Policing urban public spaces through walking?
An ethnography of the gardiens de la paix (urban stewards) in Brussels, coupled with an analysis of their daily reports, enables a critical perspective of public policy at different levels. (1) These professional walkers are the human signs of a public policy they represent more than they implement. (2) The strolls of these walkers pertain to metainquiries more than straight inquiries connected to disorders or problematic situations. (3) Their walk combines relations between vision and visibility and between visibility and invisibility. (4) The tasks of these agents produce what the authors call a "mechanics of walking" and processes of subjectivization.