Ecologies of Security
Everyday Disorder in a Climate-Changed World
Richard Sparks author Ian Loader author Ben Bradford author Evi Girling author
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Bristol University Press
Published:22nd Oct '26
Should be back in stock very soon

Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.
In a time of climate breakdown, everyday security is shaped as much by ecological degradation as by familiar forms of disorder. Drawing on two research encounters with a northern English town, set 25 years apart, this book reveals how local concerns about chronic environmental damage blur the boundaries between criminal and non-criminal harms. It proposes an ecological rethinking of security — one that recognizes how worries about sustainability, place and quality of life increasingly intertwine.
Bringing environmental and green criminology into closer dialogue, the book shows how austerity and climate anxieties converge, and how communities’ hopes for habitable futures demand new ways of understanding — and acting upon — everyday disorder.
‘In an era of fast outputs, this book showcases the rewards of sustained research in a single place — returning 25 years later to Macclesfield to uncover how both the town and our wider world have changed. Ian Loader, Richard Sparks, Evi Girling and Ben Bradford reveal how town residents' concerns about disorder now reflect wider environmental degradations in ways they could not have anticipated in their earlier study. Drawing on rich ethnography and analytical re-description of key themes, they demonstrate that security and liveability are inseparable from the health of our socio-natural environment. This book issues a vital call to “ecologise security" — a major contribution to criminology and an essential guide for anyone thinking about care, responsibility and action in a climate-changed world.' Insa Lee Koch, University of St. Gallen
‘This exceptional book explores a question at the forefront of criminological thinking — the linkages between macro and micro harms. With care, subtlety and nuance the authors explore how shifting harmscapes are understood, engaged and governed in everyday urban contexts.' Clifford Shearing, University of Toronto
ISBN: 9781529261202
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
162 pages