Embellissement sous surveillance : une géographie des politiques de réaménagement des espaces publics au centre de Bruxelles
The rehabilitation of public spaces is often considered as key policy instrument of contemporary urban policies. In Brussels, the renewal of streets, squares or parks has been a core ingredient of a broader policy framework aimed at delivering an urban revitalisation since the early 1990s. In this p...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Société Royale Belge de Géographie and the Belgian National Committee of Geography
2009-06-01
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| Series: | Belgeo |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/belgeo/7946 |
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| _version_ | 1850147757699891200 |
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| author | Christian Dessouroux Mathieu Van Criekingen Jean-Michel Decroly |
| author_facet | Christian Dessouroux Mathieu Van Criekingen Jean-Michel Decroly |
| author_sort | Christian Dessouroux |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The rehabilitation of public spaces is often considered as key policy instrument of contemporary urban policies. In Brussels, the renewal of streets, squares or parks has been a core ingredient of a broader policy framework aimed at delivering an urban revitalisation since the early 1990s. In this paper, we will set out a geography of the renewed public spaces in the city’s inner neighbourhoods. This empirical account shows that, in central working-class neighbourhoods, policy efforts to beautify urban public spaces intersect spatially with interventions dedicated to the surveillance and normalisation of the uses of these spaces. Hence, beautification under surveillance seems to be the order of the day in these neighbourhoods. These findings can be interpreted as materialising a generic political strategy striving to open up central working-class neighbourhoods for new middle-class populations to settle in and ideally mix with the incumbent residents, rather than policies driven by revanchist attempts at isolating these areas and excluding their inhabitants from the rest of the urban fabric. We argue that the pattern of beautification under surveillance can be conceived of as part of a broader shift towards a policy model merging social and penal approaches. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-b50d709b6ff84080b2803858a092a585 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 1377-2368 2294-9135 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2009-06-01 |
| publisher | Société Royale Belge de Géographie and the Belgian National Committee of Geography |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Belgeo |
| spelling | doaj-art-b50d709b6ff84080b2803858a092a5852025-08-20T02:27:28ZengSociété Royale Belge de Géographie and the Belgian National Committee of GeographyBelgeo1377-23682294-91352009-06-01216918610.4000/belgeo.7946Embellissement sous surveillance : une géographie des politiques de réaménagement des espaces publics au centre de BruxellesChristian DessourouxMathieu Van CriekingenJean-Michel DecrolyThe rehabilitation of public spaces is often considered as key policy instrument of contemporary urban policies. In Brussels, the renewal of streets, squares or parks has been a core ingredient of a broader policy framework aimed at delivering an urban revitalisation since the early 1990s. In this paper, we will set out a geography of the renewed public spaces in the city’s inner neighbourhoods. This empirical account shows that, in central working-class neighbourhoods, policy efforts to beautify urban public spaces intersect spatially with interventions dedicated to the surveillance and normalisation of the uses of these spaces. Hence, beautification under surveillance seems to be the order of the day in these neighbourhoods. These findings can be interpreted as materialising a generic political strategy striving to open up central working-class neighbourhoods for new middle-class populations to settle in and ideally mix with the incumbent residents, rather than policies driven by revanchist attempts at isolating these areas and excluding their inhabitants from the rest of the urban fabric. We argue that the pattern of beautification under surveillance can be conceived of as part of a broader shift towards a policy model merging social and penal approaches.https://journals.openedition.org/belgeo/7946Brusselspublic spaceurban revitalisationsafetyCCTV |
| spellingShingle | Christian Dessouroux Mathieu Van Criekingen Jean-Michel Decroly Embellissement sous surveillance : une géographie des politiques de réaménagement des espaces publics au centre de Bruxelles Belgeo Brussels public space urban revitalisation safety CCTV |
| title | Embellissement sous surveillance : une géographie des politiques de réaménagement des espaces publics au centre de Bruxelles |
| title_full | Embellissement sous surveillance : une géographie des politiques de réaménagement des espaces publics au centre de Bruxelles |
| title_fullStr | Embellissement sous surveillance : une géographie des politiques de réaménagement des espaces publics au centre de Bruxelles |
| title_full_unstemmed | Embellissement sous surveillance : une géographie des politiques de réaménagement des espaces publics au centre de Bruxelles |
| title_short | Embellissement sous surveillance : une géographie des politiques de réaménagement des espaces publics au centre de Bruxelles |
| title_sort | embellissement sous surveillance une geographie des politiques de reamenagement des espaces publics au centre de bruxelles |
| topic | Brussels public space urban revitalisation safety CCTV |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/belgeo/7946 |
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