Browsing by Author "Aitken, Adam"
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Item Open Access Community resilience to flooding in the UK : A study of Matlock, Derbyshire(Elsevier, 2025-02-15) McKie, Ruth E.; Aitken, AdamThe United Kingdom has faced recurring floods since 2019, with 5.2 million homes at risk. This has prompted the UK government to prioritise resilience planning in flood prone areas. This study focuses on community resilience in Matlock, Derbyshire, which has experienced intensified flooding since 2018. Using qualitative interviews and a focus group, the research examines evidence of community resilience and the barriers to its development by focusing on community activities during flooding incidents, if and how these were collective efforts and relationships, and what are the perceived challenges to community resilience building. Our findings revealed that residents of Matlock used local action groups and social media, community led warning systems and promotion and engagement in civic participation to foster and enhance community resilience. While bonding and bridging capital were critical to support community resilience building, there were significant barriers to linking social capital, such as the disconnect between community members and formal institutions (i.e. government organisations) that left participants disheartened and frustrated. In conclusion, the study argues that further fostering of linking social capital through policy recommendations and developments such as regular community, small grants for community initiatives and integrating local knowledge into policy frameworks will bridge the gap between communities and these external stakeholders. In doing so, activities that aim to enhance Matlock's flood resilience may inform broader strategies for place-based and devolved policies addressing environmental challenges in a wider context.Item Metadata only Flood Prevention, Resilience Building and Communities: Policy Primer(2023-10-23) McKie, Ruth E. ; Aitken, AdamItem Embargo Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games: A Visual Presentation of Security in the Pre-event Phase.(Visual Methodologies, 2018) Aitken, AdamFor the overall success of any mega-event it is important that security measures are embedded through all stages, from the initial planning and design onto the aftermath and legacy. Yet, discussions around the security measures for the Olympics, FIFA World Cup or Commonwealth Games have tended to focus on the periods immediately before, during and after the main event, not many months or years in advance of it. This paper uses photographs and semi-structured interview data with security planners, and secondary focus group data with local residents in order to identify and discuss the events linked securitisation and regeneration of the East End of Glasgow in preparation for the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Using Images of particular elements of security which were in place long before the arrival of the Games, the interconnected nature of security and urban regeneration in the pre-event phase is identified, where aspects of security in anticipation for the Games and its aftermath, are integrated and normalised into the everyday environment.Item Metadata only Host City Glasgow: how it set the standard for urban rebirth(The Conversation, 2014-07-08) Aitken, AdamItem Open Access Seeking invention: creating an informed citizenry in the governance of security at sporting mega-events(Taylor & Francis, 2020-03-17) Aitken, AdamThere exists a small cottage industry of case studies of mega-sporting event security at respective Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games or FIFA World Cups. This literature provides detailed accounts of the different security governance networks and methods of securitisation taken by host cities and the social impacts of such arrangements. However, for all this explanatory work, there have been no attempts to provide any innovative normative framework for how mega-event security should be conducted. Taking a case study of Glasgow’s security operation during the 2014 Commonwealth Games, the article firstly maps the ‘nodal’ arrangement that existed during the Games, before identifying the various limitations within this particular approach. It makes a theoretical contribution to the existing body of security governance literature by demonstrating the empirical complexities of achieving nodal governance in a particular situation. The article concludes by providing a practical contribution to policing scholarship by suggesting an innovative normative security governance framework based around the metaphor of ‘control hubs’. Central to this innovation is the inclusion of a community ‘node’ into the governance of security as a way of enhancing information sharing and deliberation.Item Open Access Sporting Mega-Event Security in Hyperreality and its Consequences for Democratic Security Governance(Taylor and Francis, 2021-03-27) Aitken, AdamWithin the sporting mega-events literature three key developments exist: 1. Security is performative and symbolic; 2. Security reactivates state authority and legitimacy in developing security responses; 3. Security measures have discernible security ‘legacies’. Taking a case study of the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and the resultant securitization of an existing residential community, this article uses Baudrillard’s concepts of hyperreality and simulation (1981) and the ‘virtual’ (2005) to examine the above developments in depth. It is shown that mega-event securitization operates as a form of hyperreal performativity. For local residents, this heightens perceptions of risk, increases demands for security, and legitimizes security measures which impact on democratic freedoms.