Urban Order and Rationality: Racially Coded Street Violence, Racial Projects and Practices of Comparing in Chicago 1919

Weinhauer K. Urban Order and Rationality: Racially Coded Street Violence, Racial Projects and Practices of Comparing in Chicago 1919. Practices of Comparing. Working Paper SFB 1288. Vol 5. Bielefeld: Universität Bielefeld, SFB 1288; 2020.This paper elaborates steps towards an approach which can bring about new insights about the racially coded street violence of July/August 1919 and about related problems in Chicago. Three interrelated perspectives are integrated: the social construction of race and racism based on racial projects, the triangular setting (perpetrator-victim-audience/third parties) of social conflict (including race/racism) and violence, and the study of practices of comparing. In 1919 there was a widely shared assumption of similarity (‘Gleichartigkeitsannahme’) which naturalized the difference between two distinct races (‘white’ and ‘negro’). The racial projects studied in this paper addressed different third parties/audiences. The press was no passive audience but an active third party which communicated the often localized patterns of racism to translocal audiences. The racial projects of the report of the Chicago Commission on Race Relations (CCRR) were shaped by progressive comparisons which focused on urban-based social-political progress and on advanced masculine rationality. The racial projects in Chicago were massively shaped by practices of comparing which tried to bring order and stability to a society whose white members felt themselves threatened through massive war-induced social change.Das Arbeitspapier entwickelt erste Schritte für einen Ansatz, der neue Einsichten vermitteln kann über die rassisch kodierte Straßengewalt in Chicago im Juli/August 1919 sowie über damit verbundene Problemfelder. Verknüpft werden drei Perspektiven: die soziale Konstruktion von „race“ und Rassismus durch dezentrale „racial projects“, das triadische Setting Täter-Opfer-Dritte/Publikum sowie Vergleichspraktiken. 1919 gab es eine weithin geteilte Gleichartigkeitsannahme, durch die Unterschiede zwischen zwei klar unterscheidbaren „Rassen“ (Weiße und Schwarze) naturalisiert wurden. Die in vielen Gesellschaftsbereichen verankerten dezentralen „racial projects“ adressierten ein weites Spektrum von lokalen bis hin zu translokalen Dritten/Publika. Die Presse, ein wichtiger und aktiver Dritter, kein passives Publikum, kommunizierte und ergänzte die oft lokal begrenzten rassistischen Muster an translokale Publika. Die im Bericht der Chicago Commission on Race Relations (CCRR) formulierten „racial projects“ nutzten progressive Vergleiche, ausgerichtet auf urban geprägten sozialen und politischen Fortschritt sowie auf fortschrittliche männliche Rationalität. Die „racial projects“ in Chicago waren untrennbar verbunden mit Vergleichspraktiken. Letztere sollten Ordnung und Stabilität in eine weiße städtische Gesellschaft bringen, die sich bedroht fühlte durch weltkriegsinduzierten sozialen Wandel.**Ergänzender Hinweis zu den Creative Commons Lizenzen**"Creative Commons license terms for re-use do not apply to any content (such as graphs, figures, photos, excerpts, etc.) not original to the Open Access publication and further permission may be required from the rights holder. The obligation to research and clear permission lies solely with the party re-using the material.

Schneider (Eric C.), Smack : Heroin and the American City

Since the 1970s, heroin started to become a major urban problem in European cities, constituting a threat that increased over the following decade. In the US, especially in New York, these problems began much earlier and with greater intensity. While there are many sociological and anthropological studies on drug use, historical research is still rare. The same is true for studies which focus on heroin in a broader context and not only on individual drug takers, who are often labelled with th..

Jens Gieseke, Mielke-Konzern. Die Geschichte der Stasi 1945-1990

The German Democratic Republic collapsed in 1989. But the legacy of one of its most influential institutions, the Staatssicherheitsdienst (Stasi), is still present in Germany. Jens Gieseke, who works as a historian in the so-called Stasi Archives, a federal institution who preserves the records of the East German State Security and makes them accessible, analyses the Stasi as a part of state and society in the former German Democratic Republic. The book has eight chapters, five of them concen..

Spatialized Communication: Future Research Perspectives on Urban Youth Violence and on Terrorism

Violence is one of the biggest threats to urban societies. Since the advent of mass urban societies during the nineteenth century, towns and cities have been at the center of heated debates about urban decay, vice, crime and violence. Insecurity and urban conflicts even shaped early social science definitions of cities. In a pioneering characterisation Louis Wirth defined cities “as a relatively large, dense, and permanent settlement of socially heterogeneous individuals”, but added that the ..

Vergleichen unter den Bedingungen von Konflikt und Konkurrenz

Albert M, Engelschalt J, Epple A, et al. Vergleichen unter den Bedingungen von Konflikt und Konkurrenz. Praktiken des Vergleichens. Working Paper des SFB 1288. Vol 1. Bielefeld: Universität Bielefeld, SFB 1288; 2019.Was ist das Spezifische an Vergleichen bzw. Vergleichspraktiken, die unter den Bedingungen von Konflikt und/oder Konkurrenz durchgeführt werden? Im vorliegenden Working Paper wird dieses Spezifische anhand von soziologisch inspirierten Überlegungen zu den Grundbegrifflichkeiten des Konflikts bzw. der Konkurrenz als einer besonderen Art der Formung sozialer Beziehungen herausgearbeitet. Zunächst werden die Begriffe von Konkurrenz und direkten gewalttätigen Konflikten vor dem Hintergrund unterschiedlicher disziplinärer Forschungskontexte bestimmt. Ausgehend von einer Soziologie der Konkurrenz geht es dabei um sozial- und geschichtswissenschaftliche Diskussionen um gewalttätige Konflikte. Zentral sind die begriffliche Schärfung unterschiedlicher kriegerischer Auseinandersetzungen und das Gewalthandeln in Konfliktsituationen, die nicht als Krieg bezeichnet werden können. Anschließend werden die vielschichtigen Wechselbeziehungen sowohl zwischen gewalttätigen Konflikten und Konkurrenz als auch zwischen Konflikten, Konkurrenzen und Vergleichspraktiken aus der Sicht der unterschiedlichen Forschungsprojekte des Projektbereichs A des SFB 1288 dargestellt.**Ergänzender Hinweis zu den Creative Commons Lizenzen**"Creative Commons license terms for re-use do not apply to any content (such as graphs, figures, photos, excerpts, etc.) not original to the Open Access publication and further permission may be required from the rights holder. The obligation to research and clear permission lies solely with the party re-using the material.

Youth Crime, Urban Spaces, and Security in Germany since the 19th Century

Weinhauer K. Youth Crime, Urban Spaces, and Security in Germany since the 19th Century. Historical Social Research. 2010;35(4):86-101.In West Germany during the 1960s and the 1970s, two important changes in juvenile delinquency, in its perception and fears could be discerned. First, a twofold spatial and social dissolution of boundaries (Entgrenzung) of youth crime developed. The establishment of the transnational networks of the youth cultural underground, in which drug consumption played an important role, was instrumental in these developments. Second, in the early 1970s, as the case of the Rockers shows, youth crime had become a potentially omnipresent phenomenon of everyday urban life evoking diffuse spatial fears. Every seemingly friendly boy from the neighborhood could all of sudden turn into a "juvenile violent offender". Thus, crime could potentially lurk everywhere, in every niche of (urban) society. It was against this background that the age of security dawned as it promised a safe haven against all future urban threats."Jugendkriminalitat, stadtische Raume und Sicherheit in Deutschland sell dem 19. Jahrhundert". This article focuses on juvenile delinquency and on its perceptions in the last thirds of the 19th and of the 20th centuries. Three questions are discussed: Were there any debates on (human) security in both time phases and if yes, which problems were discussed; which larger social developments were mirrored in these debates; what were the implications of potential threats posed by juvenile delinquency for life in urban settings? In the last third of the nineteenth century the perception of and fears about youth crime focused on easily discernable proletarian male youth (groups and individuals) who mainly lived in densely populated urban neighborhoods. As (youth) crime was mainly interpreted as a threat towards the state and authorities were convinced that the police could successfully handle all challenges in this field, there were no debates about security at that time. In West Germany during the 1960s and the 1970s, two important changes in juvenile delinquency, in its perception and fears could be discerned. First, a twofold spatial and social dissolution of boundaries (Entgrenzung) of youth crime developed. The establishment of the transnational networks of the youth cultural underground, in which drug consumption played an important role, was instrumental in these developments. Second, in the early 1970s, as the case of the Rockers shows, youth crime had become a potentially omnipresent phenomenon of everyday urban life evoking diffuse spatial fears. Every seemingly friendly boy from the neighborhood could all of sudden turn into a "juvenile violent offender". Thus, crime could potentially lurk everywhere, in every niche of (urban) society. It was against this background that the age of security dawned as it promised a safe haven against all future urban threats

Terror and Democracy in West Germany. By Karrin Hanshew. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2012

Weinhauer K. Terror and Democracy in West Germany. By Karrin Hanshew. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2012. German History. 2014;32(3):509-511

From social control to urban control? Urban protests, policing, and localization in Germany and England (1960s to 1980s)

In England and in Germany, until the 1960s the policing of public protests (as a special field of policing public disorder) aimed at an all-encompassing social control. A strong focus was put on completely controlling a defined physical territory as well as the movements of persons or groups, leaving only very few pockets for independent spatial appropriations. The violent clashes of the 1980s deeply challenged this model of social control as regards protest policing.  In both countries, urban localization was an important factor which can explain these challenges: Local citizens self-confidently claimed the right to protest on their streets in their neighborhood and present their aims, thus using local urban space as a multifold power resource for identity formation, for envisioning the future of the urban, for protesting for local political issues, and also for consumer needs. Implementing an alternative model of protest policing could have helped to avoid or minimize violent confrontations in urban settings. Such an urban control protest policing would have had to be based on interventions that were decentralized in focus, sensitive to space and local issues, and understood the repercussions police interventions could have on street protestors, especially regarding the potential escalation of physical violence.In England as well as in Western Germany, the hermetic internal culture of the police (with its inherent pattern of masculinity) was the biggest obstacle which worked against abandoning the concept of completely controlling a physical territory and the movements of people in it. In Germany, the abstract state-centered thinking common among policemen ("seeing like a state") and the strict separation of day-to-day routine policing on the one side and the policing of protests which were labeled 'political' on the other side worked massively against establishing an alternative model of protest policing. In England implementing new models of policing was obstructed by a self-image of the police as a neutral mediator of social tensions as well as by the institutional racism of the police

Imaginaries of Urban Threat: Collective Protest/Violence and their Perception in the USA and in Argentina During the 20th Century.

Weinhauer K. Imaginaries of Urban Threat: Collective Protest/Violence and their Perception in the USA and in Argentina During the 20th Century. Fiar. 2016;9(1):89-109