The Sources of Insecurity in a Socially Excluded Locality Cover Image

Zdroje nebezpečnosti v sociálně vyloučené lokalitě
The Sources of Insecurity in a Socially Excluded Locality

Author(s): Václav Walach
Subject(s): Sociology, Social differentiation, Criminology, Studies in violence and power, Rural and urban sociology
Published by: AV ČR - Akademie věd České republiky - Sociologický ústav
Keywords: insecurity; socially excluded localities; physical violence; street crime; territorial stigmatisation; structural victimisation

Summary/Abstract: The present study aims to contribute to the development of sociological research on insecurity in socially excluded localities in the Czech Republic. Inspiration for the conceptualisation of the subject of this study comes from the field of critical security studies and specifically the Copenhagen and Aberystwyth schools of security and feminism. Empirically, the study draws on the author’s long-term experience conducting fieldwork in socially excluded localities, mainly in the socially excluded locality Havířov-Šumbark. The study concludes that insecurity cannot be reduced to just the issue of crime or violence, as existing scholarship has done. An element of insecurity in socially excluded localities is also represented by territorial stigmatisation and structural victimisation, that is, fear of the consequences of symbolic pollution and declining living standards or low social status. Symbolic stigmatisation and structural victimisation have a constraining effect on how inhabitants of excluded localities live their everyday lives, albeit in different ways than street crime does.

  • Issue Year: 54/2018
  • Issue No: 02
  • Page Range: 253-275
  • Page Count: 23
  • Language: Czech