Policing, Social Control and Environmental Activism : Power and Resistance in Pandemic Times

This book addresses the policing and social control of eco–justice movements during the COVID–19 pandemic, as well as activist practices of resistance during the same period. It is based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in Trento, Italy, focusing on two eco–justice groups opposing a high–speed railway and the containment of wild bears.

Rooted in critical, green, cultural and sensory approaches within criminology, the book discusses the intensification of policing strategies against eco–justice protesters during the pandemic and their increased exclusion from urban centres. Highlighting activists’ radical and transformative practices of resistance, the book identifies directions for future critical and green criminological research in the area.

Anna Di Ronco is Senior Lecturer and Director of the Centre for Criminology at the University of Essex.