Nik Theodore
Policing Public Space: Emerging Markets in the Private Provision of Security Services in Chicago
The security services industry operates at the intersection of routine public safety concerns, threats to homeland security, changing labor markets, and the restructuring of urban economies. Private security companies that are contracted to patrol revitalized downtown districts, mass transit systems, and urban "high-crime areas" are at the center of an unfolding transformation in how public spaces are secured. Increasingly, security companies have been able to broker contracts with the public sector to take on policing functions that formerly had been the domain of government law enforcement agencies. Focusing on Chicago, this paper traces the reterritorialization of urban security provision through the exploitation of new technologies, low-wage labor pools, and rising public safety concerns. The paper concludes by considering the implications of how public spaces are policed on social control and urban governance.
Nik Theodore works as Director of the Center for Urban Economic Development and as Assistant Professor at the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs, University of Illinois at Chicago, Illinois. Most recent publications: with Neil Brenner (eds.): Spaces of Neoliberalism: Urban Restructuring in North America and Western Europe. London: Blackwell, 2002; with Jamie Peck: "Flexible Recession: The Temporary Staffing Industry and Mediated Work in the United States". In: Cambridge Journal of Economics, (2006, in press); with C. Mehta: "Workplace Safety in Atlanta's Construction Industry: Institutional Failure in Temporary Staffing Arrangements". In: Working USA, 9/1 (2006): pp. 59-77.
Back to the abstract list