What is militarism? Red arrow flyover may be perceived as part of the normalisation of military in urban events Protests against this militarism, pink washing or the pride of these military companies when they have dropped bombs Militarism = the process of the proliferation and spread of military: · Ideas and concepts · Symbols, imagery, signs • Practices · Privilege and power structures: gender/race/class? · Break down of distinctions of public/private, war/peace, battlefield/home-front City as a fortress . Seen on the cover of Max Weber's book of fortified settlements surrounding the city and holding it within and protecting the population through the use of power · Citizens therefore had duty to protect and defend the city, a mix between military safety and economic market places would occur on same streets · Cities have always held military powers, orders of knights developed in middle ages through crusades · Durham is an example of this stronghold of protection, walls able to restrict access and hold power Cities as a target . Cities can also be the object of power and be targets for military action or war . Cities provide more than just the backdrop and environment for war or terror but also include buildings, assets, industries, cultural diversity and symbolic meanings that are the target for attack (Graham 2013) · Humankind has expended as much energy and effort into the killing of cities as much as the planning of them (Berman) · Cities are not just targets for militarised conflicts but also class conflicts so normal to talk about destruction in cities · Suggested capitalism encourages continued renewal of cities through destructive processes (e.g. blowing up old vertical flats) through a desire to improve the city . E.g. Forced evictions in Beijing before Olympics pushed people out to make way for new stadiums or following Hurricane Katrina the black neighbourhoods were the ones developed pushing out citizens Instances where targeting militaristically and the conflicts of capital and labour can converge The city has always been militarised · Ruins of early city of Varadium or Oradea has a central fortress complex central to development of the city . Power is found in the centre of the city and is also preserved here - the sovereign powers · Today, power is not necessarily centred around monarchs but instead embodied by state institutions which are still urban but are significant politically and architecturally in the design of the city
· When we protest this is also done in cities often outside sites of power or institutions · Cities are centres of power but also locations for disruptions to power Urban legibility/illegibility . Cities can be threatening the power as elude power of the government · James Scott (seeing like a state book) uses pictures to explore the illegibility of urban forms · Vast surveillance systems are a response to re-see the urban and what's going on in the city · Locating urban power in cities relates to threats to power assuming all can be