Geographies of Geborgenheit

Beyond Feelings of Safety and the Fear of Crime

Bibliographic Data

ID4747374
AuthorsJ S Hutta (0000-0002-3261-9743, The Open University, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume27
Issue2
Pages251-273
Publication date2009-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEnvironment and Planning D Society and Space (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0263-7758 • E-ISSN: 1472-3433
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1068/d3308
OpenAlexW2102397382
LanguageEN
Citations received23
References cited18

This paper critically engages with the concepts of 'feelings of safety' and 'fear of crime' as they have been deployed in recent politics of community safety. While the first part of the paper discusses the staging of what is referred to as a dispositif of safety, which discursively frames subjective-spatial relations in powerful ways, the second part moves towards an understanding of lived experiences of spaces and places that unfold within, but also beyond, the dispositif of safety. For this purpose, the German concept of Geborgenheit is introduced. For a theoretical elaboration of this concept, Walter Benjamin's work around experience and temporality is referred to and articulated with Deleuzian theory. An analysis of Geborgenheit, it is argued, displaces hegemonic notions of 'safety' by addressing the dynamics that enable subjects to open up to and nest within a place. The paper concludes with a discussion of vignettes from a qualitative study in Berlin in order to exemplify the constitution of geographies of Geborgenheit in the context of recent safety politics

Constitution · Context (archaeology · Epistemology · Feeling · German · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Temporality · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Crime, Deviance, and Social Control · Geographies of human-animal interactions · History · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology

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