Geopolitics of Urban Squares: Atmospheric Securitisation and Counterterrorism in Everyday Urban Spaces in Berlin

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 transformed, Ciax and Runkel investigate how the felt experience of city dwellers and users of the square has changed. They argue that the concept of atmosphere, taking the affective dimension of urban life into account, offers an enriching layer of understanding the everyday life in European cities. By focusing on the spatial and affective securitisation implemented before and after the attack in 2016, the paper converges everyday urban geopolitics and the concept of affective atmospheres. Bringing together engagement with experiences of everyday urban life and the atmospheric situation that security and counter-terrorism measures entail in European urban spaces, the paper approximates the felt experience and intangible elements with the help of sensory ethnographies. Shedding light on the aesthetic and sensory paradoxes of securitisation and counterterrorism measures, hegemonic practices of affective politics and discriminatory spatial expulsion are unraveled.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14650045.2023.2283465

DOI: 10.1080/14650045.2023.2283465