publications

Local Policies for Urban Security and Spatial Planning in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area: the Cases of Lisbon, Cascais and Barreiro municipalities

2014

During the last decade, growing concerns about urban security shaped the Portuguese public debate, especially in the months following a media campaign about the socalled “wave of crimes” of the summer of 2008. Unprecedented feelings of fear of crime and the restructuring of the national approach to security followed the
campaign. In Portugal, the central state is considered as the sole responsible for security: however, local authorities have been recently carrying out a variety of actions and policies for or around urban security.

The report presents the findings of a working package from an ongoing research project about urban security, fear of crime, and urban planning – “Which Secure Cities? A critical approach to security and feelings of fear in urban planning in Southern Europe”. An “atlas” of local policies for urban security in three municipalities of the
metropolitan area of Lisbon is given: Lisbon, Cascais, and Barreiro. The main focus of the report is on the relations between policies for/around urban security and the institutional practice of spatial planning. In order to approach urban security as a complex and multifaceted theme, the report debates three types of policies: local policies for urban security; urban security within spatial planning policies; approaches to social prevention in social development plans.