Mobilising safety? Public order and the coordination of security guards in public transport in Stockholm

This study contributes to the growing literature on mobile work by examining the coordination of safety practices in public transport in Stockholm. We explore how safety, a critical and evolving theme in mobility studies, intersects with mobile work and its associated coordination challenges. Since the introduction of safety policies, security guards have focused on ‘circulatory maintenance’, a process gaining prominence in Stockholm’s public transport system. Using Suchman’s framework on centers of coordination, we identify three key practices of ‘circulatory maintenance’: coordination by education, technology and evaluation. These practices reveal that safety is not static but an ongoing, dynamic process involving formal policies, procurement efforts, and frontline workers’ situated, improvisational actions, often mediated through the ‘Safety Centre’. While these practices exhibit how mobile work is coordinated, it also signifies which efforts are put in place to ensure order in the public space that public transport is. We conclude by raising critical questions about the justification of such practices in addressing safety concerns in public transport.