Source: PRIO, Deadline: 14.07.2008.

Security Dialogue special issue, Volume 40, number 4-5 August 2009 Rita Abrahamsen, Don Hubert & Michael C. Williams, Guest Editors

The 21st century is often heralded as the ‘urban century’. For the first time in history the majority of the world’s population now live in cities, a figure forecast to rise to over 60% by 2030. Increasing urbanization raises crucial questions for security. At one end of the spectrum, it has been claimed that ‘the scale of armed violence in large urban areas frequently exceeds that of all but the most devastating of current wars’, while at the other, questions of poverty, health, and human insecurity are presented as finding their starkest manifestations in urban settings, particularly in the developing world. Urban warfare is a concern for militaries, and a key challenge for contemporary peacekeeping operations and post-conflict reconstruction, while analyses and images of urban danger and insecurity – of divided cities of ‘walls’ or ‘quartz’, often mixed with dire warnings of dystopian futures – have become increasingly widespread in political commentary and popular culture. At the same time, the world’s burgeoning metropolises are sites of innovative and democratic security practices, and the ‘urban century’ heralds not only rising insecurity but also new and creative possibilities.

Security Dialogue announces a Call for abstracts for innovative articles dealing with the horizon of urban insecurities. Articles should be in line with the journal’s general editorial aim, combining theoretical innovation with relevant empirical findings.

Among potential themes are
Aspects of architecture and urban planning
Spatiality, visuality, threat and surveillance
‘Policing’ the metropolis
Gangs, vigilantes, and new security practices
Urban military and peacekeeping strategies
New developments in legal approaches
Globalisation on the urban plane
Trafficking and new forms of criminality
Small arms transfers
Migration

Deadline for submission of abstracts (300 words): 14 July 2008 All submission should be sent to sd@prio.no

For more information on Security Dialogue consult: http://www.prio.no/Research-and-Publications/Security-Dialogue