Urban competition and urban crisis: changing concepts for handling dangers in the city: the case of Copenhagen

Abstract

How does society form its perception of urban danger? The essay points to the importance of intermediary bodies of social movements, their codes of morals and ideas about solutions to civil conflict. In the history of modern welfare society the new professions, the labour movement and the co-operative movement have provided individuals with frameworks, points of reference and oaths of solidarity in the struggle to come to terms with modernity. These movements have left their fingerprints on leading ideas about preventive criminology. Moreover, in decisive periods in the making of the modern welfare state, architects have been of service to strong social forces. Far from acting in isolation from the main social actors on the political scene, architectural design has had an influence on the visions and ideas of strong social movements. At its best, architecture has aided in staging a playground ? or a laboratory ? for sights and visions about straightening out characters. This essay therefore focuses on measures of preventive criminology in three periods of Danish history, namely the 1850s, the 1930s and the 1970s. It seeks to form a backdrop to the study of present-day ideas about urban dangers. With a focus on the 1990s and the 2000s, the closing section discusses contemporary changes in penal policies in a welfare society in transition.