Periodic Reporting for period 2 - UrbTerr (Urban Terrorism in Europe (2004-2019): Remembering, Imagining, and Anticipating Violence)
Berichtszeitraum: 2021-06-01 bis 2022-11-30
Since 2004, public spaces and other ‘soft-targets’ in European cities have been hit by more than ten major terrorist attacks, killing hundreds of people and injuring thousands. UrbTerr analyses and compares memory discourses and responses to recent acts of urban terrorism in four European countries that have suffered particularly as a result of this wave of violence: Spain, the UK, France, and Germany. Drawing on qualitative data collected through fieldwork, interviews, news coverage and trial documents, the UrbTerr team documents and analyses how attacks in the past are remembered and how they affect our expectations from the future.
The project has three concrete aims: (1) analyse the collective forms of forgetting, remembering, and imagining that have shaped urban spaces in the four countries after recent terrorist attacks, (2) develop a ‘new materialist approach’ to terrorism and use this framework to critically assess policies and material security infrastructures that have been created in response to these attacks at a local and European level, (3) use art as a creative tool to develop and experiment with alternative forms of remembering and different visions of the future.
The project has three concrete aims: (1) analyse the collective forms of forgetting, remembering, and imagining that have shaped urban spaces in the four countries after recent terrorist attacks, (2) develop a ‘new materialist approach’ to terrorism and use this framework to critically assess policies and material security infrastructures that have been created in response to these attacks at a local and European level, (3) use art as a creative tool to develop and experiment with alternative forms of remembering and different visions of the future.
Although there is a quickly growing body of research on the cultural and political impact of urban terrorism in Europe, there is still no major comparative study on this subject. UrbTerr makes an important step towards filling this research gap by offering the first in-depth comparative analysis of memory discourses and responses to recent acts of urban terrorism in Spain, the UK, France, and Germany. In the first 30 months of the project, the UrbTerr team carried out field work in these four countries. To document and analyse collective practices of remembering and forgetting, we conducted ethnographic research at ‘grassroots memorials’ (spontaneous memorial assemblages at attack sites), trials, museums, official memorials, as well as in busy town centres and other urban spaces. Our methodology is best described as “sensory ethnography”, i.e. “a process of learning through the ethnographer’s own multisensory, emplaced experiences” (Pink, 2015, p. 96). Our findings so far show that such public spaces are used to express grief over past violence, but that they can also be foci of protest and catalysts for campaigns for less violent futures.
One of UrbTerr’s key aims is to develop a new materialist approach to urban terrorism, and to use this theoretical framework to offer a critical analysis of the role of material objects and infrastructures in terrorist attacks and counter-terrorism strategies. To work towards this objective, we have organised workshops and conferences with leading experts in new (feminist) materialism. While our theoretical framework draws on ideas from a range of thinkers, the work of feminist physicist and philosopher Karen Barad is of particular importance to UrbTerr. A Baradian approach enables us to analyse urban terrorism as a ‘material-discursive’ phenomenon and to explore how terrorist weapons have evolved with and against weapon laws, counter-terrorism architectures, and a range of other material and immaterial structures and processes. We are currently working on a number of co-authored and individual publications outlining and further developing this new materialist approach to terrorism. Of particular importance in this context is the PI’s monograph 'The Terror of Things: Rethinking security through the agency of everyday objects' (Bloomsbury, 2023).
Art plays a vital part in UrbTerr because it can be used to honour the memory of victims and to expand the field of imagination in ways that go beyond the forms of narrating, planning, and playing that characterise many counter-terrorism measures. In 2020, the PI and the Birmingham based arts organisation Eastside Projects (EP) released the call for submissions (In)security – critical explorations and alternative visions resulting in a fruitful collaboration with five artists. The collaboration culminated in the art exhibition ‘It might be nothing but it could be something’ (https://eastsideprojects.org/projects/insecurity2020/). The PI has initiated a number of other art collaborations, including a photography project with a survivor of the London Bridge attack in 2019, and is working towards a major international art event in 2023.
One of UrbTerr’s key aims is to develop a new materialist approach to urban terrorism, and to use this theoretical framework to offer a critical analysis of the role of material objects and infrastructures in terrorist attacks and counter-terrorism strategies. To work towards this objective, we have organised workshops and conferences with leading experts in new (feminist) materialism. While our theoretical framework draws on ideas from a range of thinkers, the work of feminist physicist and philosopher Karen Barad is of particular importance to UrbTerr. A Baradian approach enables us to analyse urban terrorism as a ‘material-discursive’ phenomenon and to explore how terrorist weapons have evolved with and against weapon laws, counter-terrorism architectures, and a range of other material and immaterial structures and processes. We are currently working on a number of co-authored and individual publications outlining and further developing this new materialist approach to terrorism. Of particular importance in this context is the PI’s monograph 'The Terror of Things: Rethinking security through the agency of everyday objects' (Bloomsbury, 2023).
Art plays a vital part in UrbTerr because it can be used to honour the memory of victims and to expand the field of imagination in ways that go beyond the forms of narrating, planning, and playing that characterise many counter-terrorism measures. In 2020, the PI and the Birmingham based arts organisation Eastside Projects (EP) released the call for submissions (In)security – critical explorations and alternative visions resulting in a fruitful collaboration with five artists. The collaboration culminated in the art exhibition ‘It might be nothing but it could be something’ (https://eastsideprojects.org/projects/insecurity2020/). The PI has initiated a number of other art collaborations, including a photography project with a survivor of the London Bridge attack in 2019, and is working towards a major international art event in 2023.
The theory debates, fieldwork, and creative collaborations over the last 30 months have enabled the PI and her team to make progress beyond the state of the art in terrorism studies. The peer reviewers assessing the book proposal for the PI’s monograph 'The Terror of Things: Rethinking security through the agency of everyday objects' acknowledged that the project is ground-breaking and has the potential to significantly advance the field of terrorism studies. In addition to planned individual outputs, the UrbTerr team produced a co-authored article which will be published in 2023 in the Routledge volume Contemporary Reflections on Critical Terrorism Studies (edited by Alice Martini et al.).
The PI will use the remaining time to continue to work with local and international artists and to plan public exhibitions and events showcasing the results of these creative collaborations. Another central objective for the second half of the project cycle is to disseminate research findings in the form of open access publications, conference papers, and public research events. Planned outputs include the interdisciplinary conference ‘Remembering/Imagining Terror in Europe’ in September 2022, three more UrbTerr workshops with international speakers, two monographs, two PhD theses, and two articles.
The PI will use the remaining time to continue to work with local and international artists and to plan public exhibitions and events showcasing the results of these creative collaborations. Another central objective for the second half of the project cycle is to disseminate research findings in the form of open access publications, conference papers, and public research events. Planned outputs include the interdisciplinary conference ‘Remembering/Imagining Terror in Europe’ in September 2022, three more UrbTerr workshops with international speakers, two monographs, two PhD theses, and two articles.