Dream of fear
The term fear dream generally refers to a place where people can feel fear . The term is discussed in urban geography and urban sociology , urban planning and architecture as well as social psychology and security policy . Specifically, this usually means public spaces in which the feeling of a threat from crime , especially from street violence, is particularly pronounced for many people. The term can refer to entire streets as well as to small areas, such as blind spots in parking garages or dark underpasses.
Perception and Origin
When fearful dreams arise, the actual threat is not in the foreground. As a rule, no more crimes occur in such places than in others. Often, the perception of dangers clearly contradicts the actual danger situation: For example, women's parking spaces are set up in underground garages in order to limit the risk to women in these public spaces. In fact, around two thirds of all acts of violence against women take place in private, while men are more likely to be victims of violence in public spaces.
In addition to the investigations into the emergence of fearful spaces in public space due to structural conditions, it has been shown that the feeling of security in public space is often characterized by feelings of fear due to people / groups perceived as potentially threatening , which causes a restriction of personal freedom of movement in the form of avoidance behavior.
The feeling of helplessness and powerlessness can lead to the emergence and manifestation of anxiety dreams or for parts of the population even to the formation of no-go areas . "When fear dreams arise, not only one's own experience, fear or perception play a role, but also the experience, fears and perception of other people who pass on their experiences and fears." According to Thomas's theorem , information via hearsay or a corresponding media representation is often sufficient to perceive public spaces as a dream of fear.
The appearance of certain people (e.g. provocative young people, alcoholics, etc.) who, especially in groups in public spaces, show a decivilization of behavior, can lead to a configuration of conflict between the population and these groups. One of the goals of security policy measures in Germany is to avoid fear of crime within the population. A human- created climate of violence and intimidation can turn areas of public space into spaces of avoidance and thus spaces of fear for some people.
activities
The identification and elimination of fearful areas in urban areas is a problem at the interface between security and urban development policy and is taken up in larger cities by the tools of neighborhood management . However, some social scientists such as Renate Ruhne criticize these measures as ineffective and in some cases counterproductive because, in their opinion, they do not bring more security.
The sociologist Ulrike Pahle-Franzen examined the direct configuration of the conflict between the resident population and right-wing extremist scenes (German right-wing extremists as well as Turkish right-wing extremists Graue Wölfe / Bozkurtlar ) using the example of the city of Karlsruhe and found in her research that the expanding social uncivility (the lack of civilizational standards in behavior towards fellow human beings) can significantly influence the population's feeling of security and can also be responsible for subjective and objective perception in the development of fearful dreams. In order to significantly increase the population's feeling of security in their residential area, Pahle-Franzen suggests a sufficient police presence on the basis of this knowledge and the recruitment of well-trained, publicly appointed security guards who are regularly out and about in the residential area. On the other hand, she sees increasing video surveillance in public spaces critically from the point of view of possible state-controlled surveillance .
A fact-based and open approach in the media reporting on fear-inducing events in public space as a confidence-building measure towards the population is fundamental. With regard to the institutions, public and comprehensive education and information work for the population is necessary. Cover-up news, on the other hand, can encourage the population to resort to explanations of fantasy and the perception of dreams of fear becomes even more manifest.
See also
literature
- Ulrike Pahle-Franzen: City as a dream of fear. Studies on right-wing extremist scenes using the example of a large city , PDF , dissertation 2011.
- Gabriele Mahnert: Unheimlich & Co - Angsträume in Wuppertal , In: Betrifft Mädchen, Münster, Votum, ISSN 1438-5295 . - Vol. 13/14 (2000/2001), pp. 16-18
- Ute Prize: For a city without fearful spaces: Planning guidelines for more safety in public spaces , Düsseldorf, Ministry for Urban Development, Culture and Sport of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, 1995 (building blocks for planning practice in North Rhine-Westphalia; 20)
- Anina Mischau: Anxiety rooms in Heidelberg: the feeling of security of women in their city , Heidelberg, City of Heidelberg, Office for Women's Issues, 1994
- Sabine Hug: Participation in traffic and fearful dreams for women in Heidelberg , 1992
- Annegret Böhm: Angsträume: Documentation; Symposium on urban and open space planning suitable for women , Leonberg, 1992
- Renate Ruhne: Space Makes Gender . VS Verlag, 2003. ISBN 3810040169 .