"Policing European Metropolises"

Devroe, E., Edwards, A., Ponsaers, P. (eds.) (2017). Policing European Metropolises, The Politics of Security in City-Regions, London and New York: Routledge, pp. 343.

In 2017 Paul Ponsaers published Policing European Metropolises, The Politics of Security in City-Regions, together with Elke Devroe and Adam Edwards.

Elke Devroe is Associate Professor at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, University of Leiden, the Netherlands

Adam Edwards is Reader in Politics and Criminology at the School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University, UK

Paul Ponsaers is Emeritus Professor at the Department of Penal Law and Criminology, University of Ghent, Belgium

Understanding the politics of security in city-regions is increasingly important for the study of contemporary policing. This book argues that national and international governing arrangements are being outflanked by various transnational threats, including the cross-border terrorism of the attacks on Paris in 2015 and Brussels in 2016; trafficking in people, narcotics and armaments; cybercrime; the deregulation of global financial services; and environmental crime.

Metropolises are the focal points of the transnational networks through which policing problems are exported and imported across national borders, as they provide much of the demand for illicit markets and are the principal engines generating other policing challenges including political protest and civil unrest. This edited collection examines whether and how governing arrangements rooted in older systems of national sovereignty are adapting to these transnational challenges, and considers problems of and for policing in city-regions in the European Union and its single market.

Bringing together experts from across the continent, Policing European Metropolises develops a sociology of urban policing in Europe and a unique methodology for comparing the experiences of different metropolises in the same country. This book will be of value to police researchers in Europe and abroad, as well as postgraduate students with an interest in policing and urban policy.

Order here

"This path-breaking project documents how local policing policies play out across 22 cities in nine nations. While powerful national and global forces push some metropolitan areas toward standardized responses to common problems, in other places local political and social realities have spawned unique approaches to the issues of terrorism, fiscal austerity, mass migration, emergent nationalism, youth delinquency and adult crime. In its scope and rigor, there has never been anything to match this powerful analysis."

Wesley G. Skogan, Professor of Political Science and Faculty Fellow of the Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University, USA

"Mega-cities now dominate world geographies. Tied to shifting demographics, globalization and urbanization, mega cities have grown in complexity, now representing the highest concentration of peoples across the world. Understanding how such complexities are made secure and safe, by the police and others, is a new intellectual frontier. Policing European Metropolises is a significant intellectual and grounded theoretical contribution to understanding such complexities and expanding theories of Metropolitan Police Governance. A must read in a globalized world."

Jack R. Greene, Professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Northeastern University, USA

Paul Ponsaers gaf hierover de “James Smart Lecture” (getiteld “Policing European Metropolises - Convergence and Divergence in the Politics of Security in City-Regions”) op 10 november 2016 op de Internationale Politie Conferentie van de Universiteit van Edinburgh, waarop 180 vertegenwoordigers aanwezig waren uit de politiesector. Bij die gelegenheid kreeg hij een prestigieuze James Smart Medal voor zijn bijdrage aan de politiewetenschap.

Bekijk zijn presentatie hier