From Crime against the City to Urban Harm: A Relational Analysis of Ecological and Cultural Loss

This study develops the concept of ecological-cultural urban harm to examine the adverse consequences of urban interventions beyond the boundaries of legally defined crime. Drawing on a qualitative and conceptually driven research design, it distinguishes urban harm from both urban change and crime against the city and integrates theoretical perspectives from social harm, green criminology, the social production of space, place attachment, urban commons, environmental justice, and intergenerational justice. Based on this conceptual synthesis, an analytical framework is developed around five interrelated dimensions: the object and relational scope of harm, social distribution, reversibility, temporal and intergenerational scope, and process and decision-making relations. The framework demonstrates that urban harm cannot be reduced to physical loss alone but must also be assessed through changes in access, use, cultural meaning, ecological functions, social relations, and future options. It provides a structured basis for examining and comparing ecological-cultural losses without treating every harmful urban intervention as a criminal offence.