Urban Violence

No city could ever be inhabitable - that is, could be really inhabited by real inhabitants, and not just occupied by occupants - if it cannot offer to the people who live there some physical, psychological and social security.

This postulate must be considered as the fundamental and unavoidable issue of any reflection on urban violence. If not, there is a strong chance that, once more, we can only picture violence, and not put ourselves in the position of real actors of the social transformation for a new inhabitability, a new hospitality, of our metropoles.

We have to rethink our cities in a genuinely alternative way. We can only do that by refusing prejudices on violence. The first step is to reconsider cities not only from the point of view of the people living there, but also through the issues of violence and security, rethinking in a new way what is "bad" and what is "good".

What we need to create is a new way to make cities secure, without having to use more violence, be it official or not. Security is far too important to be left to security apologists.