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"Die Stadtbewohner finden sich in ihrem Alltag zunehmend in einem Kontinuum wechselnder Kontrollmilieus wieder, die sich mehr oder weniger hermetisch voneinander abschließen können. Jedoch zeigt sich tagtäglich die Durchlässigkeit der Grenzen durch eine Vielzahl von Grenzüberschreitungen." (Autorenreferat)

In Anlehnung an Karl Marx' materialistischen Ansatz über die Produktivkraft des Verbrechens befasst sich der Beitrag mit der These, dass in Erweiterung der Marx'schen These - derzufolge das vermeintliche Verbrechen einen beträchtlichen Markt eröffnet, u.a. für die Nutznießer der Angst vor dem Verbrechen (Polizisten, Politikern, Baustoff-, Sicherheits-, und Versicherungsindustrie etc.) - sich auf einer sorgfältig rekonstruierten Indizienkette eine alternative Architekturgeschichtsschreibung aufbauen ließe. Dabei wird zunächst aus kulturtheoretischer Perspektive auf die Angst vor dem Verbrechen und die präventiven Maßnahmen eingegangen. Danach wird anhand von drei Fallbeispielen (Wien nach 1848, London nach 1992 und Genua 2001) verdeutlicht, wie städtische Räume vor Angriffen geschützt wurden. Die Beispiele sind Zeugnis für die Kausalität zwischen abweichendem Verhalten, realem und imaginiertem Verbrechen und Angst bzw. zwischen Angst und Prävention. Das abschließende Fazit kritisiert die Konstruktion von Feindbildern zum Zwecke der Aufrechterhaltung präventiver politischer und baulicher Ordnungsmaßnahmen und Verhaltensregeln, die von den betroffenen Bewohnern einer Stadt häufig als strukturelle Gewalt empfunden werden. (ICH)

Criminalized deviant behavior and strategies for its prevention have a strong impact on moral and political discourses within society. As Michel Foucault argued, crime can be used by dominant social classes to consolidate their hold on power. Yet, crime also proves tobe a very productive sector in a purely materialistic sense. We know from Karl Marx that crime doss not just create courtrooms, jails, laws and police, it also leads to representations of crime in the human and natural scien- ces, the mass media and the fine arts. Undoubtedly, one of crime's biggest impacts is in the security industry, architecture and the design of public space. The article demonstrates this by using a range of evidence, including the reporting of a brutal murder in one of Vienna's largest public housing estates in the late 1980s. The public discussion following the crime brought about the introduction of crime-prevention ideas from the USA, as weil as a rare alliance between police authorities and feminist campaigners. One important outcome was the gentrification of some parts of the city, while a number of measures were implemented with the aim of making public areas safer at night. ; Criminalized deviant behavior and strategies for its prevention have a strong impact on moral and political discourses within society. As Michel Foucault argued, crime can be used by dominant social classes to consolidate their hold on power. Yet, crime also proves tobe a very productive sector in a purely materialistic sense. We know from Karl Marx that crime doss not just create courtrooms, jails, laws and police, it also leads to representations of crime in the human and natural scien- ces, the mass media and the fine arts. Undoubtedly, one of crime's biggest impacts is in the security industry, architecture and the design of public space. The article demonstrates this by using a range of evidence, including the reporting of a brutal murder in one of Vienna's largest public housing estates in the late 1980s. The public discussion following the crime brought about the introduction of crime-prevention ideas from the USA, as weil as a rare alliance between police authorities and feminist campaigners. One important outcome was the gentrification of some parts of the city, while a number of measures were implemented with the aim of making public areas safer at night.

When increasing numbers of people are obliged to spend increasing amounts of time in transit then nodes and hubs alongside major traffic corridors – where traffic comes to halt and exchange between actors en route happens – represent new forms of urbanity and public space, sites where both individuals' routes, routines, and rituals and political transitions and urban transformations can be explored. If we follow Henri Lefebvre's thesis that urbanity is no longer defined by density but by the degree of difference performed at specific places, then these nodes paradigmatically represent new forms of urbanity and public space. What remained largely unexplored in the investigations so far was emphasising these nodes as polyrhythmic ensembles, linked to their temporal adaptability – reacting on daily, weekly and seasonal rhythms of traffic flows – and their interdependence on one another.