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Last year, in Sarajevo, 23 papers were presented in six highly attended Space, Place and Crime (WG-PLACE) thematic panels. Presenters came from all parts of Europe. Unsurprisingly, however, given the location of last year’s conference, we had the pleasure of engaging in thought-provoking and inspiring discussions with a large Balkan delegation. During the annual meeting of the working group, Jon Bannister of Manchester Metropolitan University joined the WG-PLACE steering group as co-chair. Furthermore, it was decided, in support of achieving WG-PLACE’s aim of creating a pan-European network, to formalize its current informal network of scholars and contacts. The first steps in this exercise have recently been completed.
Interest in the space-place-crime nexus continues to grow. At the 2019 ESC Conference in Ghent, the working group attracted 40 papers by authors from Europe and beyond, which have been arranged in to 11 thematic panels. Topics addressed in these panels range from the theoretical development of urban criminology to methodological advancements, emergent data sources that enable improved understanding of space, place and crime, and investigations into and critical accounts of the role of place in policing and crime control. All WG-PLACE affiliated thematic panels are easily identified in the 2019 Conference program through inclusion of ‘WG-PLACE’ in each session’s title.
Once again, the working group is looking forward to meeting its members and others interested at the 2019 ESC Conference in Ghent. We look forward to welcoming our members, potential members and friends at the ‘WG-PLACE working group meeting’ and encourage anyone interested to join the group. Please check the 2019 ESC Conference program for details.
For the first time, WG-PLACE will also be holding a pre-conference workshop ‘Introduction to R for Criminologists’ on Wednesday, 18 September. During the workshop, participants will learn the basics of handling and visualizing data using the statistical programming language R. All fully-registered conference attendees are welcome to attend the morning session, but the afternoon is specifically aimed at registered attendees who are members of WG-PLACE. Participation is free, but registration in advance is required. For more information and to register, please see http://bit.ly/WGPLACE. Remember to register quickly since places are limited.
Finally, given the unprecedented growth in papers and thematic panels, it will not be possible to attend all WG-PLACE panels this year, due to there being parallel sessions. In the spirit of a more open criminology and the message of the ESC’s current president, Tom Vander Beken, we see this as an opportunity for our members to also attend non-WGPLACE sessions at the ESC’s annual meeting.
If you are interested in joining the working group please contact Christophe Vandeviver (Christophe.Vandeviver [at] UGent.be), Wouter Steenbeek (wsteenbeek [at] nscr.nl), or Jon Bannister (Jon.Bannister [at] mmu.ac.uk). Additional information can be found on the working group website: http://www.space-place-crime.eu/.
Christophe Vandeviver is Senior Postdoctoral Fellow Fundamental Research of the Research Foundation – Flanders at Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium, International Research Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR), Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and co-chair of WG-PLACE.
Wouter Steenbeek is Researcher at the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR), Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and co-chair of WG-PLACE.
Jon Bannister is Professor in the Department of Sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University, Director of the Man Met Crime and Well-Being Big Data Centre, and co-chair of WG-PLACE.