Principal Investigator
Are there specifically urban forms of political violence? What strategic role does the structural design of a city play in exercise and containment of political violence? What role does the social and cultural heterogeneity of urban spaces play? I understand large cities (not only) of the Western world as centers of new translocal, network-like practices of violence. This applies both in the context of wars, terrorism, and violent protests that use cities as vulnerable infrastructural and sociocultural nodes as well as sites of high media attention, and in the context of increased surveillance of public spaces. In my research at TraCe, I examine urban streets and squares where Islamist terrorists have carried out deadly attacks on pedestrians with trucks/vans in recent years (Nice 2016, Berlin 2016, London 2017, Stockholm 2017, and Barcelona 2017).
Research Area Interpretations: 3.3 Interpretation of Violence in the City