Urban (in)securities.
Session 1: The City as Target
Thursday, 19 May 2016

On the relationship and physical connection between security and urbanity.

In collaboration with Dr. Nadine Godehardt, Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik / German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), Berlin, and the ZEIT-Stiftung, building on last year's series entitled Taksim, Tahrir, Occupy & Co

Part I - Introduction and Statements

Welcome
Hans-Jürgen Commerell, Director, ANCB The Aedes Metropolitan Laboratory, Berlin - 00:00:00 - 00:03:18
Christoph Geisler, Deputy Director, German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), Berlin - 00:03:23 - 00:10:14

Indroduction
Dr. Nadine Godehardt, Deputy Head of Research Division Asia, SWP, Berlin - 00:10:19 - 00:18:42

Statements
Prof. Stephen Graham, Professor of Cities & Society, School of Architecture, Planning & Landscape, University of Newcastle - 00:18:43 - 00:41:20
Jürgen Häpp, Associate, Arup, Frankfurt - 00:41:22 - 00:56:45
Hubert Nienhoff, Partner, gmp von Gerkan, Marg und Partner, Hamburg - 00:56:45 - 01:07:03
Dr. Sybille Reinke de Buitrago, Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg and Institute for Theology and Peace, Hamburg - 01:07:05 - 01:21:36

Part II - Panel Discussion

Panel Discussion
moderated by Dr. Nadine Godehardt, Deputy Head of Research Division Asia, SWP, Berlin

The following Front-Row-Peers accompanied and furthered the discussion:
Jon Coaffee, Professor of Urban Geography, Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies, University of Warwick
Mohammadbagher Forough, Lecturer International Relations and World Politics, University of Groningen, Netherlands

BACKGROUND
Cities represent global networks nodes of political, economic and social interactions, and our lives are going to be more focused on the urban context than ever before. Protests, natural disasters, and criminal or terrorist attacks happening in our cities not only affect us personally, but raise global attention. This is particularly the case for the 9/11 terrorist attacks, but also more recently, the attacks in Paris, Brussels and the spread of epidemics. Each of these incidents evokes fears in public about the visible and invisible insecurities and vulnerabilities targeting our cities, and has an impact on the physical appearance of our urban environment. Urban spaces are identified as interface for vulnerability and contagion with a growing demand for the state to defend and police public places.

In The City as Target, we firstly aimed to discuss how the city of today emerges as target for different insecurities and threats. The randomness of targets and places such as public spaces, train stations etc. create a diffuse fear in everyone and has substantially changed our understanding of security. Secondly, we focus on the different responses to these threats and fear including political, technological, building, and urban planning related perspectives. Questions include: How is urban security actually established today? Spatial aspects regarding design, lighting and openness play a role in the development of a safe urban environment. Will new security criteria produce new urban design principles and ultimately a new urban architecture?

Conceptualized by Dr. Nadine Godehardt (SWP) and Miriam Mlecek (ANCB).