Guest Lecture : Carrie Benjamin

Everyday (counter)terrorism: normalising threat, risk, and hostile vehicle mitigation in Birmingham

Carrie Benjamin,  anthropologue urbaine, est actuellement chercheuse postdoctorale Marie Skłodowska-Curie / EUTOPIA-SIF à CY Cergy Paris Université, invitée du laboratoire PLACES.

Since 2017, English cities have seen a proliferation of material infrastructure aimed at protecting crowds, buildings, and transportation networks from potential terrorist attacks. While these visible manifestations of geopolitical crisis and domestic insecurity—including bollards, barriers, CCTV, and counterterrorism police patrols—often appear near the sites of attacks, they’ve proliferated in many cities that do not have a recent experience with terrorism. In the context of this heightened sense of threat, counterterrorism has become both an omnipresent and unremarkable part of the urban landscape, which is altering the felt experience of public space in cities. Drawing on ethnographic research in Birmingham and interviews with local and national security officials, police, private vendors, and residents, I demonstrate how various actors have sought to normalise this militarisation of urban public space, and how the banalisation of threat has been met with a reluctant acceptance and civil inattention by city centre visitors.

Date : 16 mai 2023 de 12h30 à 14h00

La guest lecture hybride est organisée en présence à l'Auditorium de la MIR à Neuville-sur-Oise et à distance sur Zoom.

Pour participer à la guest lecture à distance, connectez-vous sur Zoom :  https://cyu-fr.zoom.us/j/95401249406

ID réunion : 954 0124 9406

La vidéo sera publiée sur la chaîne YouTube de CY AS