Dr Julie Berg
- Lecturer in Criminology (Sociology)
telephone: 0141 330 1772
email: Julie.Berg@glasgow.ac.uk
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https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4730-1778Biography
Dr Julie Berg is a lecturer in criminology at the School of Social and Political Sciences, and an Associate Director (Internationalisation) of the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research (SCCJR), at the University of Glasgow. She joined the University of Glasgow in January 2018, having previously held a full-time research and teaching appointment at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. She is a research fellow in the Global Risk Governance Programme at the University of Cape Town and a member of the international and inter-disciplinary network Everyday Political Economies of Plural Policing (EPEPP). Julie also co-leads a global network, the Evolving Securities Initiative (ESI), which comprises scholars and security professionals focusing on the generation of knowledge about existing and emerging harmscapes and associated security governance developments. She runs the ESI’s Glasgow Hub (ESI@GLA) which focuses on exploring the impacts of new risk harmscapes on security institutions, collaborative arrangements, and democratic policing. Further to this, Julie co-leads the Network on Intelligence and Security Practices in African Countries (NISPAC) which is an interdisciplinary community of scholars and practitioners focused on exploring the role of security and intelligence services (state and non-state) in the African context, thereby addressing deficits in knowledge on this topic.
Research interests
My research interests include state and non-state policing, and plural or polycentric security governance. I am principally interested in the nature of plurality in security governance through the mapping out of state and non-state nodes within increasingly pluralized environments and the particular role of the private sector (for instance, private security and private intelligence) in these environments. In light of the emergence of new global harms or harmscapes, I am interested in how policing in its pluralized form adapts to these new harms. Furthermore, I am interested in the contextual factors that impact on plural policing (for instance, the shifting nature of public space, power relations, and public policing provision); the impacts of new and advanced technologies on collaborative and pluralized policing; as well as the impacts of plural policing on achieving inclusive and equitable security governance in line with a public or common good (with a particular focus on legitimacy, accountability, and democratic security provision). Further to this, I am interested in the impact of new and emerging global harmscapes and associated responses, on the evolution of criminology as a field of inquiry. Related to this, I am interested in exploring the nature and implications of a decolonised criminology, particularly given the disproportionate impact of new harms (such as climate change) on the Global South/LMICs and the need for innovative responses and an adaptive criminology.
Grants
2018 – 2019 Network on Intelligence and Security Practices in African Countries (NISPAC) (Co-I), funded by Scottish Funding Council and Global Challenges Research Fund, £28,034
2018 Democratic Security Governance for the Public Good: Harnessing the Capacities of Non-state Security Nodes (PI), funded by John Robertson Bequest, University of Glasgow, £1,500
2017 Research Chair in Justice and Security, South African Research Chairs Initiative, funded by the Department of Science and Technology, National Research Foundation, South Africa, ZAR2 325,000 (£123,473)
2017 Political Assassination in South Africa (PI), funded by the Open Society Foundation for South Africa, ZAR400,000 (£21,242)
2015 – 2016 Design of Standard Operating Procedures and Models for Community Police Forums in the Western Cape (Co-I), funded by the Western Cape Provincial Government, South Africa, ZAR499,316 (£26,517)
2015 – 2016 Design of Standard Operating Procedures and Models for Neighbourhood Watches in the Western Cape(PI), funded by the Western Cape Provincial Government, South Africa, ZAR499,316 (£26,517)
2015 – 2016 Urban Safety, Violence and Crime in South African Cities (Co-I), funded by the South African Cities Network and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, ZAR380,190 (£20,190)
2015 – 2016 Strengthening Responses to Challenges of Crime, Corruption, Drugs and Terrorism: A Guide for Development Practitioners (Co-I), funded by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, US$172,194 (£130,271)
2010 – 2011 A Whole-of-Society Approach to Safety in the Western Cape (Co-I), funded by the Western Cape Provincial Government, South Africa, ZAR1 113,044 (£59,110)
2010 – 2011 Towards Sustainable Public-Private Partnership Policing in South Africa: A Study of Major Events Policing in the City of Cape Town (PI), funded by the Open Society Foundation for South Africa, ZAR264,000 (£14,020)
2008 Audit of Police Oversight in Africa (PI), funded by the African Policing Civilian Oversight Forum, ZAR8,771 (£465)
2008 Survey on the Civilian Oversight Committee of the Metro Police (PI), funded by the City of Cape Town, South Africa, ZAR36,936 (£1,961)
2006 Pluralisation of Policing in Cape Town (PI), funded by the National Research Foundation, South Africa, ZAR39,408 (£2,092)
Supervision
I am interested in supervising research projects in the broad areas of policing and security governance, with a particular interest in projects which focus on any of the following themes:
- Plural policing, partnership policing, security networks, nodal governance or polycentric security governance
- Non-state policing, private security, community safety or non-state organised violence
- Urban safety, situational prevention or spatial design
- Police/policing reform, regulation and accountability or democratic policing
Teaching
Current
Undergraduate
- Sociology 1B: Critical Research in Contemporary Societies (lecturer)
- Crime, Violence, and Social Control in Africa (course convener and lecturer)
Postgraduate
- Criminological Perspectives on Security and Globalisation (course convener and lecturer)
Past
Postgraduate
- Criminology Dissertation: Methods Lab (course convener and lecturer)
- Criminal Justice: Current Issues, Comparative Challenges (lecturer)
Additional information
Current roles and affiliations:
- Associate Director (Internationalisation) of the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research
- Athena SWAN academic co-lead for School of Social and Political Sciences Bronze award application
- PGT Criminology Convenor
- External Examiner, Postgraduate LLM, Criminology Subject Area, Edinburgh Law School, University of Edinburgh
- Member, European Society of Criminology
- Member, British Society of Criminology
- Member, Criminological and Victimological Society of Southern Africa
- Editorial Board member, Acta Criminologica
- International Editorial Advisory Board for Book Series: Emerald Studies in Plural Policing
- Research fellow, Global Risk Governance Programme, University of Cape Town, South Africa
