‘Sicherheit’: examining residents’ perceptions of community safety in working-class residential areas undergoing regeneration in Limerick City, Ireland

This paper examines the perceptions of residents’ in two housing estates in Limerick, a peripheral Irish city, on how (un)safety effects their day-to-day lives and is an intrinsic element in the production and reproduction of their urban territories. In focusing on these areas which are currently ‘undergoing’ the largest urban regeneration project in the history of the Irish State, our analysis provides new insights into the intersections between regeneration processes and (un)sicherheit. Significantly, our findings demonstrate that regeneration processes, often billed as enhancing community safety, can in fact contribute to destabilising the triumvirate of safety, certainty and security.