Policing the boundaries of belonging: mapping the subjective experiences of marginalised youths

• In Event: ERacing Borders: Global Trends in Border Criminologies

Abstract

This paper reports on research-in-progress that explores how boundaries of belonging and non-belonging are created and resisted through policing practice in a highly diverse outer suburb of Melbourne. The project – part of a larger study on the production and policing of internal borders - uses the concept of belonging to capture the dynamics of race, place and citizenship arising from the policing of public space. Policing researchers have often remarked on the connection between policing and belonging (or related concepts). Police have been described by Loader and Walker as ‘mediators of belonging’ and by Waddington as ‘arbiters of citizenship’, while Tyler notes that police communicate through their demeanour whether or not individuals are ‘respected members of groups’. However, these analyses rarely involve ethnographic data concerning the actual impact of policing on individual feelings of belonging. In this study I adapt an innovative methodology pioneered by McDowell and Wonders in which local maps were used to elicit narratives from undocumented migrant women about where they felt safe in their neighborhood. This study will use ‘concept maps’ to stimulate discussion amongst marginalised youths about the places, and experiences in those places, that contribute to their subjective sense of acceptance and belonging.

Author

• Leanne Weber, Monash University