Citation

Tulumello S. ACME 2018; 17(1): 171-200.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, The author(s), Publisher Centre for Social, Spatial and Economic Justice at the University of British Columbia)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The government of security and safety constitutes a privileged angle from which to study the links among government, public policy and urban dynamics, particularly in places where neoliberalisation intersects with historical racial and class tensions - as is the case in many US cities. I am concerned with the connection between (racialised) security politics and the institutional transformation of local security policymaking. I use the case of Memphis (TN, USA), which is paradigmatic of the neoliberalisation of security and permanent 'low-intensity' austerity; present four practices and trends - 'predictive' policing, rhetoric about 'community' self-defence, safety 'grants' and the 'mission creep' of the militarised police department; and discuss continuities/discontinuities with regard to long-term trends of restructuring crime control in the USA. The case of security policymaking allows me to argue that austerity and neoliberal rule tend to replace public policy - intended as a course of action stemming from conscious choice by the government - with a complicated patchwork of state intervention/disengagement, whose ultimate effect is the 'end of public policy' proper.

Language: en