Sara Fregonese 
Katharina Ciax and Simon Runkel’s new paper Geopolitics of Urban Squares: Atmospheric Securitisation and Counterterrorism in Everyday Urban Spaces in Berlin is now available in Geopolitics. The article scrutinizes the concept of ‘affective atmosphere’ at the Breitscheidplatz in Berlin, Germany. By unpacking key moments and elements in the Breitscheidplatz’s history, when measures of security and counterterrorism … Read more
Katharina Ciax und Simon Runkel veröffentlichten ihren Artikel Geopolitics of Urban Squares: Atmospheric Securitisation and Counterterrorism in Everyday Urban Spaces in Berlin im Geopolitics Journal. Der Artikel untersucht das Konzept der “affektiven Atmosphären“ am Breitscheidplatz im Berlin. Durch das entwirren von historischen Schlüsselmomente und -elemente in der Geschichte von Sicherheits- und Antiterrormaßnahmen auf dem Breitscheidplatz, untersuchen … Read more
In an era in which terrorism and security have remained high political priorities, what are the impacts of this politics on urban life and its management? In a new article “Crises terroristes et ambiances urbaines : quelles marques les attentats laissent-ils aux villes ?” (Terrorist crises and urban ambiances: what imprints do attacks leave in … Read more
On 18 October, 2023, Sam Berlin presented project findings about recent developments in British counterterrorist policing methods to the Social Justice, Cities and Citizenship research group at the University of Leeds School of Geography. Based on interviews and fieldwork with counterterrorism police in three British cities, his paper Project Servator: affective counterterrorism and atmospheric policing explored recent … Read more
At the 2023 Royal Geographical Society-Institute of British Geographers Annual Conference in London, Sara Fregonese and Paul Simpson presented ongoing research on the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings. Based on archival and interview research, their paper explored the atmospheric effects and temporal reverberations of the pub bombings on everyday life in Birmingham. Using the notion of … Read more
On 16 May, 2023, Carrie Benjamin presented findings from her fieldwork in Birmingham, UK on hostile vehicle mitigation (HVM) – bollards, planters and other devices designed to securitize public spaces against vehicular attacks – at the PLACES Laboratory at CY Cergy Paris Université. Since 2017, English cities have seen a proliferation of material infrastructure aimed at … Read more
At the 2023 annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers in Denver, Colorado, the Atmospheres of (counter)terrorism in European cities team hosted the paper session Urban atmospheres of (in)security, disaster, and recovery to bring together research concerned with the issue of the ordinary felt experiences of (in)security in cities and of how urban atmospheres shape … Read more
2023 kehrte die Konferenzreihe Neue Kulturgeographie zurück, eines der Standbeine der Kulturgeographie in Deutschland. Zum diesjährigen Thema Geographies of Overlapping Crises präsentierten zwei Projektmitglieder erste Ergebnisse der Feldforschungen in Deutschland und Großbritannien. Der Beitrag von Katharina Ciax, Urbane Plätze und Anti-Terror. Eine atmosphärische Analyse der affektiv-räumlichen Versicherheitlichung auf dem Breitscheidplatz analysiert die atmosphärische Transformation des zentralen Platzes in Berlin im Hinblick … Read more
2023 brought the return of the Neue Kulturgeographie conference series, a mainstay of Cultural Geography in Germany. For this year’s theme, Geographies of Overlapping Crises, two project members presented early results from fieldwork in Germany and the UK. Katharina Ciax’s paper, Urbane Plätze und Anti-Terror. Eine atmosphärische Analyse der affektiv-räumlichen Versicherheitlichung auf dem Breitscheidplatz (Urban Squares and counterterrorism: An atmospheric … Read more
On 14 December 2022, Dr Damien Masson, PI for the French team, appeared on the France Culture podcast Les Enjeux Territoriaux to speak about the local and urban consequences of terrorist attacks, which he discussed using content from the Atmospheres of (counter)terrorism in European Cities project. Dr Masson spoke specifically about the fallout of the … Read more
Atmospheres of (counter)terrorism in European cities PI Dr Sara Fregonese will be giving a keynote lecture on Thursday 3 November at Geography Days, a two-day conference organised by Tampere University and the Geographical Society of Finland. In response to this year’s theme Geographies of Displacement, Dr Fregonese’s talk Shockwaves will probe the atmospheric dynamics of … Read more
AAG 2023 Denver, Colorado – March 23rd-27th Session organisers: Paul Simpson (University of Plymouth), Sara Fregonese (University of Birmingham), Damien Masson (CY Cergy Paris University), Simon Runkel (Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena), Hélène Heurtel (L’Institut Paris Region), Sam Berlin (University of Plymouth), Katharina Ciax (Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena), Angeliki Drongiti (CY Cergy Paris University). Recently, geographers have become … Read more
While fieldwork is still underway, the UK team presented preliminary results at two major international conferences this summer. At the Royal Geographical Society-Institute of British Geographers Annual Conference 2022 in Newcastle, UK, Sam Berlin spoke in the session Spatialised responses to vulnerability and harm: exploring geographies of practice. His paper, ‘Mass violence, securitization and social … Read more
On 27 April, our postdoctoral researcher Carrie Benjamin gave a seminar titled ‘Everyday atmospheres of (counter)terrorism in Birmingham’. The presentation was part of the University of Birmingham Anthro Talks seminar series hosted by the Department of African Studies and Anthropology. Carrie was aslo invited to deliver an in-person guest lecture for postgraduate students at Leiden … Read more
On April 5th, our doctoral researcher Katharina Ciax will give a seminar on methodologies of researching everyday perceptions in urban spaces at the Urban Terrorism in Europe (2004-19): Remembering, Imagining, and Anticipating Violence project at the University of Birmingham. While the technological and infrastructural securitization of urban spaces has been researched extensively, little is known about … Read more
A new open-access paper from Atmospheres of (counter)terrorism in European Cities PI Sara Fregonese (Birmingham) and advisory board member Sunčana Laketa (Neuchâtel) has just been published in the journal Political Geography. Based on fieldwork conducted in Paris and Brussels after the terrorist attacks of 2015 and 2016, the paper models a new approach to affective … Read more
In December our doctoral research fellow Katharina Ciax presented the AtmoCT project as well as preliminary findings of her field research in Berlin at the “City, Public Space & Body” international conference, organized by the Institute for Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship, Goldsmiths, University of London. https://www.citypublicspacebody.com
Internationales Forschungsteam untersucht, wie Terrorismus die Atmosphäre in europäischen Städten verändert Wie erleben die Bewohnerinnen und Bewohner europäischer Städte die Bedrohung durch Terrorismus? Wie verändern Anti-Terrormaßnahmen ihre Gefühle und Stimmungen und welche Auswirkungen hat das auf das gesellschaftliche Zusammenleben? Mit diesen Fragen beschäftigt sich ein kürzlich gestartetes internationales Forschungsprojekt, an dem die Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena beteiligt … Read more
Associate Professor of Human Geography Dr Paul Simpson will be involved in a new £1.1million research collaboration A new European research project starting in January 2021 aims to provide an unprecedented international comparison of how counter-terrorism and urban security change the everyday experiences of residents across cities in Europe. The project has been launched by … Read more
“The project includes a large-scale national survey assessing public perceptions of terror threats and attitudes to counterterrorism measures among people living in the UK, France, and Germany.” The terrorist attacks in Nice’s Basilica of Notre-Dame last week, came as France entered a second pandemic lockdown and, the BBC reported, “the French are feeling disoriented and … Read more