Urban Inequality and Securitisation

The recent virus pandemic has, arguably, transformed all aspects of human life—including the domains of biomedical health, global mobility patterns and everyday interaction. It has also, however, deeply impacted the multiple inequalities that are weaved into the texture of urban spaces and transformed these—often through forms of what one could label securitisation. This has ranged from intensified surveillance practices (cameras, cell phones, heat detectors) to the introduction of state practices—such as curfew and urban zoning—that one would in a pre-pandemic era have deemed draconian or, at least, deeply problematic from a human rights or political perspective.

This roundtable will critically engage and probe the relations between multiple forms of urban inequalities and securitisation brought on by the pandemic, and ask:

In what ways did the pandemic exacerbate, transform or abate already existing urban inequalities in highly unequal cities across the world? How are new technologies of surveillance, such as algorithmic governance, drone technology or facial recognition, related to urban inequalities? Beyond the state, what providers of security are present within global cities today? What are the possible roles of law and legal practice in relation to confronting urban inequalities in an age of security?

Watch the webinar on YouTube.

The roundtable is moderated by

Bjørn Enge Bertelsen

(University of Bergen)
with

Randi Gressgård

(UiB),

Atreyee Sen

(
University of Copenhagen),

Antonella Di Trani

(EHESS, Paris),

Tereza Østbø Kuldova

(OsloMet).

Photo: Johnny Miller/ Unequal Scenes, “Santa Fe neighbourhood, Mexico City”.