Policing the in/exclusion of social marginality: the preventive regulation of public space in urban Switzerland

Type
01A - Journal article
Editors
Editor (Corporation)
Supervisor
Parent work
Social Inclusion
Special issue
DOI of the original publication
Link
Series
Series number
Volume
11
Issue / Number
3
Pages / Duration
82-92
Patent number
Publisher / Publishing institution
Cogitatio Press
Place of publication / Event location
Edition
Version
Programming language
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Abstract
Urban spaces are always contested and, as such, permeated by processes of inclusion and exclusion. Since the 2000s, new types of governmental public order services have been established in Switzerland specialized in dealing with socially marginalized individuals, groups, or areas. Without having police powers, they proceed with socio‐communicative methods typical in outreach social work. Based on our ethnographic research and drawing on Foucault‐inspired governmentality studies we elucidate the socio‐preventive risk management of two types of order services: While the welfare type aims to protect public spaces of attractive urban centers from social marginality, the neighborhood watch type is concerned with improving the coexistence of residents of marginalized housing developments. As the former wants to keep socio‐spatial in/exclusion of social marginality in motion and prevent its fixation in certain places, the latter works towards the inclusive socio‐spatial entrenchment of residents in segregated housing developments. Both dynamics—inclusion and exclusion—are closely intertwined and utilized for the governance of public spaces. The “inclusive city” should not be celebrated as a dull ideal and must be confronted with its own socio‐spatial mechanisms of exclusion.
Keywords
governmentality, inclusive city, public space, social work
Subject (DDC)
300 - Sozialwissenschaften, Soziologie, Anthropologie
Event
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Conference end date
Date of the last check
ISBN
ISSN
2183-2803
Language
English
Created during FHNW affiliation
Yes
Strategic action fields FHNW
Publication status
Published
Review
Peer review of the complete publication
Open access category
Gold
License
'https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/'
Citation
PIÑEIRO, Esteban, Nathalie PASCHE und Nora LOCHER, 2023. Policing the in/exclusion of social marginality: the preventive regulation of public space in urban Switzerland. Social Inclusion. 28 August 2023. Bd. 11, Nr. 3, S. 82–92. DOI 10.17645/si.v11i3.6716. Verfügbar unter: https://doi.org/10.26041/fhnw-5229