Introduction

The concept of public disorder, a ‘hot topic’, is rarely defined. It is indiscriminately used by the media and by politicians when major social transformations take place. This labelling is anything but neutral. The term ‘public disorder’ yields a multitude of definitions and equally many disagreements about the authority of these definitions, often diverging over specificity. The term is to be interpreted against the backdrop of what Gallie (1956) called ‘the essential contestedness’ of concepts (i.e. the claim that debates about concepts can never reach closure). Such indeterminacy is at the core of this analysis. This research intends first to test the character of the dialectics of order and disorder and secondly to explore their recent disruption, revealing new patterns for understanding larger processes at work.