Disrupting looming violence Practices of social control by nightlife and event security

This dissertation discusses how Dutch nightlife and event security guards exercise social control. Previous research confirms that the vast majority of antagonism and violence occurs between patrons, and that guards try to manage these violent interactions through a variety of techniques. What is missing is an interactional approach that moves away from individuals, and instead focuses on social control as a social accomplishment.
Taking a practice-based approach, I describe how guards use their bodies to prevent and disrupt antagonism and violence by interrupting and redirecting patrons’ antagonistic and violent lines of action. The study aims to increase our understanding about the why, how, and when of social control and violence from an embodied perspective.
I argue how the practice of social control consists of four sets of bodily techniques – gazing, talking, prodding and restraining & bodily foregrounding. Each of these sets require different bodily skills and are used in different situations. This ranges from situations in which patrons are not yet antagonistic or violent, situations in which patrons argue, quarrel or bluster to situations in which patrons throw punches or shove each other or display threatening or violent gestures to the guards.
Theoretically, the study contributes to sociological and criminological understanding of violence on two points. First, I propose the notion of looming violence, indicating that the potentiality of violence already mobilizes people. Second, I demonstrate that the skilful performance of what I call ‘closed violence’ can restrict a violent exchange and redirect trajectories away from becoming increasingly violent.