Abstract

This article provides a concise analysis of the recent evolution of the political discourse about "urban security" in Italy, particularly for the years between 2008 and 2010. Drawing upon the results of an empirical research, the author suggests that many issues regarding the government of the city have been colonized by securitarian policies and discourses, to such an extent that we are witnessing the rise of a full-scale securitarian rationality in the government of the city. The assignment of extraordinary injunctions powers to the Italian mayors overlapped a more general discourse on devolutionary policies, and the maintenance of public order was above all a rhetorical expedient to call for greater powers for the local government. Finally, this growing "urbanization" of security has generated both new specific problems/risks and new kinds of people/behaviors that need to be governed.