"New Sport" in the street: self-defence, security and space in belle epoque Paris.
Near the turn of the twentieth century, traditional self-defence methods (for example, jiu-jitsu) were revamped into a more accessible and practical set of techniques and tactics for everyday use in urban public space. Framed as a "new sport" with broad public utility, early urban self-defence developed against the backdrop of heightening fears of violent crime and a burgeoning politics of security, as well as tensions provoked by the increasingly common appearance of unchaperoned, middle-class women in public. Self-defence masters pitched their innovations in an inclusive rhetoric, always with separate lessons for men and women and their respective spaces of risk. This article places modern self-defence practices in tension with historical transformations in the urban landscape, arguing that urban self-defence posited a certain subjective relation to the city that tapped simultaneously into the desire for empowerment, fantasies of criminal danger and a law-and-order tone that shaded into urban vigilantism.
Freundschuh
Aaron
A
University of California, Berkeley.
D003415:Crime / Q000191:economics / Q000208:ethnology / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology; D019548:Crime Victims / Q000191:economics / Q000193:education / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D016139:Martial Arts / Q000193:education / Q000266:history / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology; D010297:Paris / Q000208:ethnology; D010809:Physical Fitness / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology; D011209:Power, Psychological; D012449:Safety / Q000266:history; D013177:Sports / Q000191:economics / Q000193:education / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology; D014504:Urban Health / Q000266:history; D014505:Urban Population / Q000266:history