PowerPoint-Pr

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IP5 JACS ACC Urban Syndrome Context
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Violence, insecurity and transformation of urban
space
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• Key issue adressed
• The phenomenon of social violence and insecurity,
  which contributes to exacerbate conflicts over
  urban space, and that governments no longer
  control. Research examines social practices
  developed in response, their social and spatial
  effects, and the proposals of both authorities
  and population to create safer cities.

• Main Research Questions
• What are the links between
• Violence and insecurity, actors social practices
  and socio-spatial fragmentation taking place on a
  local level and
• The globalisation of security strategies (Zero
  Tolerance/ Urbanism of fear)?

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• Research project /
• Sub Syndrome Context Metropolitan areas
• Violence, insecurity and transformation of urban
  space in the context of globalisation.
  Comparative case studies San Salvador, El
  Salvador and Caracas, Venezuela.Yves Pedrazzini,
  International coordinator.

• PhD thesis
• Gated communities, segregation and violence in
  San Salvador.Sonia Baires/UCA-El Salvador.
• Urban security/insecurity and the appropriation
  of public space in Caracas.Julio de
  Freitas/Central University of Venezuela.

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• PAMS
• Art Shield Mitigating Gang Violence with Youth
  Culture in a Transnational Framework. San
  Salvador.
• Urban Youth Festival in Mexico City

• 2005
• Programa sobre manejo de desechos sólidos
  ejecutado por jovenes desocupados de la comunidad
  de Anauco, Caracas

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Expected Outputs (2001-2005)

• Publications
• Books
• 1 book on Urban violence published.
• 1 book on Public space as Editor to be published.
• Articles in journals with peer reviews
• 3 articles to be published.
• Articles in journals without peer reviews
• 3 articles to be published
• Anthologies (books)
• 1 article in print.
• Reports and other
• Report on Cultural practices of youth in violent
  contexts research.
• Submitted publications
• 2 articles have been submitted.

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Expected Outputs (2001-2005)

• Congresses and workshops
• Participation in 5 international conferences
• 4 public presentations and 4 workshops on
  research results in S.S. and Caracas
• 15 public lectures at UCA, UCV and Swiss
  Universities.
• Postgraduate studies and research
• 2 PhDs completed

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• The research project
• Violence, insecurity and transformation of urban
  space in the context of globalisation.
  Comparative case studies San Salvador, El
  Salvador and Caracas, Venezuela.
• Objectives
• To study urban violence and insecurity in the
  context of globalisation and urbanisation.
• To analyse the impacts of urban violence,
  insecurity and security policies in the processes
  of urban space transformations.
• To analyse social practices of public and private
  actors to face violence and insecurity but also
  ways to mitigate problems through empowerment.

• Main Core Problems identified
• Increasing violence and insecurity
• Inadequate legal framework and regulations and
  poor urban management.
• Unequal distribution of services and
  infrastructure.
• Governance failures, weak local governments
  within restricted decentralisation.

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The Research project

• Research questions
• What are the social practices of public and
  private actors developed to confront violence
  and insecurity?
• What are the social representations of violence
  and insecurity inducing the privatisation of
  public space at different levels?
• What transformations of space have private and
  public strategies against violence led to?
• What are the social processes that have made
  gated communities possible?
• Hypothesis
• The social fabric of urban territories results
  from dynamic links between violence, social
  practices, spatial fragmentation and
  globalisation of security policies.

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Social practices, Urbanization and Globalization

• In a global context of increasing violence and
  insecurity, changes in social practices of public
  space use and appropriation are the result of
  interrelations between globalisation and
  urbanisation at the local level.
• Latin Americas Metropolitan Area uncontrolled
  urban growth produces unsustainable patterns of
  land occupation and depletion of natural
  resources. Globalization is transforming
  metropolitan areas through the development of big
  commercial and infrastructure projects that are
  changing the structure of cities.
• One of the problems associated to globalization
  is the polarization and increase of urban
  segregation and conflicts for territorial control.

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Key messages at IP5 level

• How can the inter-relations between
  globalization, urbanization and the
  transformation of space be understood as a
  violent process?
• In insecure and violent situations, what social
  practices do civilian populations implement to
  ensure their local integration and/or respond to
  changes in the social environment (bottom-up
  dynamics)? Can these responses produce new
  insecurity and violences? Can they also be acts
  of resistance, creativity, social change? Could
  these actions be supported by external social
  actors (through practices of empowerment of
  populations, PAMS, etc.)?

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Key messages at IP5 level

• What policies do public authorities use towards
  the builders of the informal sectors of the
  city when confronted with their expectations
  (top-down dynamics), sometimes in an illegal or
  violent way?
• Which relations can be identified between
  bottom-up and top-down dynamics? How can we
  overcome possible contradictions between an
  ascending social logic and a vertical
  political-institutional and economic logic to
  create innovative ways of local governance
  (social and institutional innovations)?

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Key messages at IP5 level from PhD results

• Studies of Metropolitan areas have shown
• Latin Americas metropolitan areas show patterns
  of urban growth that are increasingly
  segregative.
• Trends of privatizing public space and social
  life, in urban and suburban areas, is creating
  auto segregation and more social/spatial
  fragmentation.
• Social practices of enclosure are changing the
  social fabric of cities, as social relations are
  mediated by fear and violence (real and
  imagined). Fear builds inner boundaries for
  territorial control.
• Inadequate State and private responses to
  violence and insecurity (Zero Tolerance) could
  lead to crises and conflicts, hence to
  unsustainable development.

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• Next Step Some questions to be discussed

• Does Globalization definitively fragment the
  social links?
• Would Urban Violence be the next global value?
• Is the Urbanism of Fear an hegemonic model for
  the City of 21st Century management?
• Are we living now in Societies of Control?
• How can we begin to build non-violent livelihood
  alternatives?