Governing safety through the politics of community? A governmentality analysis of the practice of ‘safety walks’ in three Swedish cities

Abstract

In Sweden, ‘safety walks’ are a well-established planning practice for improving safety. They involve citizens and local authorities evaluating public spaces in terms of safety. Building on observations, interviews and policy materials, this paper examines safety walks from a governmentality perspective. Our analysis shows that, through the governing techniques employed in the walks, safety problems are rendered technical, auditable and governable, while becoming disconnected from the social and political. Furthermore, the participatory rationale of the walks serves to produce self-governing communities, who are responsible for managing their own safety, while risking the reinforcement of boundaries of inclusion and exclusion within the imagined ‘safe community’.