The Social Life of a Barrier: A Material Ethnography of Urban Counter-terrorism

In the aftermath of the truck attacks in Berlin, Nice, Paris, and Stockholm, new counter-terrorism measures are being installed in European city centers. Through an ethnographic approach, this article explores the socio-material effects triggered by the most conspicuous material responses to hostile vehicle treats: concrete barriers. We draw on the recent turn towards mobilities design thinking to address the béton barriers as more-than physical obstructions, but designed artefacts negotiated and re-appropriated in unexpected ways. Set in the context of Copenhagen, we explore how the concrete barriers reveal the social, cultural, and practical conditions of the city. By establishing a critical mobilities design-oriented understanding of counter-terrorism “in situ,” we seek to broaden out what the process of “designing out terrorism” entails and to discuss new participatory design processes for future transformations of the city in light of terrorism threats.