Reducing Boundaries offers a new perspective on an often under researched topic: what is the upper and middle classes perception of their own security? While human sciences have mainly focused on poor and low-middle classes evicted from urban space, Reducing Boundaries explores the strategies that the most privileged classes enact in order to preserved their own (real or perceived) security. In the context of an interdisciplinary framework of analysis and through a series of case studies (from Porto Alegre, to Brussels, to Venice), class-specific security measures and policies are considered both in themselves, and in terms of their impact of the urban fabric of cities and on the lives of the different social groups involved. This book crowns a four-year international project funded by the European Research Agency.

Emanuela Bonini Lessing holds a Ph.D. in Design Sciences and is Assistant Professor at Università Iuav di Venezia. Her work deals primarily with communication theory and design in European cities and regions. She served as curator and coordinator of the project ‘Reducing Boundaries, understanding exclusion through security defensive systems in wealthy urban areas. Porto Alegre, Brussels, Veneto region’, funded by the European Research Agency, since 2013.

Fabio Vanin is an architect and urban designer, holding a Ph.D. in Urbanism from Università Iuav di Venezia. He is currently assistant professor in Landscape Urbanism at the Master STER in urban design and spatial planning at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and co-director of Latitude Platform. He recently published Transforming Mobility: Collective transport and spaces in Nablus and Ramallah (ed. 2017), Maputo, Open City: Investigations on an African Capital (2013).

Daniel Silva Achutti holds a PhD in Criminal Sciences obtained at PUCRS (2012), with study period at the University of Leuven – Belgium (2010/2011 – with a CAPES/Brazil scholarship). He has experience in the area of Law, with emphasis in Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure, Criminology, Criminal Justice and Restorative Justice.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
Emanuela Bonini Lessing, Fabio Vanin, Daniel Achutti

THE TRACKS OF SOCIAL FEAR ON THE URBAN SCENE. A REPORT ON RESEARCH METHODS, PROCEDURES AND FINDINGS
Emanuela Bonini Lessing

THE BUBBLE: TRENDS AND PARADOXES
OF THE SECURE CITY MODEL
Fabio Vanin

SOCIO-LEGAL STRUCTURES AND SOCIAL CONTROL: INTERRELATIONS BETWEEN LAW AND SOCIETY
Daniel Achutti

LEGAL ASPECTS OF URBAN SECURITY IN BRAZIL AND ITALY
Cristiane Catarina Fagundes de Oliveira, Micol Roversi Monaco

THE FRAGMENTATION OF URBAN AREAS DUE TO THE CULTURE OF FEAR OF CRIME: (re)thinking boundaries and observing actions in Canoas City (Porto Alegre)
Renata Almeida da Costa

GEOREFERENCED COMPARISON
OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND CRIMINAL DATA. TANGIBLE EFFECTS ON THE URBAN SETTINGS
Giacomo Zonta

THE EMBODIED SPATIALITY OF FEAR:
DWELLING (IN)SECURITY IN PORTO ALEGRE
Olivia Casagrande

REPRESENTING THE SPACE OF FEAR
AND SECURITY
Marta Finotello, Thomas Stefani

WITHIN BOUNDARIES. A VISUAL EXPLORATION INSIDE PORTO ALEGRE’S GATED COMMUNITIES
Chiara Ferronato

SHARED SPACES. HOW THE SEARCH FOR SECURITY CAN GENERATE ISOLATION FROM THE CITY
Marta De Marchi

RENDERED VISIONS OF SECURITY Exclusion and exclusivity in real estate advertising
Andrea Facchetti

SOCIAL CAPITAL FOR SOCIAL CONTROL
Data, Rhetoric and organization of the middle class against insecurity in private and public space in Porto Alegre and in Venezia Città Metropolitana (Italy)
Giulia Cantaluppi

PUBLICNESS AND SECURITY IN URBAN PARKS
Adriano Cancellieri

THE ROLE OF PRISON IN THE ‘SECURITY COMPLEX’ The case of Porto Alegre and Veneto Region (Italy)
Daniel Achutti , Fiammetta Bonfigli

THE DIFFUSION OF THE VIDEO SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM IN THE CONTEMPORARY URBE: Argus Panoptes, electronic brains and their connection with the violation of liberties and equalities
Marcos Catalan

BELLIGERENT EYES. THE AGENCY OF GAZE
IN SOME STORIES OF SUBMERGED IMAGES
Sara Dotto

CONTROL, PARTICIPATION, REGIMES OF VISIBILITY AND REALITY
Giovanni Fiamminghi

USING INSTITUTIONAL AND MEDIA COMMUNICATION ANALYSIS AS A TOOL TO SHAPE THE MULTIFACETED URBAN SECURITY
Maurizio Pioletti

BIOGRAPHIES