ABSTRACT
Security is a central concern in contemporary cities in Western Europe often related to ethnic diversity, with majorities often arguing that their security is threatened by immigration. This chapter takes its point of departure in long-term ethnographic engagement with an ethnically complex suburb of Oslo, Norway, raising basic questions in urban anthropology through meticulous description and analysis of local concerns with security and belonging. This part of outer eastern Oslo is strongly stigmatised in the media and by politicians as being unruly, ridden with social problems, such as unemployment and crime, and increasingly a hotbed of Muslim fundamentalism. It is also new (built in the 1970s) and demographically unstable. Creating a sense of belonging and security in this kind of urban environment is hard work, engaged in by local government, civil society associations and others. Contrasting this suburb with a small town on the southern coast, of roughly the same size (about 10,000 inhabitants), the chapter demonstrates two kinds of urban life involving different network types, sources of belonging and concerns with security and insecurity. Some of the questions raised concern fears and risks, network types and ethnic complexity, conditions and forms of belonging and social integration.
