Uncovering the Crimes of Urbanisation

Researching Corruption, Violence and Urban Conflict
1. Auflage 2021
ISBN: 978-0-367-48196-4
Verlag: Routledge

Buch, Englisch, 270 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 418 g

Reihe: Crimes of the Powerful

From the social cleansing of cities through to indigenous land struggles at the frontline of extraction megaprojects, planetary urbanisation is a contested process that is radically shaping social life and the sustainability of human civilisation. In this pioneering intervention, it is maintained that this turbulent planetary process is also a potent space for state–corporate criminality. Market manipulation, fraud, corruption, violence and human rights abuses have become critical spokes in the way space is being transformed to benefit speculative interests. This book not only offers investigative data that documents in detail the intricate ways state and corporate actors collude to profit from the built environment; it also establishes the tools for building a research agenda that can interrogate the crimes of urbanisation on a comparative, longitudinal basis.

The author sets out an investigative methodology which can be appropriated to conduct probing research into the hidden schemas and forms of collusion that buttress state–corporate criminality in the urban sphere. Coupled to this, a theoretical framework is developed for thinking about the networks, processes and mechanisms at the heart of property market manipulation, and the broader social relationships that sustain and reward illicit speculative activity. This book concludes that researchers and civil society have a critical role to play in challenging a historical form of planetary urbanisation, marked by endemic state–corporate criminality, that poses significant threats to the sustainability of lived communities and the rich biospheres that they depend upon.

This book will be of interest to criminologists, sociologists, human geographers, political scientists and those engaged with development studies, as well as civil society organisations and urban researchers.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Lasslett, Kristian

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Kriminalsoziologie
• Rechtswissenschaften Strafrecht Kriminologie, Strafverfolgung

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction: The darkness of neon lights: Introducing the crimes of urbanisation, 1. Key concepts, empirical backdrop and research design, 2. Fictitious capital, class monopoly rents and urban governance: Theorising criminogenic opportunity structures and incentive schemas, 3. The crimes of the powerful and urbanisation: An investigative framework, 4. Uncovering the data trail: Accessing, handling and triangulating sources, 5. The crimes of urbanisation and megaprojects: Investigating a ‘tourism city’, 6. A land-grab in the world’s ‘tuna capital’, 7. State-corporate wrongdoing in land and property markets: Forging an analytical framework, 8. Crimes of urbanisation research and social resistance: Conclusions and the task ahead

Über Autor(innen)

Kristian Lasslett is Professor of Criminology at the University of Ulster, and sits on the Executive Board of the International State Crime Initiative. He is joint Editor-in-Chief of State Crime, a leading international peer reviewed journal, and Editor of The State Testimony Project, the first online casebook for state crime studies.