Globalisation and Urban Violence: Some reflections on the situation in Frankfurt by Frank Eckardt, maitre de conférence en sociologie urbaine Université de Weimar, RTN Urbeurope post doctorant, CEVIPOF Sciences Po Paris & Eike Hennig/Robert Lohde-Reiff,université de Weimar RTN URBeurope
Globalisation and violence are seemingly closely interlaced social constructs. As many scholars have underlined, cities are deserving special attention with regard to
the analysis of globalisation and its effects. This paper aims at intensifying the debate of how violence is involved in the interaction of the local and the global. It is
questioning those approaches which might be called “structuralist” and following a
clear direction of causes: globalisation as the subject and the cities as object. It will
first show, that the general perception arisen after September eleven are misleading, as the interrelationship between globalisation and urban violence are not basically generated by radical Moslems out of the periphery. A second scientific approach focuses the creation of new inequalities inside the cities due to the creation of global cities. Struggling with this overwhelming models of debate, it is necessary to outline the “limits of globalisation” (Rieger/Leibfried 2003) while talking about a particular case of urban violence. How much are the images of uncertain cities from US-cities
causing the German perception of our dangerous cities and how much has to be
seen as a consequence of very local circumstances? On the basis of first findings
about Frankfurt, this paper will reflect some conceptually open question around the
influence of globalisation, urban life, and security. Download the Cahier N° 4