Tom Bauwens (1 November 2014-31 July 2015)

Postdoctoral researcher
Research group: 
Crime & Society (CRiS)
Address: 
Room 4B311
Pleinlaan 2
1050 Elsene
Belgium
Telephone: 
+32 2 629 13 89
E-mail: 
Work Package(s): 
Research themes: 
Policing & Security
Local governance
Interpretative analysis
Research project: 

Experiencing the Local Governance of Security

From 1 October 2014, Tom Bauwens was appointed for one year as a postdoctoral researcher at the VUB (50% on IAP-budget).
In his PhD, T. Bauwens focused on the experience of mayors in regard to security. The IAP gives Tom Bauwens the opportunity to theoretically elaborate on the interpretative approach he used, based on hermeneutics and phenomenology. Together with Ilse Luyten, he presented the current state of this work during the IAP 2nd international conference ‘Experiencing Justice’ (see below). T. Bauwens is also planning to pursue his interest in the local governance of security. Municipal regulations, local policing and prevention projects are important sites for governmental interventions, arguably at the forefront of the criminal justice system. On the one hand, understanding idiosyncratic local practices is important to find tangible evidence of structural patterns (Garland, 2004). While the punitive turn and preventive turn are often described in the abstract, it is at the local level that they meet in tangible practices e.g. the development of the ‘all-encompassing integrated security policies’ or ‘municipal administrative sanctions’. In regard to the latter, T. Bauwens is planning the publication of a paper for discussion in Orde Van De Dag (practitioners will be invited to react). On the other hand, local practices are valuable in their own right, enabling us to comprehend the moral dilemmas individuals confront within these settings. Indeed, the experience of the people within the local governance of security is an essential but frequently neglected element (Foster, 2002). Arguably, this not only concerns a study of the targeted audience of interventions e.g. vulnerable, powerless minority groups, but also political actors and powerful administrators within the system itself.
In regard to the latter, T. Bauwens will focus his upcoming research on the figure of the sanctioning official. Initially charged with imposing fines for violations of the local police regulation, the duties and discretion of this civil servant gradually expanded – especially in regard to youngsters – but very little is known about the actual practice of the sanctioning official. The goal of this research ‘An inquiry into the (re)actions of sanctioning officials’ is to understand how the figure of the sanctioning official is emerging by studying the situated practice of these actors. At the moment, he is preparing a pilot study based on in-depth interviews in the Brussels Region. This study will be used to support an application for external research funding for an extended version of this project in 2016.
Picture: ©Cegesoma, image nr°169622 :lawyers in the courthouse of Ghent, 1941[Maes]

The Interuniversity Attraction Pole P7/22 "Justice & Populations: The Belgian Experience in International Perspective, 1795-2015" (BeJust 2.0) is part of the Interuniversity Attraction Poles Programme Phase VII (2012-2017), financed by the Belgian Science Policy Office of the Belgian State.

The IAP VII/22 Justice & Populations www.bejust.be is the outcome of a collaboration between the Cegesoma, the IAP coordination team (CHDJ-UCL) and the Royal Military Academy. Design: tangografix. Powered by Drupal