Crime, state and civil society responses in Maputo (Mozambique): Between privatisation and civilianisation

Type Journal Article - African Studies
Title Crime, state and civil society responses in Maputo (Mozambique): Between privatisation and civilianisation
Author(s)
Volume 76
Issue 2
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2017
Page numbers 260-280
URL http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00020184.2017.1323706
Abstract
In the capital city of Maputo in Mozambique, where recent international investment is seizing opportunities in a very poor urban context, social contrasts are important. It is hardly surprising that crime and fear of crime are on the increase. Maputo is also involved in a process of privatisation and civilianisation of security, which takes different forms: the blooming of new private security companies and the privatisation of public space via the development of enclosed and protected residential areas; a system of community policing as well as informal ‘patrolling’. They all spatially reflect sizable local, national and international issues. This article will examine the origins, the characteristics and the socio-spatial repercussions of these forms of security policing. They reflect the demand for better security provision in a changing urban society, and can be considered an erosion of the ‘state’s assumed monopoly over policing’. The aim of this article is to highlight the public/private ‘share of space’ and ‘share of influence’ for the sake of citizens’ well-being. Is privatisation and civilianisation of security a consequence of rising concerns about crime in Maputo? Are we currently witnessing a kind of pragmatic agreement between the inherited centralised Mozambican state and the emerging private sector and civil society?

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