Walking at the edges of green criminology

The edges of the city and the extraordinary consequences of ordinary harms

Abstract

Positioned at the periphery of green and urban criminology, this article focuses on the heuristic value of the edge. Examining the urban physical edges - the continued horizontal (outwards) and the vertical (upwards) sprawl of our cities - exposes numerous urgent harms. Employing the concept of atmosphere, I explore both phenomenological and ontological atmospheres. This leads me to interrogate the edge between (slow) ordinary and (more immediate) extraordinary environmental harms, highlighting the need to move beyond binary conceptions of human and more-than-human concerns. I develop the concept of ‘the city beyond the city’, which transcends the material urban edges to further untangle green and urban criminological boundaries.