‘Mission Impossible’?

Abstract

It is difficult to ignore the growing salience of the new governance of crime and disorder in many late modern societies. To date there has been limited empirical exploration of the practices and experiences of these new local actors and institutions. This article aims to correct this neglect in the criminological literature by its exploration of the knowledge and skills base and habitus of one of the new partnership experts, the community safety manager (CSM). In particular, the article involves an engagement with recent research findings from Britain together with the more abstract conceptual tools opened up by current debates in critical social and political theory. It begins with a brief history of the community safety occupation during which the key features of the ‘profession’ are explored. Next, the thesis of a hegemonic risk management governmental logic in the field of community safety is critically examined. By exploring specific sites and contexts of community safety ‘work’, doubt is cast on totalizing narratives of neo-liberal transformation currently popular in criminology and sociology. Finally, the possible futures of community safety and crime and disorder reduction when viewed from the contemporary experiences of CSMs are considered.