‘Clean and safe’ passage: Business Improvement Districts,urban security modes,and knowledge brokers

Abstract

This paper interrogates the complex role of Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) in securing and shaping conduct in public retail and ‘entertainment’ spaces in Canadian cities. Adopting a Foucault-inspired sociology of governance perspective, this paper uncovers key features of the role of BIDs therein and casts doubt upon assumptions evident in previous research, including in relation to urban neo-liberalism. BIDs seek to exclude obstacles, which include ‘panhandlers’ and the homeless, from public spaces. Yet, other barriers are placed into relief by a proliferating ‘clean and safe’ rationality and are deemed to interfere with consumption conduct and pedestrian flow. These include BID members engaged in moralized enterprises. Some BIDs are deploying CCTV surveillance arrangements and interactive ‘ambassadors’ consistent with ‘clean and safe’, whereas others avoid these modes and rely upon and lobby for public sources. The role of BID coordinators in brokering specialized knowledge is pivotal in these varied security arrangements. Theoretical implications of this analysis are discussed.