On the public roads boy racers are a foreboding presence, viewed with suspicion and derision by the ‘respectable’ motorist. The problem of the young (male) driver is one which has plagued authorities and governments due to youths’ acclaimed propensity to engage in deviant and dangerous driving behaviours. Boy Racer Culture sheds light on the boy racer phenomenon through ethnographic research with the notorious ‘Bouley Basher’ culture in the city of Aberdeen, Scotland, and the moral panic on the part of outside groups including the local community, police, politicians and media. This book examines the creation of masculine and feminine identities in a traditionally male-dominated subculture through car-related rituals such as ‘modding’, subcultural media and events, and the quest for celebrity status via public performances. Boy Racer Culture challenges common misconceptions surrounding the boy racer, the ‘problematic’ young (male) motorist and the car modifier. It will be essential reading for an international audience including sociologists and criminologists, particularly those with an interest in youth culture, subcultures, moral panics, car culture, anti-social behaviour, and the governance and policing of the roads.

Written in a unique format, Shades of Deviance is a turbo-driven guide to crime and deviance, offering 56 politically engaged, thought-provoking and accessibly written accounts of a wide range of socially and legally prohibited acts. This book will be essential reading for undergraduate students in the fields of criminology and sociology and those preparing to embark on degree courses in these fields, as well as general readers. Written by field-leading experts from across the globe and designed for those who want a clear and exciting introduction to the complex areas of crime and deviance, this book provides a large number of short overviews of a wide range of social problems, harms and criminal acts. Offering a series of cutting-edge and critical treatments of issues such as war and murder, paedophilia, ecocide, human experimentation, stalking and sexting, this book also gives a guide to further readings and suggestions for other media to develop the reader’s understanding of these issues. Shades of Deviance requires readers to critically reconsider their ideas about what is right and wrong, about what is socially harmful and which problems we should focus our attention on. It also provides careful analysis and reasoned explanation of complex issues in a world in which sensationalist headlines, anxiety and fear about crime permeate our lives - read it to be prepared!

This book provides information about the key areas needed for a successful project. It includes software skills, developing research objectives, writing proposals, literature reviews, getting ethics approval, seeking funding, managing a project, communicating research findings, and writing reports. There is also a chapter on working as an independent researcher. The book includes numerous examples, checklists, and practical exercises designed to assist the learning of research skills and the completion of crucial project tasks. It covers procedures needed for conducting projects electronically and accessing information from the Internet.

Reflexivity is valuable in social research because it draws attention to the researcher as part of the world being studied and reminds us that the individuals involved in our research are subjects, not objects. By being reflexive we acknowledge that we cannot be separated from our biographies. This volume reviews key debates concerning reflexivity in theory, methods, and practice. It mounts a defence of reflexivity against new materialist and post-qualitative critiques and the pressures exerted on scholars from the neoliberal marketized university system which privileges fast academia at the expense of slow, reflective scholarship. While defending reflexivity, this book also those identifies issues which plague mainstream sociological operationalizations of a positivistic form of reflexivity. It argues for the extension of reflexivity into domains otherwise neglected in public accounts, and a shift from reflexivity as an individualized quality of the researcher (used to judge peers and navel-gaze) to a feminist, collaborative, reflexive sensibility which is mindful of the wider contexts shaping the construction of knowledge(s), experience(s), and of the role of research communities. Providing examples of reflexivity in action from academics at different stages of their careers, Reflexivity will appeal to students and researchers interested in fields such as Sociology, Qualitative Research Methods, Criminology, Ethnography, and Ethics of Research.

Love them or hate them, most of us have an opinion about cars. If not the cars themselves, then it’s driver competence and behaviour that can offend us. And then there’s modification: alloy wheels, custom audio systems and bespoke paint jobs. For some, changing the look, feel and sound of a car says something about themselves, but for others, such enhancements signify a lack of taste, or even criminality. In subtle and complex ways, cars transmit and modify our identities behind the wheel. As a symbol of independence and freedom, the car projects status, class, taste and, significantly, embeds racialisation. Using fascinating research from drivers, including first-person accounts as well as exploring hip-hop music and car-related TV shows, Alam unpicks the ways in which identity is rehearsed, enhanced, interpreted.

Which public and whose space? The understanding of public space as an arena where individuals can claim full use and access hides a reality of constant negotiation, conflict and surveillance. This collection uses case studies concerning the management, use, and transgression of public space to invite reflection on the way in which everyday social interaction is framed and shaped by the physical environment and vice versa. International experts from fields including geography, criminology, sociology and urban studies come together to debate the concepts of order and conflict in public space. This book is divided into two parts: spaces of control, and spaces of transgression. Section I focuses on formal and informal surveillance and the politics of control, using case studies to compare strategies in spaces including Olympic cities, luxury skyscrapers, residential neighbourhoods and shopping malls. Section II focuses on transgressive or deviant behaviour in public spaces, with case studies examining behaviour in nightlife districts, governance of homelessness, boy-racer culture and abortion protests. The epilogue concludes the book with an exploration of possible future avenues for research on public space, and a critical appraisal of the concept of public space itself. This interdisciplinary collection will be of interest to students, researchers and professionals in the areas of criminology, sociology, surveillance studies, human and social geography, and urban studies and planning.

Since its first publication 10 years ago, Boyracers has established itself as a contemporary Scottish cult classic. It is a totally fresh, savvy, and supremely honest take on being young, naive and hopeful, and the pains of living life at hyperspeed in a mad, pop-culture world. It is fast, pacy and funny—an exhilarating joyride through the formative years of four Falkirk teenagers. The author has contributed an afterword to this special anniversary edition.