Thomas Lewis
Thesis Title: Political and Experiential Geographies of Militarised Urban Europe
This project interrogates the contemporary militarisation of cities across Europe in response to the recent upsurge of vehicle-ramming terrorist attacks against crowded everyday urban spaces. This study is informed by geographical scholarship highlighting that militarised security can radically (re)shape how urban populations experience cities. However, such experiential implications of contemporary militarised security (i.e., concrete barriers) across Europe have received limited attention, (re)producing a ‘disembodied’ understanding. Furthermore, as cities undergo unprecedented material transformations adjusting to a (post-)COVID-19 world (e.g., pedestrianisation), this project provides a novel opportunity to identify how cities are adapting, and can adapt, to securitising virus transmission and vehicle-ramming attacks without militarising the urban landscape. As such, this project asks the following questions: (i) How and to what extent can the mechanisms of legitimation of militarised responses to vehicle-ramming attacks be studied and deconstructed? (ii) In what ways can the everyday experiences of urban citizens to contemporary militarised security be understood? (iii) How do pandemic and security urbanism interact, and to what extent does such hybridity produce secure yet socially acceptable urban spaces? This project employs a comparative case-study approach between Manchester and Milan, deploying semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, walking interviews with urban citizens around each city’s militarised security and discourse analysis of official documents and media materials. Ultimately, this research addresses concerns over pandemic response and building enhanced, yet proportionate, resilience in unprecedented times, whilst advancing understanding of how innovative approaches can attend to the experiential implications of militarised urban Europe.
Biography
I am a political and urban geographer interested in the relationships between cities, counterterrorism, and pandemic securitisation. Of specific interest are the military-style counterterrorism measures, such as concrete barriers, being deployed across European cities in response to the recent and abhorrent upsurge in vehicle-ramming terrorist attacks. In 2018, I visited the Manchester Christmas market for the first time and was immediately struck by the intrusive assemblage of security measures present, from pockets of armed police to the ring of concrete barriers encircling the market. I felt far from secure as the atmospheres of festive celebration and terror threat clashed. This encounter, nonetheless, shaped my research interest in how geopolitical discourses have become intertwined with the built form of cities, with dramatic implications for everyday urban life. Thus, in my undergraduate research dissertation, I conducted a Foucauldian-inspired discursive investigation, combined with a landscape and ethnographic analysis, into the securitisation of Albert Square, Manchester. For my degree, I was utterly overwhelmed to have received the University of Manchester’s (UoM) Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement. During my postgraduate studies at Manchester, I was able to expand and hone my understanding of methods in this research field, typified by my master’s thesis where I performed and critically evaluated critical discourse analysis in the context of contemporary militarised security across UK cities. Outside academia, I am a keen sportsperson, and when back at home, I take advantage of walking my two very active spaniels in the breathtaking landscape of the Brecon Beacons National Park.
Human Geography
University of Birmingham
2022 Cohort +3.5
www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-lewis
Supervisory Team
Dr Sara Fregonese
Prof Jon Coaffee