normative analysis of enforcement in street homelessness policy," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(2), pages 355-371, February.
    3. Stefano Giubboni, 2023. "Solidariet? e condizionalit? nella garanzia dei diritti sociali," PRISMA Economia - Societ? - Lavoro, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2023(1-2), pages 89-105.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:58:y:2021:i:12:p:2514-2530. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.