Dr Majid Yar

Background and research interests:

I studied at the University of York, UK, where I obtained a BA in sociology and an MA in the Sociology of Contemporary Culture. I went on to complete a PhD at Lancaster University, in the area of critical social theory. I was employed at Lancaster, first as a Research Associate, and then as Lecturer in Criminology. I subsequently lectured in criminology at the University of Kent at Canterbury. I have also taught in the areas of social theory, sociology, cultural studies and philosophy.

I joined Keele as a Senior Lecturer in Criminology in September 2006. I am currently Director of the Centre for Criminological Research (CCR) within the Research Institute for Law, Politics & Justice (RILPJ)

My research interests and activities span disciplines, with published work in the areas of social and political theory, continental philosophy, cultural analysis, and philosophy of social science, in addition to my criminological work. My current research focuses on the following areas:

1. Crime and the Internet; private policing and information security
2. Intellectual property crimes and the criminalisation of cultural flows, especially in the context of the 'information society'
3. Criminological and social theory, especially the relevance of theories of moral recognition for understanding criminal harms.
4. Crime and popular culture, especially Hollywood films.

My work in recent years has mainly centred upon crime and the Internet, culminating in a recently published book, entitled Cybercrime and Society (Sage, 2006). I have also recently completed work on a book co-authored with Martin O’Brien ( University of Central Lancashire) entitled Criminology: The Key Concepts, which will be published by Routledge in May 2008. I am continuing work on a book with the provisional title of Intellectual Property Crime: Towards a Critical Criminology of the Information Society. This work combines radical political economy, critical criminology, and the Marxist sociology of law to examine the ways in which new kinds of property rights and property crimes are being created in tandem with the development of information capitalism.

I am presently working on two research projects. The first, in partnership with Martin O’Brien (UCLAN) and funded by the European Science Foundation (ESF) is a nine country comparative study of the ways in which criminal justice agencies across Europe mobilise Internet technologies as a mechanism for crime reporting by citizens. The second (with Philip Stenning) explores the emergence and regulation of the private market in the policing of Internet crime and information security – what we call ‘the computer crime control industry’.

I am currently Reviews Editor for Crime Media Culture: An International Journal (Sage). I also serve on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Cyber Criminology, and The Internet Journal of Criminology, and Res Publica: A Journal of Moral Legal and Social Philosophy

I am a member of the British Society of Criminology (http://www.britsoccrim.org/), and a member of the steering group of the Society's Theory Network. I'm also a member of the Society for Applied European Thought, an inter-disciplinary group of scholars interested in critical research and reflection on matters of political and social importance in a European context (http://www.edgehill.ac.uk/research/saet/).

Teaching:

I current teach the following undergraduate modules:

Understanding Crime (with Ronnie Lippens)

Crimes of the Powerful

I also contribute to the Masters in Ethics, Policing and Criminal Justice, which is co-taught by staff from Criminology and the Centre for Professional Ethics (PEAK).

Publications :

Books:

Criminology: The Key Concepts (co-authored with Martin O’Brien) (Routledge, 2008: In Press)

Cybercrime and Society (Sage, 2006)

Articles and Book Chapters:

‘The Computer Crime Control Industry: The Emerging Market in Information Security’, in K. Franko-Aas (ed) Technologies of Insecurity: Surveillance and Securitization of Everyday Life. London: Routledge (in press)

• “The Internet and Human Security” in R. Munck & G. Honor-Fagan eds, Globalisation and Human Security: An Encyclopaedia, 2 Volumes. Praeger Press (in press)

•  “The Rhetorics and Myths of 'Anti-Piracy' Campaigns: Criminalisation, Moral Pedagogy and Capitalist Property Relations in the Classroom”, New Media & Society, 10, 2, March 2008 (in press)  
• “The Other Global Drugs Crisis: Assessing the Scope, Impacts and Drivers of the Global Trade in Dangerous Counterfeit Pharmaceuticals”, International Journal of Social Inquiry, 1(1), 2007 (in press)

‘Teenage Kicks or Virtual Villainy? Internet Piracy, Moral Entrepreneurship, and the Social Construction of a Crime Problem’, in Y. Jewkes (ed) Crime Online (Willan, 2006)

‘The ‘Chav’ Phenomenon: Consumption, Media and the Construction of a New Underclass’ (with Keith Hayward), Crime Media Culture, 2006, 2 (1): 9-28

‘A Deadly Faith in Fakes: Trademark Theft and the Global Trade in Counterfeit Automotive Components’, The Internet Journal of Criminology, 2006 (downloadable here)

'The Novelty of Cybercrime: An Assessment in Light of Routine Activity Theory' , The European Journal of Criminology, 2005, 2(4): 407-28

'Computer Hacking: Just Another Case of Juvenile Delinquency?', in The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, 2005, 44(4): 387-99

'The Global "Epidemic" of Movie "Piracy": Crime-Wave or Social Construction?', in Media, Culture & Society, 2005, 27(5): 677-96

Kill-n-tell (& all that jazz): The seductions of crime in Chicago (with Matrin O’Brien and Rodanthi Tzanelli), Crime Media Culture , 2005, 1 (3): 243-261

'The Spectacle of Fearsome Acts: Crime in the Melting P(l)ot of Gangs of New York', (co-authored with Rodanthi Tzanelli, Martin O'Brien & Sue Penna), in Critical Criminology, 2005, 13: 17-25

'"Con Me If You Can": Exploring Crime in the American Cinematic Imagination', (co-authored with Rodanthi Tzanelli & Martin O'Brien), Theoretical Criminology, 9, 1, 2005: 96-117

'Between Positivism and Post-modernity? Critical Reflections on Jock Young's The Exclusive Society' (co-authored with Sue Penna), The British Journal of Criminology, 44, 4, 2004: 533-49.

'The Quest for Objectivity in the Social Sciences', in Kimberly Kemf-Leonard (ed), Encyclopedia of Social Measurement ( San Diego: Academic Press, 2004).

'"Community": Past, Present, and Future', editor's introduction in the Electronic Journal of Social Issues, 2, 1, special issue on 'The Futures of Community', January 2004 (downloadable here)

'Panoptic Power and the Pathologisation of Vision: Critical Reflections on the Foucauldian Thesis', in Surveillance & Society, 1, 3, 2003: 254-71 (downloadable here)

'From Modern to Post-Modern Penality?' (co-authored with Sue Penna), Theoretical Criminology, 7, 4, 2003: 469-82.

'Honneth and the Communitarians: Towards a Recognitive Critical Theory of Community', Res Publica, 9, 3, 2003: 101-25.

'Community in absentia?' - review article of Zygmunt Bauman, Community:
Seeking Safety in an Insecure World, in Res Publica, 8, 2, 2002: 179-189.

'Recognition and the Politics of Human(e) Desire', in Mike Featherstone & Scott Lash (eds), Recognition & Difference: Politics, Identity, Multiculture ( London: Sage, 2002).

'From Nature to History, and Back Again: Blumenberg, Strauss and the Hobbesian Community', in History of the Human Sciences, 15, 3, 2002: 53-73.

'Beyond Nancy Fraser's "Perspectival Dualism"', Economy & Society, 30, 3, 2001: 288-303.

'Recognition and the Politics of Human(e) Desire', Theory, Culture and Society, 18, 2/3: 57-76.

'Hannah Arendt': article entry for the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://www.utm.edu/research/iep

'Alexandre Kojève': article entry for the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://www.utm.edu/research/iep

'Hannah Arendt's Two Theories of Political Judgment', Philosophy & Social Criticism, 26, 2, 2000: 1-27.

'Arendt's Heideggerianism: Contours of a "Post-Metaphysical" Political Theory?', Cultural Values, 4,1, 2000: 18-39.

' Liberal State and Polity in the Era of Globalisation: Social Injustice, Governance and Resistance in the Global-Local Nexus', in Gideon Calder, Edward Garrett & Jess Shannon (eds), Liberalism and Social Justice: International Perspectives ( London: Ashgate, 2000).