Gatekeepers of the Urban Commons? Vigilant Citizenship and Neoliberal Space in Multiethnic Paris Andrew Newman Department of Anthropology, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA; andrew.newman@wayne.edu Abstract: This article draws from ethnographic research on a recently built park in one of Paris’ predominately West African and Maghrebi districts. It demonstrates how urban design is used to “build-in” neoliberal subjectivities to the city. This design approach appropriates a tradition of street democracy held by neighborhood associations and redirects their disproportionately middle class, French membership into managerial roles traditionally held by municipal agencies. This neoliberal political subjectivity, which I term vigilant citizenship, makes monitoring and controlling the social composition of the urban commons a form of civic engagement for middle class urbanites. In Paris, this vigilance is fueled by anxieties over the presence of West African and Maghrebi youth in public spaces. Activists do not passively adopt this neoliberal role; they strike a delicate balance as gatekeepers, weighing inclusion against an expectation to maintain a “successful” public space conforming to a republican model of citizenship. Keywords: Paris, citizenship, commons, public space, neoliberalism, urban design In December 2011, Paris joined the growing number of cities employing police- operated open-street closed circuit television (CCTV) systems. As is in other places, the arrival of so-called vid´ eoprotection produced a litany of protest equating electronic surveillance with the enclosure of the democratic commons (for example, see Paris sans Vid´ eosurveillance 2012). In Paris, concerns over CCTV carry added weight because the streets occupy a symbolic place in a national tradition of radical protest that can be traced from the French Revolution through the Paris Commune to the May ‘68 uprising. However, the outpouring of concern related to CCTV belies the fact that other forms of enclosure are well underway in Paris. The installation of cameras is an act of undoubted legal, practical, and symbolic importance, but the neoliberalization of space is an ongoing social, political, and urban process that precedes any one policy. Indeed, throughout the 2000s, while politicians and media commentators debated the political and ethical implications of CCTV, public space in Paris was being radically reconceived in decidedly non-technological ways that combine a vigilant role for citizens with the creation of a new city park. This article demonstrates the ways that urban design and the transformation of political subjectivities are linked to the neoliberal remaking of the urban commons. My argument is drawn from ethnographic research conducted between 2007 and 2012 with neighborhood organizations engaged in debates over the creation of a Antipode Vol. 00 No. 00 2012 ISSN 0066-4812, pp 1–19 doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8330.2012.01052.x C  2012 The Author. Antipode C  2012 Antipode Foundation Ltd.