Banal warfare describes the ways in which the vision of the city ridden with conflicts, terrorist attacks and disease infuses everyday urban life, to the point of becoming invisible.
This book analyses the impact of framing public emergencies and violences in Paris and Brussels as acts of war and how this normalizes militarism within urban contexts traditionally viewed as "non-war zones". It addresses how this process shapes urban governance agendas, constructs the notion of the enemy within and conditions everyday lives. From lockdowns to states of emergency, the book considers urban citizens agency and resistance, and how to re-think notions of urban peace.
1. War spills over: reversing the gaze, rethinking urban conflict
2. Urban warfare: from lockdown to state of emergency
3. Performing the city of banal warfare: Paris and Brussels
4. Affect, bodies and atmospheres on the frontline
5. Conclusions: affective geographies of resistance to urban warfare
Sunana Laketa is an urban geographer and social psychologist engaged in research on social exclusion in European cities.
