CONCEPT OF HUMAN SECURITY AS A FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYSIS OF STATE OF SECURITY IN CITIES

Abstract

The fact that more than half of the human population on the planet Earth lives in urban areas attracts the attention of analysts of various profiles. The specificity of our idea is that through the prism of the concept of human security we are supposed to determine the key characteristics of urban space that affect the safety of citizens. By selecting indicators from the available statistical sources, we have tried to determine which features are characteristic of urban spaces that have been declared safe. Applying the same principle we also analyze the main features of unsafe cities. By identifying the relevant indicators, we create the possibility to project further tendencies, by monitoring the changes in their values, that is, we react in a timely manner to possible negative phenomena.

The Human Security concept represents a convenient analytical framework that can contribute to the quality of analysis by quantifying the parameters on the basis of which the quality of life of citizens is measured. The main idea behind the formulation of the topic is that through the concrete data related to the selected cities we point out the analytical potential of the concept of human security in urban planning.

The results obtained through the analysis of selected areas relevant to the quality of life of urban population residents can be used as parameters on the basis of which a timely reaction is expected in order to eliminate the observed deficiencies by activating the early warning system. Our approach enables the analysis of different scenarios as a basis for evaluation and forecasting when making decisions in the field of urban planning. The aim is to increase the efficiency of the policy development process and the implementation of urban development based on the proposed analyzes.

In relation to the set goal of the work we have shown that there is a certain analytical potential of the concept of human security to determine the factors that make the difference between safe and unsafe cities.

The analysis carried out indicates a significant link between the security of cities and the degree of corruption registered in the countries in which they are located. Namely, corruption is destroying the institutional system and creating an environment in which everyone is fighting for personal interest whose realization is at the expense of the general and common interest of citizens. Another common feature for the observed city groups is the large number of population within countries below the poverty line. The most unsafe cities have a far greater percentage of the population below the poverty line than safe cites. Poverty is the result of inequality in the distribution of income expressed through the GINI Index, and the observed deviations of this parameter require additional research of local conditions which, due to limited space, is impossible on this occasion.

Certain indicators for which there was a presumption that they are relevant in the context of the analysis, such as the happiness index, the percentage of the urban population in relation to the total population of the country and the size of cities, are not relevant for the state of security in the analyzed cities.

Finally, we can conclude that the CPI, the percentage of the total population below the poverty line and the GINI index, may to a certain extent be indicators on which the early warning system should be activated in order to prevent the deterioration of the security situation within urban spaces. Negative trends in these indicators should trigger warning lights because they are almost a sure signal that the security situation in some area is deteriorating. The problem can be prevented by timely intervention through a change in urban development policy.