Claustropolis. Introduction to a concept of security

Abstract

This paper critically discusses some crucial issues around the issue of urban security and urban policies on crime and crime prevention. First of all, in our work the concept of city itself is critically analyzed and declined following some mythological and historical considerations. The concept of City recalls also some considerations regarding the re- definition of symbolic roles related to the personal and collective identity. Furthermore the concept of Other (id est, foreigners, migrants, disadvantaged people) is taken into consideration. They are then taken into considerations some contemporary models of city, urban
areas and urban development. Even in this case are analyzed intersections between urban and personal identity. The discussion around the role of the city in the construction of individual identity is carried out following not only the prevailing literature on issues related to urban safety and fear of crime, but also by a certain psychoanalytic literature that makes the city the hub through which individual needs and desires are created. Urban safety is thus a concept not only urban or criminological but also a concept closely linked to issues of psycho- social and individual identity.