Violence reduction in a changing European urban context: Frontline practitioner’s understanding of the roots of violence, and why it matters for policy and prevention

Violence continues to be a concern for policymakers and communities, notably so in urban contexts in which socio-demographic change, retrenched social support and evolving forms of exclusion affect its distribution and intensity. Drawing from a comparative qualitative study in European cities, we analyse the narratives and explanations offered by key stakeholders, civic and policy actors working at the interface of violence prevention and urban communities. Informed by scholarship on street-level bureaucracy and local knowledge, we find in their accounts key operating theories that connect the risk of violence with austerity conditions and their erosion of vital social and institutional fabrics, thereby worsening localised violence in these ‘ordinary’ cities. We conclude that there is a significant disconnect between the subtle and informed accounts of local, civic actors and the drift to further disinvestment in cities and social institutions being delivered by central political institutions. Local practitioners understand violence to be linked to these macro-economic conditions and social inequalities that sit outside their jurisdiction, but which ultimately present major challenges to the fabric of local urban life and risks to particular communities.