Joy Knoblauch to Present Research at the Sixth Biennial Urban History Association Conference – Oct. 26th at Columbia University

Assistant Professor Joy Knoblauch will present her research on the economics of the fear of crime and the growth of surveillance technologies in public housing at the Sixth Biennial Urban History Association Conference held at Columbia University in New York City on October 26. The Urban History Association was formed in 1988 and is affiliated with the International Planning History Society.

She will be speaking as part of a panel on “Policing, Crime, and Urban Governance” which asks: When should the state act to insulate citizens against the risks of modern urban life? Questions of the role and nature of urban policing and demands for crime control have dominated urban politics episodically over the twentieth century, particularly during the 1920s and again in 1960s and early 1970s. Addressing these eras, each of the papers on the panel uses the dynamics of policing and crime control to engage in broader explorations of urban governance. Collectively, the papers examine not only the mechanisms of change within institutions and practices of policing and crime control, but also the modes by which they were constituted by or constitutive of broader social, economic, and political shifts.

Knoblauch will be presenting: “Making Fear Pay; Oscar Newman, Crime Prevention and the New York City Housing Authority (1968-1974)”. Drawing on archival material including correspondence between the architect and NYCHA, the paper shows how a single architectural expert worked to use fear of urban crime to influence NYCHA and other housing authorities to turn to low-rise housing forms in the 1970s, adding cameras and promoting territorial self-policing.

For more information and a full schedule, visit: uha.udayton.edu/conf.html