Rebordering the City for New Security Challenges: From Counter-terrorism to Community Resilience

Abstract

Since September 11, many cities have undergone significant changes in both morphology and management as a result of the greater perceived risk of terrorist attack. Such changes have often sought to territorialise the city through the redesign of space and the modernisation of management systems. More recently, such ‘resilience’ planning is becoming increasingly focused upon how the general public can assist this securitisation process by becoming better prepared and more responsible for their personal risk management. To illustrate these processes, a case study of Manchester, UK, between 1996 and 2006 will be used to indicate how these operational changes are having impacts on the rebordering of the city and upon broader issues of citizenship. The paper also questions how greater public acceptability can be achieved within urban security strategies.

The research for this paper was funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council's ‘New Security Challenges’ programme. This work is also based on a conference presentation and paper given by the authors at the Association of American Schools of Planning conference, Forth Worth, November 2006.

Notes

1. This has led many to question the extent to which the new spaces of urban renaissance are embodying ideas of the public city as opposed to more punitive notions of ‘revanchist’ urbanism where commercial use value is privileged and attempts are made to exclude the unwanted ‘Other’.

2. For example, culturally this could be simplistically classified as identification of the British-Muslim as a demographic within which radicalisation is a concern, but can also be expanded to include forms of dual citizenship. This has connotations for rebordering the ‘state’ as well as the ‘city’, which is the focus of this discussion.

3. For example in the UK, the Civil Contingencies Secretariat, established in July 2001, aims to ensure that the UK and its communities remain safe and secure places in which to live and work, by effectively identifying and managing the risk of emergencies. Its objectives revolve around assessing potential risks, making sure that different tiers of government can respond effectively.

4. The Act formalised new requirements as statutory obligations and emphasises the pivotal role of local government and its partners in emergency planning.

5. Such an increase in militarised surveillance activity ‘surges’ is not unprecedented. Similar surges occurred in the UK in the early and mid 1990s after a spate of child abductions and the Provisional IRA bombing of the City of London.

6. Yet it is equally important to note that there is not a push by experts for public engagement in this increasingly scientific field, rather for a recentralisation of knowledge in ‘scientific research’ to galvanise the political body rather than the electorate (Durodié, 2003).

7. This system has recently been updated with a number of specialist automatic number plate recognition cameras, which in the near future will be able, if required, to employ facial recognition software. This mirrors other successful schemes introduced first in the City of London after terrorist attack in the 1990s and then at the nearby Trafford Centre (an out-of-town shopping mall) in 2002 in response to high levels of car crime.

8. Such as firearms and explosives teams with trained sniffer dogs, underwater searchers and an aerial search team, as well as drawing on the support of a further 29 UK police forces.

9. Based on interviews with local and regional resilient practitioners (March–August 2006).

10. The Labour party holds two major conferences each year, in the spring and autumn. The autumn conference has the higher profile and is always attended by all senior politicians.

11. A series of bombs in March 2004 on the Madrid transport network killed 191 people and injured hundreds more.

12. This area was called the Greater Manchester Exhibition Centre (G-MEX). This was renamed the Manchester International Convention Complex (MICC) in January 2007.

13. Technical information was also scrutinised for all buildings, regarding for example, structure and supply points for utility provision, fire exits and air conditioning systems.

14. These ranged from the war of terror, hospital closures and the future of nuclear energy production, to student tuition fees.

15. Although serious disorder did not occur during this relatively peaceful protest, 1000 police on foot and horseback surrounded the marchers to prevent serious breaches of public order.

16. In December 2006, it was announced that the Labour party will return to Manchester in 2008 and 2010, as a result of the high-quality facilities in the conference quarter and, perhaps most importantly, the sophisticated security operation that provided an unprecedented feeling of safety for delegates and which is now an almost compulsory element of such event planning.

17. Interviews with local practitioners, March–August 2006.

18. This cycle has been adopted by the Greater Manchester Local Resilience Forum in 2007. It is based upon a model developed by the National Steering Committee on Warning and Informing the Public (NSCWIP).

19. Indeed, senior Labour politicians, talking from within their secure ‘island’ site at the 2006 party conference in Manchester, argued that this balance between security and civil liberties is today one of the central challenges of national and international politics.

20. This is not to suggest that the state and agencies of security had an absolute monopoly on decisions that led to the securing and bounding of urban space. In many cases, non-state actors such as local community groups and local business can play a significant role in such decision-making. What we are highlighting here is the tendency at certain historical junctures and within certain contexts, for the state and security forces play an enhanced role in urban securitisation.

21. In this regard, a key public address was the Queen's Speech in 2004—this is a speech where the Monarch reads a prepared speech to a complete session of Parliament, outlining the government's agenda for the coming year. In the 2004 speech, the narrative of forthcoming policy implicitly linked terrorism to ID cards and serious crime, to drug and alcohol abuse, and hence to public order and anti-social behaviour. More generally, the rhetoric was of universal security and “opportunities and security for all” (BBC News, 2004b).