Security governance, harms and resistance: recalibrating security and redefining incivility through legitimacy concerns

Examining the harmful effects of some existing governance approaches to urban space and various types of resistance to them, we outline a new framework to develop and evaluate security approaches in the city – in particular, towards ‘incivilities’. This framework relies on the redefinition of security, which we extended far beyond the realm of crime to include social security and concerns around vulnerability, sustainability, inclusion and so on, and takes into account the critique of existing governance measures. Simultaneously, it relies on the rethinking of ‘incivilities’, which involves shifting the focus away from behaviour deemed ‘anti-social’ to the actions or inactions of those who decide what ‘anti-social’ is in the first place, and their harmful consequences. The framework we propose – that takes into account harms, people’s broader sensitivities around public space and pro-social alternatives to current security approaches – should hopefully contribute to a more just and legitimate urban security governance.