Zero-Tolerance in Catalonia: Policing the Other in Public Space

Abstract

Recent studies have argued for more nuanced understandings of zero tolerance (ZT) policing, rendering it essential to analyze the significance and actual workings of the policies in practice, including the context in which they are introduced. This article aims to accomplish this through a comparison of two case studies in Catalonia: one in the neighborhood of Raval in Barcelona and one in Salt—a municipality in the comarca (or county) of Girona. We identify a transformation in the use of ZT policies in Catalonia and a contradiction between their social effects and proclaimed objectives. This article attempts to address how specific sociocultural groups gain power and privilege from these policies. The main argument is that a set of commonsensical ideas have become hegemonic, which allows and naturalizes certain sociocultural practices in urban space, while persecuting others, fundamentally pitting two categories against each other: the desired civil citizen and the undesirable and uncivil stranger.

Race-based readings of safety in public space in Milan, the challenge for urban design

“…Concerning this, Fabini (2015Fabini ( , 2019 argues that 'local' bordering practices control the access to the city of the 'undesirable' (non-) people where skin colour and age are sufficient conditions to appear disorderly and so to be stopped by police (Fabini, 2015;Palidda, 2000) with North Africans and Sub-Saharan Africans more likely to be asked for documents (Fabini, 2015). The argument echoes the experiences from the United States where people of colour were perfectly aware that in the attempt to bring civility to the city, they would be seen as the problem (Lundsteen and Fernández González, 2020;Smith, 2001: 70).…”

Introduction

“…The special issue Urban Bordering in Europe contributes to this emerging research agenda by establishing a transdisciplinary dialogue. First, by combining several theoretical traditions within urban studies: (1) critical scholarship that scrutinises the political use of notions of civility and the negotiation of what is considered (in)appropriate behaviour or out-of-place (Bannister et al, 2006;Di Ronco, 2017;Galdon-Clavell, 2016;Lundsteen and Fernández González, 2020;Méndez Beck and Jaffe, 2019) and (2) moral geography (Cresswell, 1996(Cresswell, , 2005Sibley, 1995). Second, the Issue applies this combination to recent interdisciplinary research on bordering practices (Bosworth et al, 2018;Miller, 2008;Onwuachi-Willig, 2017;Yuval-Davis et al, 2019) and b/ordering (Brambilla, 2021;Paasi, 2021;Scott, 2021;van Houtum, 2021;Vollmer, 2021), and links it with the developing literature on anthropological criminology and criminalisation (Comaroff and Comaroff, 2008;Schneider and Schneider, 2008;Sausdal, 2018, 2019).…”

“…Second, the Issue applies this combination to recent interdisciplinary research on bordering practices (Bosworth et al, 2018;Miller, 2008;Onwuachi-Willig, 2017;Yuval-Davis et al, 2019) and b/ordering (Brambilla, 2021;Paasi, 2021;Scott, 2021;van Houtum, 2021;Vollmer, 2021), and links it with the developing literature on anthropological criminology and criminalisation (Comaroff and Comaroff, 2008;Schneider and Schneider, 2008;Sausdal, 2018, 2019). Finally, on a methodological level, this is done in a bottom-up in a multi-scalar fashion, emphasising the interplay between broad political and economic projects, their relation to regimes of belonging, and, finally, the projection over and through space (Lundsteen, 2020(Lundsteen, , 2021(Lundsteen, , 2022.…”

Analysis of the Quality of Peace and Security from the Perspective of Community Policing in Lira city, Northern Uganda

“…The notion of ZTP arose in New York City in the 1990s with aggressive policies aimed at controlling minor crimes that negatively affected the quality of life of the inner cities. The selective intolerance of deviant behavior was rapidly exported to the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe through media campaigns and later via legislation [16]. The transition to quality life policing and zero tolerance strategies of urban control in New York City became a paradigm shift that constituted a new wave of regulations of behavior in the public sphere.…”