Violence and the City I: Global Encounters, Capitalism, and Spatio-Temporal Practices of Violence

Abstract

This panel invites papers that use the perspective of the city to examine processes and practices of political violence. It takes as its starting point that violence is shaped by the particular characteristics of the urban, its spatial qualities and its temporal rhythms. While violence itself is dynamic and unfolds fast, its effects are not, as it significantly slows down the rhythm of urban life. People can even be immobilized and trapped. Violence can be produced by particular spatial configurations of the urban (e.g. interface areas). It is often concentrated in particular places or occurs at particular times (at night) and urban dwellers have learned to navigate the city to avoid it (not necessarily successfully of course). Among the questions that address the spatio-temporal dimensions that shape the relation between the city and violence are: How do violent actors locate themselves in the city, move through and make use of urban space? What are the effects of violence on urban space and time, and vice versa how does urban space and urban time shape violence? Moreover, the urban space is particularly relevant to exploring the question of how capitalism and violence are related. Urbanization is one of the indicators of the horizontal expansion of capitalism. Violence, however, is still prevalent, in rural as well as in urban settings. The panel, thus, also invites contributions that explore theoretically and empirically the connection between capitalism and violence by focusing on the city. What are the causes of contemporary forms of urban violence? Is contemporary capitalism related to urban violence, and if so, how?