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THE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN DESIGN

Editor’s note

Fight like a girl • Emancipated, strong, beautiful – this is Marianne. At a demonstration, a young woman wears the symbol of the French Revolution on her face. Liberty, equality and fraternity are also in demand at the demonstration on the Place de la Republique in Paris on 2 October 2022, but for Iran, where the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman, in custody of the morality police in Tehran a few days earlier triggered protests worldwide. 378 people, at least 47 of them children, have died in the riots in Iran so far (as of November 2022). According to leaked documents, the theocratic regime has ordered to crack down on demonstrators. The death penalty has been introduced, the internet further restricted, and Iranians threatened with violence and blackmailed into making false statements about the protests. However, many women continue to take to the streets. They are publicly cutting their hair or taking off the hijab in protest. They are fighting for their safety in a republic that has forced them to wear a headscarf since 1979, a republic that has protected security forces from prosecution by means of immunity or that violently suppressed Iranian democracy movements in 2009, 2017/18 and 2019/20. May their struggle for freedom in Iran be as successful as that of "Marianne" during the French Revolution and continue from there.

“YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE A NERD TO BE A PREPPER” • Unfortunately, there is also no sign of hope coming from the World Climate Conference in Sharm El-Sheikh (Egypt) and even less so from the self-proclaimed climate activists who destroy cultural assets and works of art in the name of the climate, spreading more terror than is beneficial.

Naples • Naples does not have the best reputation when it comes to safety. Tourists even decide to skip the city altogether. However, there are some interesting initiatives in the Italian metropolis that are trying to tackle the social, economic, and political exclusion that is often at the root of these problems.

Safetipin

PICTURE SERIES: PROTEST

Facets of security • There are a lot of aspects to consider regarding urban security. Some impacts and effects are more obvious, others are seemingly paradoxical. And all too often it means walking a tightrope between security and privacy and personal freedom.

CCTV cameras per Square Kilometer as of 2020

THE PROMISE OF SECURITY • From a digital yearbook to a whole city’s security concerns: What started as playing around soon turned out to be a mighty tool of control, governance and ultimately surveillance. When highly remunerative tech companies mingle with public affairs, society will pay a high price for the hollow promise of security.

SURVEILLANCE AND SECURITY • The number of surveillance cameras is increasing rapidly. At the time of this issue’s publication, there are an estimated 1 billion surveillance cameras in the world, which among other persons watch you. Their use is not uncontroversial, however. A closer look at how CCTV affects urban security.

THE DESTRUCTIVE POWER OF WORDS

CENTER SPREAD

FROM GYMNASTS TO FIREFIGHTERS • Fire departments are the backbone of municipal emergency response. For a long time, their range of tasks has included much more than just extinguishing fires. But fire departments face challenges as they move into the future.

WHAT WOULD A CITY THAT IS SAFE FOR WOMEN LOOK LIKE? • Most cities have not been designed with women’s...