Why do our night-time cities seem to mix pleasure with violence? This is the time and place when cities are taken over by young men in search of alcohol, drugs, another club or a fight. Current public policy has patently failed to keep on top of the new trends in both consumption and destruction which make urban centres simultaneously seductive and dangerous. Violent Night uses powerful insider accounts to uncover the underlying causes and meanings of violence. Interviews with the police, the perpetrators and the victims of violence reveal the complex emotions that surround both the perpetration and resolution of crime. Violent Night shows that a new approach is needed to successfully rehabilitate a culture struggling and failing to deal with nihilism and escalating hostility.
Fights, fraud and drugs racketeering regularly hit the headlines, but they are just news stories for most of us. For others, they constitute a way of life. This book uncovers a world where male identity is expressed each day through physical strength and power. Focusing on professional criminals and violent men, the author shows how workshop camaraderie, hard physical work and criminal reputations allow for changing masculinities. It is all too easy to stereotype criminals, when, in fact, their world is complex and creative. Criminal men adapt and modify their forms of gender expression to fit in with their changing economic, social and cultural circumstance, as do men in all walks of life. Why is violence attractive to these men? What motivates their crimes, both planned and impulsive? How do criminals themselves view their activities and their reputations, and how do these reputations affect their perception of masculinity? This book is the first sustained analysis of organized crime and violence to use covert research methods. Far from the sensationalized memoirs of retired gangsters, or the abstract discussions of scholars, this book builds on first-hand experiences and relationships made while working amongst bouncers and criminals. The social world of professional criminals and the working environments of criminal bouncers are demystified and laid bare. The author sets individual criminal careers and experiences in the wider context of de-industrialization and globalization, and provides a thoughtful and stimulating addition to the fields of anthropology, sociology and criminology.
The Left is dead. Its ailments cannot be cured. In its current form it cannot win elections, transform the economy, or advance the interests of the broad multi-ethnic working class." Winlow and Hall argue that the only way to resurrect what was once valuable in leftist politics is to declare the left dead and begin from the beginning again. They focus on key historical moments when the left could have pushed history in a better direction. They identify the root causes of its maladies, describe how new cultural obsessions displaced core unifying principles, and explore the yawning chasm that now separates the left from the working class. Drawing upon a wealth of historical evidence to structure its story of entryism, corruption, fragmentation and decline, they close the book by outlining how a new reincarnation of the left can win in the 21st century.
‘…classic Winlow and Hall – bleak, brilliant and unmatched in the art of rethinking crucial social issues. Enlightening, and rather scary.’ - Professor Beverley Skeggs, Goldsmiths, University of London ‘This superb book inhabits a unique theoretical space and demonstrates Winlow and Hall at their brilliant best as theorists of contemporary social exclusion.’ - Professor John Armitage, University of Southampton ‘…making exemplary use of critical theory, this book represents a powerful, rallying response to Benjamin's notion that "It is only for the sake of those without a hope that hope is given to us"’. - Dr Paul A. Taylor, author of Zizek and the Media ‘… an intellectual tour de force. Winlow and Hall, outriders of a radically different political economy for our era, have done it again. Their latest book is the critical criminology book of the decade, and the best account of capitalism since the 2008 crash… A devastating critical analysis of the effects of neo-liberalism.’ - Professor Steve Redhead, Charles Sturt University 'I had long regarded "social exclusion" to be another zombie-concept that retained no analytic or political purchase whatsoever. This book has changed my mind.' - Professor Roger Burrows, Goldsmiths, University of London In their quest to rethink the study of ‘social exclusion’, Winlow and Hall offer a startling analysis of social disintegration and the retreat into subjectivity. They claim that the reality of social exclusion is not simply displayed in ghettos and sink estates. It can also be discerned in exclusive gated housing developments, in the non-places of the shopping mall, in the deadening reality of low-level service work – and in the depressing uniformity of our political parties. Simon Winlow is Professor of Criminology at the Social Futures Institute, Teesside University. Steve Hall is Professor of Criminology at the Social Futures Institute, Teesside University.
This book offers the first in-depth investigation into the relationship between today's criminal identities and consumer culture. Using unique data taken from criminals locked in areas of permanent recession, the book aims to uncover feelings and attitudes towards a variety of criminal activities, investigating the incorporation of hearts and minds into consumer culture's surrogate social world and highlighting the relationship between the lived identities of active criminals and the socio-economic climate of instability and anxiety that permeates post-industrial Britain. This book will be of interest to undergraduates, postgraduates, researchers and lecturers in all fields within the social sciences, but especially criminology, sociology, social policy, politics and anthropology.
One of the biggest political stories of the past few decades in the United Kingdom and elsewhere has been the growing divide between the working class and the mainstream liberal left, which historically has spoken for them. This book offers a close analysis of that phenomenon by showing how the political scene looks to underemployed white men who have seen their standards of living fall in recent years even as their communities have fractured around them. Rather than cast aspersions or mount arguments about the larger success of society as a whole, The Rise of the Right takes these men and their concerns seriously, showing where their opinions are factually wrong but arguing powerfully that liberal politics must find a way of acknowledging and addressing their legitimate fears and frustrations.
This book provides a short, comprehensive and accessible introduction to Ultra-Realism: a unique and radical school of criminological thought that has been developed by the authors over a number of years. After first outlining existing schools of thought, their major intellectual flaws and their underlying politics in a condensed guide that will be invaluable to all undergraduate and postgraduate students, Hall and Winlow introduce a number of important new concepts to criminology and suggest a new philosophical foundation, theoretical framework and research programme. These developments will enhance the discipline’s ability to explain human motivations, construct insightful representations of reality and answer the fundamental question of why some human beings risk inflicting harm on others to further their own interests or achieve various ends. Combining new philosophical and psychosocial approaches with a clear understanding of the shape of contemporary global crime, this book presents an intellectual alternative to the currently dominant paradigms of conservatism, neoclassicism and left-liberalism. In using an advanced conception of "harm", Hall and Winlow provide original explanations of criminal motivations and make the first steps towards a paradigm shift that will help criminology to illuminate the reality of our times. This book is essential reading for academics and students engaged in the study of criminology, sociology, criminological theory, social theory, the philosophy of social sciences and the history of crime.
The years 2008 to 2013 saw a new generation of political protestors take to the streets. Riots disrupted many Western cities and new protest movements emerged, keen to address a bleak context of economic collapse and austerity politics. In this groundbreaking new study, Winlow, Hall, Briggs and Treadwell push past the unworldly optimism of the liberal left to offer an illuminating account of the enclosure and vacuity of contemporary politics. Focusing on the English riots of 2011, the ongoing crisis in Greece, the Indignados, 15M and Podemos in Spain, the Occupy movement in New York and London and the English Defence League in northern England, this book uses original empirical data to inform a strident theoretical critique of our post-political present. It asks: what are these protest groups fighting for, and what are the chances of success? Written by leading criminological theorists and researchers, this book makes a major contribution to contemporary debates on social order, politics and cultural capitalism. It illuminates the epochal problems we face today. Riots and Political Protest is essential reading for academics and students engaged in the study of political sociology, criminological theory, political theory, sociological theory and the sociology of deviance.
The Left is dead. Its ailments cannot be cured. In its current form it cannot win elections, transform the economy, or advance the interests of the broad multi-ethnic working class." Winlow and Hall argue that the only way to resurrect what was once valuable in leftist politics is to declare the left dead and begin from the beginning again. They focus on key historical moments when the left could have pushed history in a better direction. They identify the root causes of its maladies, describe how new cultural obsessions displaced core unifying principles, and explore the yawning chasm that now separates the left from the working class. Drawing upon a wealth of historical evidence to structure its story of entryism, corruption, fragmentation and decline, they close the book by outlining how a new reincarnation of the left can win in the 21st century.
This book is the first to offer an uncompromising look at the English Defence League (EDL), aiming to alter thinking about working-class politics and the rise of right-wing nationalism in de-industrialised English towns and cities.
This book offers the first in-depth investigation into the relationship between today's criminal identities and consumer culture. Using unique data taken from criminals locked in areas of permanent recession, the book aims to uncover feelings and attitudes towards a variety of criminal activities, investigating the incorporation of hearts and minds into consumer culture's surrogate social world and highlighting the relationship between the lived identities of active criminals and the socio-economic climate of instability and anxiety that permeates post-industrial Britain. This book will be of interest to undergraduates, postgraduates, researchers and lecturers in all fields within the social sciences, but especially criminology, sociology, social policy, politics and anthropology.
Fights, fraud and drugs racketeering regularly hit the headlines, but they are just news stories for most of us. For others, they constitute a way of life. This book uncovers a world where male identity is expressed each day through physical strength and power. Focusing on professional criminals and violent men, the author shows how workshop camaraderie, hard physical work and criminal reputations allow for changing masculinities. It is all too easy to stereotype criminals, when, in fact, their world is complex and creative. Criminal men adapt and modify their forms of gender expression to fit in with their changing economic, social and cultural circumstance, as do men in all walks of life. Why is violence attractive to these men? What motivates their crimes, both planned and impulsive? How do criminals themselves view their activities and their reputations, and how do these reputations affect their perception of masculinity? This book is the first sustained analysis of organized crime and violence to use covert research methods. Far from the sensationalized memoirs of retired gangsters, or the abstract discussions of scholars, this book builds on first-hand experiences and relationships made while working amongst bouncers and criminals. The social world of professional criminals and the working environments of criminal bouncers are demystified and laid bare. The author sets individual criminal careers and experiences in the wider context of de-industrialization and globalization, and provides a thoughtful and stimulating addition to the fields of anthropology, sociology and criminology.
The years 2008 to 2013 saw a new generation of political protestors take to the streets. Riots disrupted many Western cities and new protest movements emerged, keen to address a bleak context of economic collapse and austerity politics. In this groundbreaking new study, Winlow, Hall, Briggs and Treadwell push past the unworldly optimism of the liberal left to offer an illuminating account of the enclosure and vacuity of contemporary politics. Focusing on the English riots of 2011, the ongoing crisis in Greece, the Indignados, 15M and Podemos in Spain, the Occupy movement in New York and London and the English Defence League in northern England, this book uses original empirical data to inform a strident theoretical critique of our post-political present. It asks: what are these protest groups fighting for, and what are the chances of success? Written by leading criminological theorists and researchers, this book makes a major contribution to contemporary debates on social order, politics and cultural capitalism. It illuminates the epochal problems we face today. Riots and Political Protest is essential reading for academics and students engaged in the study of political sociology, criminological theory, political theory, sociological theory and the sociology of deviance.
Why do our night-time cities seem to mix pleasure with violence? This is the time and place when cities are taken over by young men in search of alcohol, drugs, another club or a fight. Current public policy has patently failed to keep on top of the new trends in both consumption and destruction which make urban centres simultaneously seductive and dangerous. Violent Night uses powerful insider accounts to uncover the underlying causes and meanings of violence. Interviews with the police, the perpetrators and the victims of violence reveal the complex emotions that surround both the perpetration and resolution of crime. Violent Night shows that a new approach is needed to successfully rehabilitate a culture struggling and failing to deal with nihilism and escalating hostility.
Urban Theory and the Urban Experience brings together classic and contemporary approaches to urban research in order to reveal the intellectual origins of urban studies and the often unacknowledged debt that empirical and theoretical perspectives on the city owe one another. From the foundations of modern urban theory in the work of Weber, Simmel, Benjamin and Lefebbvre to the writings of contemporary urban theorists such as David Harvey and Manuel Castells and the Los Angeles school of urbanism, Urban Theory and the Urban Experience traces the key developments in the idea of the city over more than a century. Individual chapters explore investigative studies of the great metropolis from Charles Booth to the contemporary urban research of William J. Wilson, along with alternative approaches to the industrial city, ranging from the Garden City Movement to ‘the new urbanism’. The volume also considers the impact of new information and communication technologies, and the growing trend towards disaggregated urban networks, all of which raise important questions about viability and physical and social identity of the conventional townscape. Urban Theory and the Urban Experience concludes with a rallying cry for a more holistic and integrated approach to the urban question in theory and in practice if the rich potent. For the benefit of students and tutors, frequent question points encourage exploration of key themes, and annotated further readings provide follow-up sources for the issues raised in each chapter. The book will be of interest to students, scholars, practitioners and all those who wish to learn more about why the urban has become the dominant social, economic and cultural form of the twenty-first century
This is the first book in the UK or US to set on record the recent cultural phenomenon of the use of certain dog breeds - both legal and illegal - to 'convey status' upon their owners. Such dogs are easily visible on social housing estates throughout the UK and in projects in the USA and provide acquired authority, respect, power and control. However they are increasingly linked to urban street gangs as 'Weapon Dogs' and present a danger to the ordinary public especially those using parks and open spaces with increased injuries being presented at UK hospitals. Though initially slow to react, local and statutory authorities are now seeking to address the issue through action plans and interventions. Written in a fresh, engaging and accessible style, this unique book contextualizes the phenomenon in terms of sociology, criminology and public policy. It considers a complex mix of urban and social deprivation, social control of public space and the influence of contemporary media imagery and 'gangsta' culture. It will make essential reading for academics and policy makers in criminology and criminal justice and those working with animal rights/animal welfare groups.
Drawing on evidence from both sides of the Atlantic, Simon Harding explores the culture of the status dog in Unleashed. In housing projects in the United States and United Kingdom, certain dog breeds convey status—authority, respect, power, and control—on their owners, while urban street gangs have developed the dangerous practice of training dogs to be weapons. Combining perspectives from sociology, criminology, and public policy, Harding contextualizes these related phenomena and considers the complex mix of factors motivating them, including urban deprivation, social control of public space, and the influence of media imagery.
Gang violence is on the increase in certain neighbourhoods. There is an urgent need for a fresh perspective that offers insight into gang structure, organisation and offending behaviour to explain this increase. Using the findings from an extensive ethnographic study of local residents, professionals and gang members in south London, and drawing on his vast experience and knowledge of the field, Simon Harding proposes a unique theoretical perspective on survival in violent street gangs. He applies Bourdieu’s principles of social field analysis and habitus to gangs, establishing them as a social arena of competition where actors struggle for distinction and survival, striving to become ‘players in the game’ in the ‘casino of life’. Success is determined by accruing and retaining playing chips – street capital. Harding’s dramatic and compelling insights depict gang life as one of constant flux, where players jostle for position, reputation, status and distinction. This perspective offers new evidence to the field that will help academics, students, practitioners and policy makers to understand the dynamics of gang behaviour and the associated risks of violence and offending. Simon Harding is currently a senior lecturer in criminology at Middlesex University, UK. He draws on 25 years of experience in research, public policy and project delivery as a crime reduction and community safety practitioner.
For first year students in tertiary leisure studies programs, both Leisure Studies and Social Science. Australian Leisure 4e provides an introduction to and analysis of a broadly defined concept of leisure. It integrates Australian and international knowledge so that the book is an Australian interpretation, based largely on local sources, but which engages with relevant international research and theory. This edition has been extensively reviewed and updated and includes new chapters on social networks, global cultures and events. Leisure is not just sport, or the arts, or outdoor recreation, it is all these things and more, including tourism, gambling, hobbies, television watching, entertainment, play and doing nothing in particular. The purpose of the text is to illuminate leisure and its place in past, present and future Australian society. The text is designed to lead students into the subject and provide pointers to more detailed study, through discussion questions and guides to further reading.
While the notion of social harm has long interested critical criminologists it is now being explored as an alternative field of study, which provides more accurate analyses of the vicissitudes of life. However, important aspects of this notion remain undeveloped, in particular the definition of social harm, the question of responsibility and the methodologies for studying harm. This book, the first to theorise and define the social harm concept beyond criminology, seeks to address these omissions and questions why some capitalist societies appear to be more harmful than others. In doing so it provides a platform for future debates, in this series and beyond. It will be a valuable resource for academics and researchers across criminology, sociology, social policy, socio-legal studies and geography.
The coast represents the crossroads between the oceans, land and atmosphere; this book offers an introduction to the processes and management of this global environment. Each chapter is seminal and succinct, illustrated and furnished with topical case studies from around the world.
Political leaders and the popular press tell us that society is in the grip of a moral crisis. ‘Where have our values gone?’ our newspapers scream at us. ‘Benefit scroungers’, ‘greedy bankers’, ‘intrusive journalists’, ‘have-a-go rioters’, political scandals and criminals of all shapes and sizes are continually cited as evidence that we live in a modern-day Gomorrah. Criminologists have studied this in several ways, including: media representations of crime, mass incarceration, hooliganism and the exercise of power and control through communities. What criminologists have not studied is the place of morality in shaping public debate about understanding crime and how this then shapes crime control strategies. Rather than dismiss statements about community breakdown, ‘broken society’ and irresponsibility as ideological, self-justificatory rhetoric, what happens when we take these claims seriously? What do they tell us about the causes of crime? How do they shape the crime control agenda? How else might we begin to understand and explain the relationship between crime and society? Navigating between criminological concerns about control and governance and social theories about culture and identity, this book explores what is meant by crime, community and morality and puts this meaning to the test. Discussion of a new theory of rule-breaking, combined with an analysis of how our justice system is becoming maladapted, makes this essential reading for criminologists around the globe, as well as those general readers interested in the causes of crime.
Coastal Systems offers a concise introduction to the processes, landforms, ecosystems and management of this important global environment. Each chapter is illustrated and furnished with topical case studies from around the world. Introductory chapters establish the importance of coasts, and explain how they are studied within a systems framework; subsequent chapters explore the role of waves, tides, rivers and sea-level change in coastal evolution. Students will benefit from summary points, themed boxes, engaging discussion questions and graded annotated guides to further reading at the end of each chapter. Additionally, a comprehensive glossary of technical terms, a new list of associated videos made by the author, and an extensive bibliography are provided. The comprehensive balance of illustrations and academic thought provides a well balanced view between the role of coastal catastrophes and gradual processes, also examining the impact humans and society have and continue to have on the coastal environment.
This book provides a short, comprehensive and accessible introduction to Ultra-Realism: a unique and radical school of criminological thought that has been developed by the authors over a number of years. After first outlining existing schools of thought, their major intellectual flaws and their underlying politics in a condensed guide that will be invaluable to all undergraduate and postgraduate students, Hall and Winlow introduce a number of important new concepts to criminology and suggest a new philosophical foundation, theoretical framework and research programme. These developments will enhance the discipline’s ability to explain human motivations, construct insightful representations of reality and answer the fundamental question of why some human beings risk inflicting harm on others to further their own interests or achieve various ends. Combining new philosophical and psychosocial approaches with a clear understanding of the shape of contemporary global crime, this book presents an intellectual alternative to the currently dominant paradigms of conservatism, neoclassicism and left-liberalism. In using an advanced conception of "harm", Hall and Winlow provide original explanations of criminal motivations and make the first steps towards a paradigm shift that will help criminology to illuminate the reality of our times. This book is essential reading for academics and students engaged in the study of criminology, sociology, criminological theory, social theory, the philosophy of social sciences and the history of crime.
The shock Brexit result highlighted a worrying trend: underemployed white men and women who have seen their standard of living fall, their communities disintegrate and their sense of value, function and inclusion diminish, desperately want a mainstream political party to defend their interests. However, no such party exists. These men and women cannot connect their declining fortunes and growing frustrations to their true cause. Instead, immigrants are scapegoated and groups like the English Defence League (EDL) emerge. This book is the first to offer an accessible and uncompromising look at the EDL. It aims to alter thinking about working-class politics and the rise of right-wing nationalism in the de-industrialised and decaying towns and cities of England. The rise of the right among the working class, the authors claim, is inextricably connected to the withdrawal of the political left from traditional working-class communities, and the left’s refusal to advance the economic interests of those who have suffered most from neoliberal economic restructuring. Incisive, contentious and boundary-breaking, it uses the voices of men and women who now support far-right political groups to address the total failure of mainstream parliamentary politics and the rising tide of frustration, resentment and anger.
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.