Crime, insecurity and corruption: Considering the growth of urban private security

an article Jeff Garmany (King’s College London, UK) and Ana Paula Galdeano
(Brazilian Center of Analysis and Planning, Brazil) published in Urban Studies Volume 55 Issue 5 April 2018

Abstract

We call into question the growing presence of private security companies (PSCs) in cities throughout the world. Though PSCs have grown enormously in recent decades, there exist few academic analyses to consider their broad-reaching effects.

Researchers still have much to understand about the relationships between PSCs and changing patterns of urban development, governance and public security. PSCs are prevalent in both the Global North and South, yet their presence is perhaps most intense in emerging countries, where social inequality is high and public security is tenuous.

As such, in this article we draw on specific examples from the city of São Paulo, Brazil, where demand is soaring for private security and PSCs operate in complicated networks between the state, private capital and organised crime.

Our analysis draws attention to the paradoxes of urban private security, beginning with the fact that public insecurity is in fact good for PSC business. By reflecting on existing published resources – and making connections across several disciplines – our goals in this article are threefold:

1. to highlight the need for more research on PSCs in urban settings;
2. to draw attention to the ways private security is changing urban space, and;
3. to suggest that the growth of PSCs, rather than being representative of increased public security, may in some cases coincide with rising levels of urban crime and insecurity.

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Education, parenting and family: The social geographies of family learning

an article by Emma Wainwright and Elodie Marandet (Brunel University London, UK) published in British Educational Research Journal Volume 43 Issue 2 (April 2017)

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between education, parenting and family through the prism and particularities of family learning.

Family learning is an example of an educational initiative, primarily aimed at parents and linked to wider policy concerns, which can be explored through a mapping of its social geographies; family learning is played out across and productive of different sites, spaces and identities.

Based on qualitative research undertaken in West London, this paper draws on individual and group interviews with mothers participating in family learning classes and interviews with family learning providers. The key argument we extend is that focusing on the social geographies of family learning - of home, school, work, community and nation - allows us to see how educational initiatives extend the state's reach in family life, producing particular normative versions of family and ‘good’ parenting operating at a range of interconnecting scales.

Education remains a cornerstone of family policy in the UK and detailed analyses of specific initiatives at the point of implementation – how they are practised and received – is vital for better understanding their diverse and varied effects in contemporary society.

Full text (HTML)

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Census 2011: Skills are moving south

via The Work Foundation News by Dr Neil Lee

The geography of highly skilled workers matters.

Better qualified people tend to earn more, so the geography of skilled workers is one of the main drivers of regional disparities.

Other workers gain too, as workers in cities with more skilled residents generally earn higher wages.

Continue reading [and looking at the wonderful graph which highlights the issues for me]

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Using Wikipedia for extracting hierarchy and building geo-ontology

an article by Quoc-Hung Ngo (University of Information Technology, HoChiMinh City, Vietnam), Son Doan (University of California, San Diego, USA) and Werner Winiwarter (University of Vienna, Austria) published in International Journal of Web Information Systems, Volume 8 Issue 4 (2012)

Abstract

Purpose
This paper aims to serves two main purposes: First, it seeks to provide an overview of the location hierarchy from the highest divisions (continents) to the lowest divisions (wards, villages) in reality and in the Wikipedia pages. Secondly, it aims to introduce an approach to building a geographical ontology from Wikipedia.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper first reviews existing applications which extract information from Wikipedia and use it as a data resource to develop natural language processing tools. The paper also reviews the structure of Wikipedia pages which show the location’s information. Based on the analysis, the paper then proposes an approach to extract location hierarchy as well as geographical characteristics for the geo-ontology. The approach also rebuilds the relations between locations in the ontology.
Findings
Existing location name systems are mainly based on probabilistic locations, which are mined from the data and they lack the administrative relations between locations for full levels and all countries and territories. The literature review in geographical hierarchy and using Wikipedia for natural language processing tasks offers an approach to build a geographical ontology from Wikipedia pages. The proposed approach is believed to be the first which provides a full geo-ontology for all countries.
Practical implications
The paper builds a geo-ontology with full levels for all countries and territories. The administrative relations between locations are needed for real-world applications.
Originality/value
The comprehensive overview on existing work on geo-ontology provides a valuable reference for researchers and system developers in related research communities. The proposed approach to build a geographical ontology by using the Wikipedia offers a promising alternative to build a knowledge system from free online multi-language encyclopedia.

Hazel’s comment:
It sounds as though this would be a valuable tool in the hands of labour market researchers and also for guidance practitioners unsure of geography outside their own area.

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