The Limits of the City

Atmospheres of Lockdown

Bibliographic Data

ID8094955
AuthorsAlison Young (0000-0002-6981-9458, The University of Melbourne, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume61
Issue4
Pages985-1004
Publication date2021-01-08
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe British Journal of Criminology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0007-0955 • E-ISSN: 1464-3529
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/bjc/azab001
OpenAlexW3130495570
LanguageEN
Citations received21
References cited33

Criminological engagement with urban environments has burgeoned, including investigations into the criminological sense of place and into the atmospheres of crime and justice. This article analyses cities under lockdown in the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Used in numerous cities, lockdowns conjoin public health initiatives and crime control to restrict the location and activities of citizens. Drawing on textual and ethnographic exploration of lockdown in Melbourne, Australia, the article examines how we make meaning in lockdown through processes of sensory and spatial interpretation. Such an approach exposes both atmospheres of control, through the criminalization of everyday activities, and numerous instances of subversion through resistance to and adaptation of the spatial and sensorial characteristics of lockdown. The article argues for the importance of the sensory as a means of conceptualizing, repopulating and redesigning future cities after lockdown ends

Criminalization · Criminology · Economic Justice · Ethnography · Everyday life · Interpretation (philosophy · Meaning (existential · Political science · Resistance (ecology · Sociology · Subversion · Computer Science · Crime, Deviance, and Social Control · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Psychology · Wildlife Conservation and Criminology Analyses · Law