Youth Governance and the City: Towards a Critical Urban Sociology of Youth Crime and Disorder Prevention

This article considers the historical and spatial context for the emergence of youth crime and disorder prevention initiatives in Ireland. These initiatives have to be understood in the context of their relationship to the broader ‘urban question’ and in particular the relationship of the peripheral housing estate to the rest of society and the economic sphere. More recent changes in the nature of society and the emergence of a ‘liberal creed’ have resulted in greater use of surveillance technologies for offsetting the opportunities for crime to be committed. In this context, youth crime prevention initiatives must be seen as an extension of an ensemble of devices for governing young people’s behaviour. The rise of fortified locales in cities serves to reinforce exclusivity and to mask the working class and marginalized from the elite and vice versa. The paper suggests that the challenge is to create an active public sphere for young people.