InBrief

The Australian and New Zealand Association of Psychiatry, Psychology and Law invite members to attend a seminar, "Fear of Crime and Its Political Purposes", by Professor Sophie Body-Gendrot, on Monday, 19 April 2010 at 6.00pm in Carl Shannon Chambers, L13, 175 Liverpool Street. The event is free.

Fear has always accompanied the history of cities. But current macro changes have reinforced a general feeling of insecurity. The lifting of boundaries between domestic and foreign policy has allowed the globalization of dissent as well as the globalization of repression in meeting threats and risks. Since 9/11, the principle of precaution dominates most of metropolises’ governance, but its consequences may be questionable. In this lecture, Sophie Body-Gendrot differentiates fears from concerns, and examine strategies led by cities from the Global North to the Global South. One aim of the research is to counter the discourse associating violence and cities and bring out options to decision makers and scholars.

Sophie Body-Gendrot, Ph.D. in political science from Institut de sciences politiques, Paris, is a Professor in political science and American studies and the founder and Director of the Center of Urban Studies at the Sorbonne. She has lectured throughout Europe and in the U.S. With inter-disciplinary and cross-national approaches, she analyzes the representations and perceptions of the city and of the "dangerous Others", and the management of risks from the global to the micro-levels. She connects urban violence, ethnic and racial discriminations and socio-economic inequalities with broader societal dysfunctions and public policies.�

She has also published over one hundred scholarly articles on urban violence and unrest in Europe and the United States and on urban politics. She is a member of the French National Police/Civilian Review Commission and the current President of the European Society of Criminology.

RSVP: to astrid99@hotmail.com

16 April 2010