Abstract

A certain decrease in human social networks, in people-to-people relationships and social ties, increases urbane insecurity, lowers the defenses against the dangers of the world around us and amplifies the feeling of loneliness and uncertainty/ disorientation. My work is based on a research about the bond between social capital and urban insecurity in two different urban areas in the town of Perugia (a town which strongly feels urban insecurity and vividly debates the issue. My research shows how human social networks offer an effective help (they make the difference in case of a prospective danger and have a reassuring power) and they can have a preventive element (if people know each other, if there are plentiful people-to-people relationships, if the streets are animated by shops and services, the inappropriate use of the public domain is strongly discouraged).