Zero Tolerance for the Industrial Past and Other Threats: Policing and Urban Entrepreneurialism in Britain and Germany

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed changes in the discourses and practices of urban policing towards 'quality-of-life offences' and the presence of unwanted groups (beggars, drug-users) in city centres. The authors argue that the change towards a more 'law-and-order' style of law enforcement, often referred to as Zero Tolerance Policing, has to be examined not solely as a means of crime prevention but also in the context of interurban competition. Thus, it constitutes a moment of the urban political economy, often referred to as urban entrepreneurialism : especially for old industrial cities, safe and clean city centres are regarded as a necessary asset for competition and image promotion. These arguments are developed by discussion of two empirical studies: Glasgow, Scotland, and Essen, in the Ruhr region in Germany.