News Archive
2022
The CGC recently hosted a research seminar titled "The Hall of Mirrors: Spying, Surveillance and the Ethnographic Method", convened by Trine Korsby and Matthew Carey.
The seminar gathered speakers from universities in Denmark, Sweden and the UK, in discussions and presentations on ethnography and its relation to surveillance and spying. The presentations introduced a variety of geographic foci including Turkey, Morocco, Romania, Portugal and China. The seminar was attended by an engaged audience throughout the day, comprised of colleagues and students from different departments and institutions, contributing to the multiple perspectives on the topic.
CGC researcher, Henrik Vigh, has published an article on Irregular Mining and E-Waste Dumping based on the new research project Illegal Ecologies (ILLECO) at the CGC.
CGC researcher, Trine Mygind Korsby, has been awarded a Marie Curie Grant from the EU’s Horizon Europe Program.
The research project will be based at the Centre for Global Criminology, Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen and City University of New York. The project is about the people who are classified as human traffickers and their kinship and social relations, as well as their lives both during and after imprisonment. The project will be based on ethnographic fieldwork in Romania and in Portuguese prisons, where Korsby has obtained permission to interview people incarcerated for human trafficking.
Read more about Trine Mygind Korsby’s research project and the EU’s Marie Curie Program here.
CGC researcher, Pablo Selaya, has presented a paper a the Latin American Economists Associations Annual Meeting in Lima, Peru.
The paper describes the expansion of free trade and its connections with the geography of violence in Mexico. The paper was developed as part of theCGC-project, CRIMTANG, and has been among the most downloaded recent papers within its field, public Economics. The paper can be accessed here, and the Annual Meeting here.
CGC researcher, Trine Mygind Korsby, has co-organized a panel at this year's American Anthropological Association meeting.
The conference takes places in Seattle, USA, on November 9-13, 2022. The panel is entitled "Doing (in)formal business: exchanges between business anthropology and anthropological criminology", and investigates the overlaps and differences between business practices in formal and informal business spheres. CGC researcher and Head of Centre, Henrik Vigh, will also present his research at the panel. Here you can read more about this year's AAA meeting and access the programme: https://annualmeeting.americananthro.org/
The Centre for Global Criminology is hosting a seminar on "Spying, surveillance and the ethnographic method".
The seminar is open to a limited audience, but if you're interested, please sign up by emailing Asbjørn at asbjorngm@anthro.ku.dk.
For more information and programme, visit the event site here.
CGC welcomes (back) new full-time research assistant Kristiane Fogh.
Not a new face at the CGC, Fogh worked as a student assistant while studying anthropology at the University of Copenhagen. Now finished with her MA, Fogh begins a new period at the centre.
CGC researcher, Trine Mygind Korsby, will be a guest lecturer at a PhD course at the IT University of Copenhagen, about ethnography and experiments in collaboration.
Her lecture is based on her book chapter in the anthology “Experimenting with Ethnography” (Duke 2021), about methods for collaborative thinking in the university. Read more about the PhD course here. The anthology and Korsby's chapter in “Experimenting with Ethnography” is open-access and available here.
CGC researcher, Alessandro Moretti, appeared as expert on BBC's The One Show, contributing with his research on ticket touting in the UK.
As part of The One Show's "Watchdog" section, Moretti shared his views on Twitter and the online availability of illegitimate tickets for football games and similar events. The interview coincides with Moretti's recent publication of a book on the subject. Follow this link to see the clip and read more about his new book "The rise and rise of illegal ticket touting".
CGC researcher, Nikolas Emmanuel, has recently co-authored an article on incentives given by national and supranational actors to certain countries in order to regulate migration into Europe.
The article, "Migration Cooperation Between Africa and Europe: Understanding the Role of Incentives", specifically tackles the incentives directed towards Morocco by the Spanish state and the European Union in curbing the flow of illegal immigrants across european borders. With co-author Abu Bakarr Bah, Emmanuel analyzes the phenomenon at the intersection of security issues and pragmatic collaboration. The article can be accessed here.
CGC researcher, Christina Jerne, has published an article on engaging methodologically with limits encountered in social research, particularly ethnographic criminology.
In the piece, “Activating limit as method. An affective experiment in ethnographic criminology”, Jerne has developed a methodological approach inspired by her ethnographic research with Danish gangs. The method takes its starting point in the limits that are encountered in research processes, and argues that activating such occurrences as tools, rather than treating them as inherent premises or side-effects of research processes, affords more ethical research practices. The method is particularly relevant for criminological work, but is also broadly applicable to any kind of research. The chapter is published in an anthology dedicated to the study of affective experimentation and methodology. The article and anthology can be accessed here.
CGC researcher, Alessandro Moretti, has published a journal article presenting an analytical tool to be used by policing actors within the field of online sex trafficking.
The analytical tool presented in the article, which was co-authored with Xavier L’Hoiry and Georgios Antonopoulos, will help law enforcement agencies to discriminate between profiles on Adult Services Websites (ASW’s), where some profiles are run by independent sex workers, while others have been created by traffickers. The tool (STIM - Secual Trafficking Identification Matrix) is hoped to aid investigators in increasing efficiency by prioritizing resources. The article, “Policing Sex Trafficking in the ‘Virtual Red-Light District’: A Research Note”, can be accessed here.
CGC Professor, Nikolas G. Emmanuel, has co-authored a journal article titled "Migration Cooperation between Africa and Europe: Understanding the Role of International Incentives".
The article, which has been co-authored along with Professor Abu Bah of Northern Illinois University, will be part of the forthcoming Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies.
CGC researcher, Anja Simonsen, has co-arranged a seminar on migrant smuggling, within a context of border externalization, at the University of Oxford this coming monday.
The seminar, titled “The Criminalisation of Solidarity: A Trialogue Examining Smuggling, Law, and Humanitarianism” takes place the 23rd of May, 2022, from 09:30 to 17:00. Bringing together academics, migrants and humanitarian actors, the seminar will focus on migrant smuggling from diverse perspectives and networks to reach for a more holistic understanding of the issue.
Head of Centre for Global Criminology, Henrik Vigh, and post doc at University of Copenhagen, Line Richter, has published the article "Tangier Heat: On Migrant Vulnerability and Social Thermology"
The article investigates a particular moment of political tension and intimidation of sub-Saharan migrants in Northern Morocco. It draws on insights gained from collective fieldwork in Tangier, as well as from individual, longstanding ethnographic engagements with migrants from Guinea-Bissau and Mali, and describes the way West African migrants are policed, used as political capital and made the unwilling pawns of large-scale geopolitical negotiations. The article can be accessed here.
The Centre for Global Criminology presents a talk by Professor Ghassan Hage from the University of Melbourne: "From biopolitics to the politics of well-being: viability inside and outside the law"
The talk will cover the societal reintegration of life into a broader idea of well-being, rather than the biopolitical construct of life as biology. Hage's talk explores how campartementalised and holistic life relates to being inside or outside the law. Professor Hage visits the CGC under the CRIMTANG project, though he is also on the advisory board of the new ILLECO project.
CGC researcher, Atreyee Sen, has contributed to an ethnographic anthology on risk with a commentary titled "Clear and Present Danger - Dodging and Dealing with Risk and Uncertainty in Everyday Life"
Within the anthology, "Extraordinary risks, ordinary lives", the commentary portrays how former Tibetan political prisoners in Dharamsala experience the social consequences of acknowledging extraordinary risk through narratives of bitterness. The commentary, which more broadly deals with ways of endorsing ones own experiences of political struggle through material cultures, can be accessed here.
The Centre for Global Criminology has received a Marie Sklodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellowship for Dr. Martin Lundsteen under the title "URborder"
The European Commission of the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions will support a total of 1156 experienced post-doctoral researchers.
2021
Head of CGC, Henrik Vigh, has contributed with a chapter in a new book titled "Translations of Security: A framework or the study of unwanted futures".
The chapter, titled "Security and the Anthropology of Potentiality", critiques common conceptions of radicalisation and securitisation.
CGC researcher, Anja Simonsen, is currently a visiting academic at COMPAS (Centre on Migration, Policy and Society), University of Oxford.
The stay, which stretches from the 21st of November to the 21st of May, will contribute towards Simonsen’s current project “The Criminalization of Humanitarianism: From Volunteers to Human Smugglers in Italy”. As a multi-disciplinary research centre, based at the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, COMPAS has a reputation for engaging with a broad range of academic and non-academic actors, with the centre’s research being both original and relevant to policy makers. The stay thus offers ample opportunity for further development and dissemination of Simonsen’s current work.
CGC researcher Trine Mygind Korsby has contributed with the book chapter 'Object Exchange', in the book 'Experimenting with Ethnography: A Companion to Analysis', as part of the book series ’Anthropological Futures', edited by Andrea Ballestero and Brit Ross Winthereik.
In the chapter, Trine Mygind Korsby and her co-author, Anthony Stavrianakis, describe a collaborative experiment of object exchange. The object exchange consisted of giving up and giving over, problematic objects from field inquiry – a field inquiry about the political and affective economy and relations between Romanian pimps and sex workers, and a field inquiry into assisted suicide in Switzerland. The book chapter describes what the collaborative practice of exchanging these objects consisted in. The protocol of object exchange is not a method, but rather a simple form (exchange) and a mode (holding) for a practice of thinking.
Download the chapter in pdf: https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/book/2902/chapter/2860837/Object-Exchange
The book is published by Duke University Press. The book is open access and available at: https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/book/2902/Experimenting-with-EthnographyA-Companion-to
CGC researcher, Trine Mygind Korsby, has been invited by the Nordic Council of Ministers to participate in an expert seminar on ‘Nordic Best Practices against Trafficking in Human Beings’
The seminar will take place in Helsinki on November 18th, 2021 and is curated by the Finnish Ministry of Justice, Ministry of the Interior and Ministry for Foreign Affairs, as well as the Government Anti-Trafficking Coordinator as a part of the Finnish Presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers.
The seminar brings together around 80 experts from Nordic countries working against trafficking in human beings to share their expertise and knowledge on practical anti-trafficking work. The aim is to exchange best practices and learn from each other as well as discuss how Nordic anti-trafficking cooperation could be enhanced. The focus is on practical work, implemented best practices and sharing of ideas, information and contacts for further development of ways of working.
Website of the seminar: https://oikeusministerio.fi/en/nordic-seminar-on-anti-trafficking-action
New Research Project on Environmental Crime
The Centre for Global Criminology has received a research grant from DFF (Independent Research Fund Denmark) for the new project Environmental Crime and Illegal Ecologies (ILLECO). The project is led by head of centre, Henrik Vigh, and will investigate the journey of irregularly mined minerals from Ghana, into technological consumer products, and back into Ghana again in the form of illicitly imported E-waste.
Environmental crime is a devastating and rapidly expanding sector of transnational, organized crime. ILLECO is aimed at describing and theorizing the social, political and legal dynamics which underpins this form of environmental harm. The project will take an interdisciplinary approach within the social sciences and law, and engages researchers in Denmark as well as local scholars in Ghana.
CGC seminar in Marseille, France
On September 24-25, 2021, the Center for Global Criminology successfully arranged an international seminar in Marseille, France, with both local and international scholars. The debates and talks were centered on the themes of spying, surveillance and ethnographic methods, which led to many rewarding discussions and novel insights on fieldwork in challenging circumstances.
CGC researcher, Anja Simonsen, recently arranged a workshop with Luca Ciabarri titled "Solidarities on the move: The social worlds of African migrants from Libya towards Europe and their struggles for inclusion".
The workshop took place on Thursday May 20th and was held online. In addition to arranging the workshop, Simonsen contributed with the paper "Solidarity in the making: Social media, torture and the search for ransom 'en route" in collaboration with Mohammed Suleiman.
CGC researcher, Atreyee Sen, contributes to the edited volume "Bombay Brokers" with a peculiar story on navigating a life in and out of prison in Bombay.
The book chapter, "Pawan: Prison Master", tells the story of Pawan whose ability to endure the tough life of imprisonment in Bombay ends up becoming the basis of a small business. The volume, edited by Lisa Björkman, is a collection of short chapters telling the stories of how regular and spectacular people negotiate their way through life in Bombay. Sen's contribution is a gripping example of how the failed bureaucracy of a punitive system becomes the basis of an informal business. Access the entire volume here.
Head of CGC, Henrik Vigh, publishes article that looks into the rise and fall of political legitimacy in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau.
The article "Bandits' fall from grace: Liberation heroes and alter-politics in Bissau" builds on long-term fieldwork with impoverished city dwellers. It looks at the legitimacy and sociality surrounding political figures and movements in the country, commencing with the liberation movement (the PAIGC) and ending in the current situation of large-scale drug-trafficking. In brief, it argues that the liberation hero’s status moved from that of a social to an anti-social and eventually asocial bandit. Read the article here.
Head of CGC Henrik Vigh and Ph.d. student Petya Mitkova Koleva co-authors article on the extraterritorial criminal court case against Anwar R, a high-ranking member of the Syrian regime on trial for crimes against humanity in Koblenz, Germany.
The article named "Critical stasis and disruptive performances: ICJ and the Anwar R trial in Koblenz" is empirically anchored in ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Koblenz and with the Commission for International Justice and Accountability. The article illuminates the trial as a ‘disruptive performance’, and argues that the case against Anwar R punctuates two instances of negative stasis and unsettles two accounts of chronicity, namely, those of the Syrian conflict and of the field of international criminal justice. Access the article here.
Alessandro Moretti, postdoc at CGC, co-authored article on the illegal use of Adult Services Websites (ASW's), by human traffickers seeking to enter the legal sex market with forced sex workers.
The article, "Identifying sex trafficking in Adult Services Websites: An exploratory study with a British police force" was co-authored by Xavier L'Hoiry (University of Sheffield) and Geogios Antonopoulos (Teeside University), along with Moretti. The authors developed a tool for identifying 'risk indicators' in sex workers profiles on ASW's, online platforms where sex workers advertise their services. The purpose of the tool is to enable the police to distinguish more clearly between profiles of legitimate sex workers, and those being forced into the industry by human traffickers, flagging profiles for potential police investigation. More broadly, the article sheds light on an example of how developments in information technology has enabled human traffickers to enter legalized markets, thus creating new opportunities for human exploitation and illegal profiteering. Read the article here.
CGC researcher, David Sausdal, publishes article on the discrepancy between the martial arts language used by transnational police in their self-representation and the less dramatic reality of their actual work.
The article, "A fighting fetish: on transnational police and their warlike presentation of self", was published in the journal Theoretical Criminology. In the article, Sausdal expands upon the existing literature explaining this form of self-representation, his contribution revolving around the idea of a "fighting fetichism" held by individuals within transnational policing. In brief, a "fighting fetichism" amounts to the belief that for policing to be effective it must be done combatively. Read the newly published article here.
CGC researcher, Anja Simonsen, contributes to the seminar series "Trust and Trust Making in Africa's Global Connections" arranged by the African Studies Centre at the University of Leiden.
Simonsen's presentation "Trust and Trust Making in Migration Management: Technology and Evidence" was held on April 28th at the first leg of the lecture series focusing on African migration.
CGC researcher, Atreyee Sen, has co-authored an article with Rubina Jasani (University of Manchester) titled "Urban Hopes, Sexual Horrors: Communal Riots and the Narratives of Violent and Victimized Women in India"
The article shines light on women’s experiences as victims or perpetrators of urban violence in India. The authors suggest that poor women on both sides of exclusionary propaganda and nationalistic discourses experience the actual violent eruption of hostilities as personal suffering and collective loss. The article can be accessed here.
CGC researcher, Christina Jerne, co-authored an article with Nando Dalla Chiesa on the late nineteenth century investigation Political and administrative conditions of Sicily
The investigation was one of the first written political studies of the Italian mafia, carried out by Leopoldo Franchetti and Sidney Sonnino. While the study is formally a political report, it presents all the qualities of a rich ethnography of power. Among other things, it provides early sociological evidence of the contradictions that follow the imposition of liberal democratic orders, such as the institutionalization of the violent social orders that precede, and in this case bleed into, the State. The article is published in the interdisciplinary journal Etica Pubblica.
CGC researcher, Atreyee Sen, publishes article on the impact of Covid-19 on vulnerable migrant women in India
Sen has contributed to the journal L'Homme. European Review of Feminist History with a comment piece titled "Pandemic Rape: The Corona Crisis, Informal Gendered Support and Vulnerable Migrant Women in India". The comment piece shines a light on the effects of the pandemic on vulnerable migrant women in India, connecting the pandemic and a rise in marital rapes and domestic violence. Sen points towards the slow process of implementing pro-women policies during the pandemic. Access the piece here.
2020
CGC researcher, Camilla Ida Ravnbøl, contributes to an international magazine on homelessness
Ravnbøl has contributed to the winter edition of the magazine Homeless in Europe by FEANTSA - European Federation of National Organizations Working with the Homeless. The winter edition has been especially dedicated to the experiences of Roma individuals in the EU who experience or are at risk of homelessness. Ravnbøl's article "When Patchworks Dissolve - Perspectives on Destitute Roma Families' Economic Livelihoods" engages with the experiences of homelessness of Roma in Copenhagen, and the precariousness of their way of income. Read her contribution and the rest of the winter edition here.
CGC researcher Atreyee Sen publishes new article in journal
Atreyee Sen has collaborated with Malini Sur (Western Sydney University) on the article "Prahlad and Shanta: The City's Madness", which has been published in the journal Contemporary South Asia 28(4). Read more about the article here.
CGC researcher, Line Richter, participated in UNODC expert meeting
On December 3rd, Richter participated in the UNODC expert group meeting on the “Gender Dimensions of Aggravated Migrant Smuggling”.
Postdoc at CGC, Line Richter, publishes a chapter in a book on African migration towards Europe
Richter contributes to the book with her chapter titled: “Paths to Paris. Hodological space and invisibility among Malian migrants without papers”. The book discusses new perspectives on migration governance and its effects on different groups of people on the move in the context of a highly politicised and publicised topic - African migration towards Europe. Read more about the book here.
CGC researcher, David Sausdal contributes to an online edited volume with focus on policing and labor
“When pleasurable aspects of police work are stripped away, research with Danish detectives shows that they are deprived of the opportunity to relate to suspects in more than criminal terms.” In the essay Sausdal suggests that current theories could do with a better grounding in the particularities of police officers’ workaday lives. The essay has been published by the Anthropological Society for Work, and you can read it here.
CGC researcher Atreyee Sen publishes new article in journal
The article: Pandemic Rape: The Corona Crisis, Informal Gendered Support and Vulnerable Migrant Women in India by Sen was recently published in the journal ‘L’Homme. Europäische Zeitschrift für Feministische Geschichtswissenschaft’. Read more about the article here.
Anja Simonsen presents paper at conference
At the conference ‘Borders, Subjectivity and Iconoclasm’ on the 22nd-23rd of October CGC researcher Anja Simonsen presented a paper titled Biometric ambiguities: Registration for better and for worse.
Book on capacity building for maritime security published
How can countries step up their maritime security? How can they better tackle challenges, such as illegal fishing, marine piracy or smuggling? How can the international community better assist countries with weaker capacities? A major new book authored by the SafeSeas team addresses these and related questions. The book draws on an 18 months research project that has collated the experience in the Western Indian Ocean. The book provides an overview of the challenges linked to maritime security capacity building. It offers a framework for evaluating and studying gaps, needs and progress in developing maritime security responses. Seven countries are studied in detail: Israel, Pakistan, South Africa, Kenya, Seychelles, Djibouti, and Somalia. The book complements the best practice toolkit for maritime security capacity building published earlier. It is a must read for anyone interested in maritime security, how to best organize responses, and how to deliver capacity building. It is a major new source for those engaged in improving maritime security, ocean governance, but also provides new analytical thinking for the scholarly debate. The book is available via the Publisher’s website.
Christina Jerne gave a lecture on Gangs and Spirituality at a specialization course for Danish Prison Priests.
In the context of a course on “Pastoral identity in a multicultural context” organized the Church of Denmark’s educational programme, Jerne was invited to give a lecture entitled “Faith, sacrifice and solidarity in Danish minority gangs”. Among other things the lecture addressed the relationship between marginality and religion, hope and sacrifice, and the role that priests and spiritual practices might play in mitigating violence.
Christina Jerne commented on the differences between Swedish and Danish efforts to curb gang related crime in Die Welt.
Jerne highlighted that Sweden is having a harder time curbing gang violence than Denmark due to a more widespread political correctness that avoids addressing issues of ethnicity and race, which are central to contemporary Scandinavian gang violence. While the Swedish public debate seems to admire the harshening of punitive measures in Denmark, Jerne highlights that this strategy of deterrence has had little or no effect. The most successful efforts, Jerne notes, have instead come from preventive initiatives that have worked transversally to facilitate dialogue and build relationships between different stakeholders that live in disadvantaged neighborhoods (housing unions, NGOs, Muslim communities, schools, firemen and the police).
CGC researchers publish chapters in new book
Associate Professor Atreyee Sen (KU) in collaboration with Johan Lindquist (Stockholm University) and Marie Kolling (DIIS) have co-edited a volume titled: Who's Cashing in? Contemporary Perspectives on New Monies and Global Cashlessness, Berghahn Books, book series Critical Interventions: A Forum for Social Analysis.
In the volume, postdoc Camilla Ida Ravnbøl and associate Professor Atreyee Sen (researchers at CGC) each contribute with a chapter titled respectively: ‘Exclusively Simple: The Impact of Cashless Initiatives on Homeless Roma in Denmark’ and ‘Borrowing from the Poor: Informal Labour, Shifting Debt Relations and the Demonetisation Crisis in urban India’. The book is Open Access and can be read and downloaded here.
Christian Bueger, researcher at CGC, participates in podcast on blue crime
In a recent episode of the podcast SeaControl of the Center for International Maritime Security (CIMSEC), Bueger discusses the basic ideas of his recent paper on blue crime. Co-authored with Tim Edmunds, the paper published in Marine Policy develops a new matrix of transnational organised sea. In the podcast Bueger discusses why such a move is important to get better at understanding hidden crimes and the interlinkages between them. Listen to the podcast here.
Christina Jerne, postdoc at CGC, comments on the recent gang conflict in the Danish newspaper Berlingske
“The mediation attempt in relation to the problems in Korsør is unusual, explains postdoc Christina Jerne, who researches gang conflicts at the University of Copenhagen.” Read the rest of Jerne’s comment and the article here.
Researchers at CGC, Jakob Demant and David Sausdal, have become part of the relaunched open access journal: 'Journal of qualitative criminology and criminal justice’s' editorial board
The journal's mission is to publish high quality research that consists of original qualitative research, articles that deal with qualitative research methodologies, and book reviews relevant to both qualitative research and methodologies. Read more about the journal here.
David Sausdal, postdoc at CGC, comments on the new government proposal for increased proximity to the police on several media platforms
"Proximity and security 'sounds' right. There is a demand among the citizens that they would like to be able to see and meet their officer, and it is good that a government in this way listens to its people", says Sausdal. "But it is also important to do something that actually works, and there is limited evidence that this kind of closeness to police work actually creates less crime." You can find the links to the articles and broadcasts here.
CGC researcher, Line Richter, publishes feature article in the Danish newspaper Information
In Algeria, the rights of migrants are under tremendous pressure. They live in fear of forced deportations and violence. There is a great need for effective international pressure on Algeria to give migrants basic rights. The feature article by Richter is titled: Ali har levet som papirløs migrant i ti år. Han frygter mest at blive efterladt i Sahara, it is in Danish and can be read here.
Study anthropology of law in the spring with CGC researcher Camilla Ida Ravnbøl
”Law is everywhere and so are legal anthropologists” concluded the American anthropologist Sally Engle Merry in 2017 - thereby opening up new questions concerning the various forms that law takes in contemporary society and the ways in which anthropologists today can study the social life of law. Such questions will be explored during this course, which provides undergraduate and graduate students an introduction into anthropology of law. Read more at: https://kurser.ku.dk/course/aana18122u/2020-2021
CGC researcher, Nikolas Emmanuel, will publish article in journal organized by Cornell University’s Eunuadi Center
Over the past several years, issues surrounding migration (irregular or not) and refugees has caught widespread attention. However, beyond the rhetoric and media hype, a question remains. What type of policies are being used to manage the flow of migrants and refugees along some of the busiest routes between Africa and Europe? The article titled: ”Incentivizing the Management of Migration Flows between Africa and Europe: The Case of the Western Mediterranean Corridor” will seek to answer this question. Emmanuel will furthermore be giving a talk on the article’s subject at the OECD headquarters in Paris this December.
Researcher at CGC, Christian Bueger, comments on the recent disaster in the port of Beirut
In the afternoon of August 4th, a major explosion in the port of Beirut killed over 100 people and left thousands wounded. Given the importance of the port for Lebanon’s economy, the consequences will be felt for years. Read the rest of Bueger's commentary here.
Sausdal, postdoc at CGC, publishes article in the scientific journal Policing and Society
Using an ethnographic study of the Danish Police, the paper stresses the often-unnoticed advantage of paying better analytical attention to the many ordinary and even banal aspects of police work. You can read the article by Sausdal here.
David Sausdal, researcher at CGC, contributes to article in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten
David Sausdal, postdoc at the Center for Global Criminology, University of Copenhagen, believes that the police have a potentially increasing problem of legitimacy in relation to ethnic minorities. You can read the article here.
CGC researcher Christian Bueger publishes article and chapter in book on blue crime
Bueger recently published respectively the article Blue Crime: Conceptualising transnational organized crime at sea and the chapter What are the peace and security challenges of the maritime, both discussing issues and different manifestations of blue crime and the responses to it. You can find the articles by Bueger here. For more information on the subject, please follow the links below:
Covid and Maritime Security in the Gulf of Guinea: http://bueger.info/covid-and-maritime-security-in-the-gulf-of-guinea/
Do we have the right data for fighting piracy?: http://bueger.info/do-we-have-the-right-data-for-fighting-piracy/
AMARIS project holds kickoff event: http://www.safeseas.net/amaris-project-holds-kick-off-event/
CGC researcher David Sausdal publishes article in the Danish newspaper Politiken
Recently Sausdal published the article: Man er en dårlig betjent, hvis man er voldsparat. Men også, hvis man ikke tør tage hårdt fat, arguing for a more nuanced debate around the issues of physical police work and the monopoly on violence. Instead of simplifying the debate to questions of right and wrong, we should instead try to situate ourselves in the position of the police. You can read the article in Politiken.
Summary podcast of 'The Modern Adventurerers': A summary of the interviews with Henrik Vigh and Trine Mygind Korsby by Radio4.
Head of center Henrik Vigh and post.doc Trine Mygind Korsby have this past week been interviewed by Radio4 to tell about their fieldworks in respectively Northern Ireland and Romania. The broadcasts were a part of the podcast series ‘Close to’, which in week 22 focused on four anthropologist’s fieldwork outside Denmark with the title ‘The modern adventurers’. The last episode is a summary of the four separate podcasts. Listen to the summary podcast on Radio 4’s website.
Radio 4: "Peace without Peace". Interview with head of center Henrik Vigh.
29.05.20. Henrik Vigh, head of center at CGC, tells about his fieldwork in Belfast, where he since the 1990ies has done fieldwork several times with members of the protestant terror organization Ulster Volunteer Force. Why could they not just let go of their weapons and enjoy the peace, the journalist asks. The broadcast is a part of the podcast series ‘Close to’, which in week 22 focused on four anthropologist’s fieldwork outside Denmark with the title ‘The modern adventurers’. Listen to the podcast on Radio 4’s website.
Radio 4: "A moral pimp". Interview with CGC researcher Trine Mygind Korsby.
29.05.20. Trine Mygind Korsby, post.doc at CGC, takes the listener on a trip to Romania, where she for a year did fieldwork amongst the young men, who assist Romanian women to Western Europe to work as sex workers. The broadcast is a part of the podcast series ‘Close to’, which in week 22 focused on four anthropologist’s fieldwork outside Denmark with the title ‘The modern adventurers’. Listen to the podcast on Radio 4’s website.
Women's Avoidance Tactics (WAT) - New research project at CGC
Despite their universal prominence, everyday female practices to avoid sexual offences are only scarcely researched. This research project aims to illuminate the scope and complexity of such tactics. In so doing, it quenches an unfortunate dry spot in Nordic and international victimology. The fact that women’s avoidance tactics constitute a relatively mundane and unnoticed part of everyday life in Scandinavia – to the point where they have largely evaded our academic scrutiny – indicates the extent to which such gendered vulnerabilities have become naturalized and embedded in social and political life. It is therefore a phenomenon in dire need of being disclosed and discussed; not only to develop a deeper understanding of the social life of gendered aspects of victimization, but to foster public debate and, indeed, change. The researchers on the project are Henrik Vigh and David Sausdal.
Researcher David Sausdal reflects on the rise of cross border criminality in the context of Denmark's non-membership of Europol
In a recently published article by DR researcher David Sausdal reflects on the rise of cross-border criminality in the context of Denmark's non-membership of Europol. Sausdal states: "As a non-member of Europol and without access to the search tool Quest, we are in an unfortunate situation" - as a comment to the discussion whether to renegotiate the Europol deal or not. The article on the rise of cross border criminality is in danish and can be read here.
Researcher Henrik Vigh gave keynote lecture at symposium
At the conference Vigh gave a keynote lecture titled Setting the Scene: Crisis and Chronicity. The symposium: Critical Explorations of Crisis was held by PUFENDORF IAS in Lund, Sweden. See the program about the keynote lecture here.
CGC researcher David Sausdal comments on the danish border control in Kristeligt Dagblad
In the article Omstridt grænsekontrol kan styrke sikkerheden by the danish newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad Sausdal comments on the immediate and symbolic effects of the border control the danish government introduced at the border to Germany in 2016. Read the article on Danish border control here.
Researcher Pablo Selaya presented research on violence against women in Tanzania at a conference in Egypt
Selaya presented his research on violence against women in Tanzania at a conference on experimental evidence in Africa and the Mediterranean, organized in Egypt by Cairo University, Technical University of Berlin, and Hamburg University. At the conference he presented results from a randomized control trial conducted in Tanzania, to test the effectiveness of documentary films used as a policy intervention to increase awareness and reduce violence against women. Overall, the results show positive effects of the documentary among men, but partially negative results among women, in terms of their individual attitudes and justification of violence against women. See the conference program here.
Researcher David Sausdal makes a statement on police surveillance in the danish newspaper Politiken
Sausdal comments on face recognition techniques in the current debate on police surveillance. Read the article on police surveillance here.
Centre for Global Criminology in Spain
Two master students at the University of Copenhagen and research assistants at Centre for Global Criminology are currently studying the political situation and dispute in Spain and the subsequent developments following the October 14th verdict of the Catalan leadership.
The CRIMTANG project hosts seminar on social harm and suffering in Barcelona
Last week (week 39, 2019) the CRIMTANG project hosted a seminar on zemiology focusing in social harm and suffering south of Barcelona, where the research group currently is conducting fieldwork. At the seminar participants from criminology, anthropology, economy and political science and from across the world came together to present new ideas and ongoing research projects related to the issues of Social Harm and Suffering within the social sciences. The seminar offered the participants new insights into other fields of study and the opportunity to discuss the presented ideas and projects.
Centre of Global Criminology researcher, Nikolas G. Emmanuel, recently published and presented paper: “Uses and Abuses of Migration Data on Africa” on migration dynamics between Africa and Europe at the Africa’s Grand Challenges conference, sponsored by SAIPIR and Cornell University’s IAD on August 5-7, 2019 (Livingstone, Zambia)
Centre for Global Criminology researcher David Sausdal recently published an article in the Danish newspaper Belingske
As part of an ongoing collaboration, SafeSeas and Centre for Global Criminology co-hosted an ideaslab titled: "Insecurity, Crime and Cooperation at Sea: New Perspectives on Maritime Security."
CGC researcher Christina Jerne has presented a paper entitled "No logo, no gang: state marketing and radical governance" at the Cultural Studies Association (CSA) Conference.
CGC researcher Nikolas G. Emmanuel will be presenting 'Uses and Abuses of Migration Data on Africa" at the Africa Grand Challenges Conference in Livingstone, Zambia.
The Independent Research Fund Denmark Humanities has granted Centre for Global Criminology two new projects.
CGC researcher Line Richter presented her paper: 'Working the borders': Migrant smuggling and the ordinary in a West African community in the Maghreb', at the University of Cape Town on May 7th.
Line presented at a seminar hosted by the Intitute for Humanities in Africa.
Last fall, the CRIMTANG project hosted its first research conference in Tangier, Morocco. At the conference, leading ethnographers from all over the world participated to present new ideas and ongoing research projects that were related to the issues of cross-border crime and criminalisation. The conference offered the participants insight into other fields of study and the opportunity to join the dialogue on the presented ideas and projects.
CRIMTANG researchers went to Tangier during the months of September and October 2018 to conduct ethnographic fieldwork on transnational organised crime (TOC). In Tangier, the CRIMTANG project hosted a research conference titled 'Interzones' where leading scholars from around the world came to discuss issues of transnational crime and criminalisation.
This article looks at the way people tactically adjusts to contexts of insecurity and danger. Building on fieldwork with disenfranchised urban poor in West Africa and marginal West African migrants in Europe, the article clarifies how perspectives and practices are attuned to precarious situations and life conditions. Read the article by Henrik Vigh here.
Who do the police look for - and how? And, vice versa, what is life like for the people who live underneath this regulatory gaze? This was the oppositional interaction explored by this panel - a panel consisting of ten ethnographers from across the world who have been exploring issues such as the selling and smuggling of drugs, people trafficking and smuggling, gang criminality and the increasing amount of policing and criminalisation thereof.
Together with the National Police Commissioner, Jens Henrik Højbjerg and the head of the Danish Parliament's Criminal Justice Committee, MP Peter Skaarup (DF), Henrik Vigh and David Sausdal discussed the problems faced by Denmark in relation to an increasing amount of transnational drug trafficking.