Urbanising the Security-Development Nexus: A Revisited Perspective on Segregation Governance in Miskolc, Hungary

Abstract

The thesis develops a critique of two competing visions of urban segregation governance in Miskolc, a medium-sized post-industrial city in Northern Hungary. At one end of the spectrum lies a penal populist agenda of displacing the marginalised, and primarily the city’s Roma population, through slum clearances and policing interventions to prevent said groups from circulating back into the city. At the other end is an emancipatory and pro-welfare social policy approach that works on social divides in situated, sensitive, and sympathetic ways. The two perspectives are by no means mutually exclusive, however. Instead, they are wielded in tandem with varying intensity depending on the political stance and options of the municipal administration, and ultimately orchestrate the same hegemonic vision of keeping unwanted surplus populations at bay.

The study demonstrates that the overlapping domains of penal and social policy in Miskolc are shot through with the notions of security and development in their discursive and practical mobilisations alike. To make sense of these relationships, the security-development nexus (SDN) – a concept predominantly utilised in international geopolitical and development research thus far – is adapted to the urban level. An SDN-based perspective allows us to understand the ways that social divides are governed in Miskolc through a joint operation of sovereign power and biopower. Additionally, it enables a holistic and interconnected view of segregation governance in neoliberal cities rather than being siloed to either security or development alone. The study reflects on the above outlined dynamics against the backdrop of right-wing populism, which continues to dominate mainstream Hungarian politics.