URBAN VIOLENCE OR URBAN PEACE?

Barry Weisberg, J.D.

 

This is a summary of a paper, “Breaking the Urban Cycle of Violence, Building An Urban Culture of Peace,” delivered at the United Nations-South African sponsored conference, Urban Safety, Safety  For All, Johannesburg, South Africa, October 26-30, 1998.  Revised from an earlier presentation to the Culture of Peace Program, UNESCO, Paris . 

 

WORDS: 701

Violence in cities has existed for thousands of years.   But today, cities have become the epicenter of  violence.   A United Nations meeting of Mayors stated their dismay at “the rising levels of crime, violence, racism, drug abuse and  social disintegration...”

In Moscow and Shanghai , where the “fee market” has unraveled both social order and  social services, every kind of violence is skyrocketing.  In Tokyo, 80% of female train commuters have experienced some form of sexual abuse.  Terrorist bombings in New York and Karachi, ethnic classes in Mumbay, the rise of suicide and street violence in Mexico City or the murder of street children in Sao Paulo or Rio de Janeiro, are examples of the growing urban urban violence. 

Both the unprecedented rate of  urbanization and the rapid  concentration of urban dwellers in a  few large mega-cities are products of  globalization. The concentration of wealth mandates the concentration of people.  People are both pushed to  and pulled into cities. Two dozen cities of two million people are born annually.  But the promise of urbanization is rapidly usurped by the problems of urban survival.  The lack of urban democracy and the synergistic interplay between poverty and violence deprive increasing numbers of urban dwellers of basic human needs and  fundamental human rights.   As many as one half  the residents of large cities live in poverty, without adequate housing, sanitation or living wage jobs, let alone education or health care. 

            In response Mayors are adopting various schemes for “urban safety,” importing “best practice”  or attempting to improve “urban management.”  But geometric population growth will undermine attempts at  social order or urban services.  Environmental ruin,   resource scarcity, and the reduction of biodiversity will generate increasing conflict.  The narrow attempt to focus on epidemic violent  crime without addressing endemic urban violence,  will not work.    Furthermore, the rhetoric of “urban safety” is a relic of Cold War thinking that fails to distinguish between the illusion of “safety” and the need for   economic, social, political, cultural and environmental human security.  In cities that are divided by class, race and ethnic origin, “urban safety” is always safety for the few at the expense of the many.  And finally, humanity has significantly altered over 50% of the earth, dominates 73% of the earth and utilizes over 40,000 species everyday.  The urban violence against the land, air, water and other species will have a  boomerang affect on cities.   For example, global warming could undermine food supplies and  raise sea levels, where most large cities are located.  These “man made” disasters are likely to  overwhelm cities.