Urban Security Providers: State, Non-State and Private Actors

Paraušić, Ana (2019) Urban Security Providers: State, Non-State and Private Actors. Security Dialogues, 10 (1-2). pp. 253-264. ISSN 1857-8055

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Abstract

We live in a predominantly urban world. Contemporary cities are places of new opportunities, improvement of social wellbeing, cultural and artistic enjoyment, the dominant civilizing factors and hubs of innovation. But cities are also sources and theatres for numerous and diverse problems, ranging from crime and violence, to inadequate provision of communal services. That is why it does not come as a surprise that scientists and practitioners more and more discuss about urban security. The city, area of unprecedented social, political and economic complexity, is arguably one of the emerging referent objects, a level of analysis marked by specific security dynamics. This paper is concerned about one important dimension of urban security – its provision. More precisely, objective of the study is to describe, analyze and understand providing of security in the urban context, as well as actors i.e. providers responsible for protecting important values from significant urban security threats. We argue that there are several types of urban security providers: state, non-state and private. It is discussed that state security providers (national, regional and local authorities, police, armed forces, emergency protection services and other agencies) are most active actors in protecting citizens from serious security threats, and bare most responsibilities in the field of urban security provision. However, upwards, downwards and horizontal shifts in steering activities and power, caused state provider to lose their mo- nopoly in securing urban environment, which gave rise to non-state (international and national NGOs, citizens` organizations, media, schools) and private actors as urban security providers. There is also a preposition that in order to achieve optimal level of urban security all involved actors must cooperate and work together in a network of diverse and interconnected urban security providers, creating what is called nodal or plural security provision. For theory and practice of urban security, it is of utmost significance to identify and explore security providers, and understand their role and responsibilities, due to rising urban population, diversity of urban settlements and complexity of contemporary urban security problems (challenges, risks, vulnerabilities, and threats).

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