Investigating urban elites through fear and security in Porto Alegre

ABSTRACT

Taking from the results of the ongoing EU funded research “Reducing Boundaries” (2014–2017), the paper contributes to the understanding of the ‘urban geographies of elite reproduction” through the lens of the emerging “culture of fear” as a fundamental contemporary societal paradigm. Today, urban elites behaviours, lifestyles, discourses and their spatial organisation are in fact increasingly driven by real or perceived urban insecurity, with direct consequences on the built form and socio-spatial organisation of their cities. As a consequence, understanding the building types and urban patterns those groups are direct or indirectly proposing and their impact on society, searching for an effective methodology to conduct such investigations is at the core of the the research discussed here. The paper will examine the paradigmatic case of Porto Alegre showing urban elites’ defensive practices and interpreting their impact on the urban realm.

KEYWORDS:

• Urban elites
• security
• fear
• urbanism
• urban anthropology

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The comparative research focussed mainly on Porto Alegre (Brazil), comparing the city with two other case studies: Brussels (Belgium) and the Veneto Region (Italy). The three leading institutions involved in the project are: IUAV University of Venice (IT), Latitude Platform (BE) and Lasalle University (BR). The research has received funding from the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union’s Seventh Framework Program FP7/2007–2013/under REA grant Agreement n. 612,063. The research results can be found in the book “Reducing Boundaries: Understanding Exclusion Through Security Defensive Systems in Wealthy Urban Areas” (2017).

2. In Porto Alegre (1,409,000 inhabitants in 2010), from 2004 to 2014, there were 233,912 robberies (7.4% in high-class neighborhoods), 69,477 car robberies (7.4% in high-class neighborhoods), 316 larcenies involving fatalities (11.1% in high-class neighborhoods), and 4,345 fraudulent homicides (3.4% in high-class neighborhoods). For almost half of the recorded incidents, localization data is missing (data: Policia Civil of Porto Alegre). Moreover, since 2015 violence has increased in Porto Alegre, being declared the 36th most violent city in the world (Conselho Cidadão pela Seguridade Social Publica e Justiça Penal, Mexico).

3. A “safe tour” differs from a “guided tour,” because it is meant to specifically show the defensive practices and behaviors that the interviewee adopts in order to feel safe. While guided tours are illustrative–the interviewee describing what he or she sees as external factors–safe tours illustrate daily practices on a “live” basis.

4. Recent real estate projects show a tendency for preferring mixed, gated communities where different functions are combined (shops, offices, and apartments) and where security systems tend to be invisible rather than shown off.

5. The single apartment building type is characterized by the limited outer private space around it. In fact, most of them, especially in central neighborhoods, were built on single family house plots.

6. Spatial surveys are meant as the combination of architectural on-site sketches and measurements, photographs, and video: media that allow a detailed reconstruction of the spatial conditions of a place as well as the identification of physical aspects that suggest specific practices (i.e. the use of walls, cameras, etc. as a defensive approach and as a reaction to insecurity).

7. This is also evident when observing internal movements that do not provide notable opportunities for interaction: entering underground parking by car, going to the elevator, arriving at the landing with only a few apartments’ front doors. Despite the larger number of shared spaces, the phenomenon of social fragmentation can also often be observed in vertical gated communities (i.e. Gabriela: interview, 2014).

8. Since according to statistics most of the criminals are black or mulatto, that fact is assumed as a reason for distrust: “It was a black guy. You can say I have preconceptions, but the truth is that today I have preconceptions because both times I was mugged it was by poor people,” Fabio: interview, 2014.