Security in the metropolis: semiotics of the city

Security and insecurity have ceased to be a local problem to become the common denominator of several cities. Feelings of anxiety seem to have become the new denominator of brotherhood. And it is that before the sensation of abandonment of the State around the regulation of the security, the civil society has organized in such a way that before the emptiness, the sensation of security remains afloat. In spite of this, the perception of insecurity increases along with the security representation devices that turn into fictions, producing paradoxical levels of confinement. From private security booths to concrete walls or creations of mini-cities that enjoy what prevents them from leaving those places, this research seeks to examine the components of these narratives in the city of Lima due to the fact that it has the highest index of contradiction between levels of crime and perception of insecurity. In this way our objective is to unravel the fictions that are woven around, the discourses that they carry and the social polarization that emerges.