Negotiated consent or zero tolerance? Responding to graffiti and street art in Melbourne

This paper critically considers the recent history of graffiti regulation in one municipality. It draws upon my experience of being appointed to develop a Draft Strategy on Graffiti for the City of Melbourne in 2004. My appointment was based upon the several years I had spent as a criminologist and socio‐legal researcher, engaging with the communities of graffiti writers and street artists in Melbourne and internationally. The aim was to develop a Strategy that would take a more progressive approach to graffiti and street art management, and the proposed policy focused upon notions of 'negotiated consent’ to the presence of graffiti or street art and 'zones of tolerance’ with varying degrees of self‐regulation by graffiti writers or external regulation by police and council authorities. Despite widespread support for the Strategy, the Council elected instead to pursue a policy of zero tolerance combined with a discretionary permit system. The paper examines the fate of this particular attempt to think differently about graffiti, and engages critically with the more conventional approaches put in place instead. It considers the policy‐making process in a manner informed both by autobiographical experience and by some recent writings on graffiti and the city, community and communication.