Security in the Bubble

Christine Hentschel is visiting professor at the Institute for Criminological Research at Hamburg University and is affiliated with the Institute of Urban Sociology at Humboldt University Berlin.

• ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Spatial Governance from Death to Life1. The Politics of Crime and Space in South Africa2. Seeing Like a City: Conceptual Devices3. Handsome Space: Governing through Flirting4. Instant Space: Governing through FleeingConclusion: Making Love to the CityNotesIndex

"Despite the weight of the subject matter-urban crime in a violent city-Security in the Bubble goes against the grain of critical scholarship, evoking a new language to capture the fine-grained and culturally attuned spatial practices of identity. As a consequence, novel insights and experiences reveal contemporary urbanity in all its contradictory fullness. This is vital and beautifully crafted urbanism."-Edgar Pieterse, University of Cape Town"Christine Hentschel’s theoretically sharp book shows how the pursuit of security dynamically organizes-and simultaneously fragments-urban life. In a major contribution to criminology as well as to urban studies, Hentschel acknowledges the reality of violence and fear but, refreshingly, avoids dystopian clichÉs in a work that is as relevant for Chicago and Detroit as it is for Rio and BogotÁ."-Mariana Valverde, University of Toronto