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Dr Gary Armstrong

Senior Lecturer in Criminology

School of Arts and Social Sciences Department of Sociology

Contact details

Address

Dr Gary Armstrong D611, Rhind Building
City, University of London
Northampton Square
London EC1V 0HB
United Kingdom

About

Overview

Dr Gary Armstrong has been a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at City, University of London since 2018. He previously lectured in the Sociology of Sport at Brunel University and before that in Criminology at the University of Westminster and later the University of Reading.

Amongst the many criminology projects he has been involved in, two of the best known publications are ‘Images of Control: The Rise of the Maximum Surveillance Society’ (co-authored with Clive Norris) and ‘Surveillance, CCTV and Social Control’ (co-edited with Clive Norris and Jade Moran). His research into sports-related matters has produced the following publications: ‘Football Hooligans: Knowing the Score’; ‘Blade Runners: Lives in Football’ and ‘Sheffield United FC: The Biography’. He has also co-edited, alongside Richard Giulianotti, ‘Entering the Field: New Perspectives in World Football’; ‘Football Cultures and Identities’; ‘Fear and Loathing in World Football’ and ‘Football in Africa: Conflict, Conciliation and Community’. From 1998 to present he has researched the possibilities that football can offer to various demographics in the reconstruction of post-conflict Liberia. Recent research in Bosnia-Herzegovina has addressed the same question. Other long-term research has examined the role football has played in the politics of Malta, the study of which produced a 2009 book co-authored with Jon Mitchell titled ‘Local and Global Football’. The year 2010 saw the publication of a book co-authored with Alberto Testa titled ‘Football, Fascism and Fandom: The UltraS of Italian Football’. Another book, published in February 2011 and co-authored with Pete Fussey and Dick Hobbs, titled ‘Securing and Sustaining the 2012 Olympic City’, examined the policing and security implications that surrounded London’s hosting of the 2012 Olympic Games. A continuation of the Olympic research produced in 2016 the co-authored (with Richard Giulianotti and Dick Hobbs) ‘Policing the London 2012 Olympics: Legacy and Social Exclusion’. Two years later he co-authored (with James Rosbrook-Thompson) a study of a London housing titled ‘Mixed Occupancy Housing in London: A Living Tapestry’. He has published two books in collaboration with Matthew Bell: ‘Fit and Proper? Conflicts and Conscience in an English Football Club’, in 2010 and ‘Steel and Grace: Sheffield’s Olympic Track and Field Medallists’ in 2014. In recent years his research has focused on serious youth violence and knife crime and the associated phenomenon of County Lines. A co-authored book titled 'Rings of Steel: a Social History of Sheffield Boxing' will be published in 2020. Gary is currently co-authoring a book on sport diplomacy, also due out in 2020.

Publications

Publications by category

Books (5)

  1. Bell, M. and Armstrong, G. (2021). A Social History of Sheffield Boxing, Volume II Scrap Merchants, 1970-2020. Springer Nature. ISBN 978-3-030-63553-4.
  2. Armstrong, G., Rosbrook-Thompson, J. and Lindsay, I. (2020). Power Plays The Projection of Hard and Soft Power in Sport. ISBN 978-3-89665-903-3.
  3. Rosbrook-Thompson, J. and Armstrong, G. (2018). Mixed-Occupancy Housing in London. Springer International Publishing. ISBN 978-3-319-74677-7.
  4. Armstrong, G., Giulianotti, R. and Hobbs, D. Policing the 2012 London Olympics. Routledge.
  5. Bell, M. A Social History of Sheffield Boxing, Volume I Rings of Steel, 1720–1970. Springer Nature. ISBN 978-3-030-63545-9.

Chapters (2)

  1. Armstrong, G. and Bell, M. (2021). Inequalites and Redemption: A Boxing Story. In Pardo, I. and Prato, G.B. (Eds.), Urban Inequalities Ethnographically Informed Reflections (pp. 251–276). New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-3-030-51723-6.
  2. Armstrong, G. and Rosbrook-Thompson, J. (2021). Mixed Occupancy: Mixed Occupations? Inequality and Employment on an Inner-City Housing Estate. In Pardo, I. and Prato, G.B. (Eds.), Urban Inequalities Ethnographically Informed Reflections (pp. 193–214). New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-3-030-51723-6.

Journal articles (3)

  1. Fraser, A., Armstrong, G. and Hobbs, D. (2021). Policing the Olympic gang: the rise and fall of the Portuguese Mafia. Policing and Society, 31(2), pp. 195–208. doi:10.1080/10439463.2019.1700985.
  2. Armstrong, G. and Rosbrook-Thompson, J. (2017). ‘Squashing the Beef’: Combatting Gang Violence and Reforming Masculinity in East London. Contemporary Social Science, 12(3-4), pp. 285–296. doi:10.1080/21582041.2017.1385833.
  3. Giulianotti, R., Armstrong, G., Hales, G. and Hobbs, D. (2015). Global sport mega-events and the politics of mobility: the case of the London 2012 Olympics. The British Journal of Sociology, 66(1), pp. 118–140. doi:10.1111/1468-4446.12103.

Reports (2)

  1. Greer, C., Rosbrook-Thompson, J. and Armstrong, G. (2020). The Disproportionality Project: Addressing issues relating to the disproportionately high representation of Islington’s and Haringey’s BAME young people in the Criminal Justice System..
  2. Greer, C., Rosbrook-Thompson, J., Armstrong, G., Ilan, J., McLaughlin, E., Myers, C. … Taylor, E. (2019). Enhancing the work of the Islington Integrated Gangs Team: A pilot study on the response to serious youth violence in Islington. London, UK: Centre for City Criminology, City, University of London. London: Centre of City Criminology, City, University of London.