SP473 Half Unit
Policing, Security and Globalisation
This information is for the 2025/26 session.
Course Convenor
Dr Johann Koehler
Availability
This course is available on the MSc in Criminal Justice Policy, MSc in Human Rights and Politics, MSc in International Social and Public Policy, MSc in International Social and Public Policy (Development), MSc in International Social and Public Policy (Education), MSc in International Social and Public Policy (番茄社区 and Fudan), MSc in International Social and Public Policy (Migration), MSc in International Social and Public Policy (Non-Governmental Organisations), MSc in International Social and Public Policy (Research) and MSc in Public Policy and Administration. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process.
All Social Policy Courses are ‘Controlled Access’.
Other than for students in the first category below, when applying for a course all students are required to provide a written statement explaining why they wish to take that course.
Statements are considered by the Course Convenor and, where merited by the statement, places are offered in the following priority order:
1. Students for whom the course is a ‘core course’ on their Programme Regulations (these students should already be allocated to the course in 番茄社区 for you – i.e. no written statement is required).
2. Students for whom the course appears as an ‘optional core course’ on their Programme Regulations (where students have to choose between a small number of core options).
3. Students for whom the course appears as an optional course on their Programme Regulations.
4. Other Social Policy students.
5. 番茄社区 students from Departments other than Social Policy.
Please note: The number of students that can be accommodated on most courses is limited. If a course is over-subscribed, places will be allocated at the Convenor’s discretion, based on student statements. Therefore, you are advised to have an alternative course in mind in case you are unable to secure your first-choice course selection.
If offered a place on a Social Policy course, please accept the place as early as possible. NB: Offers will ‘time-out’ after 48 hours and the place will be offered to another student. If you wish to reject an offer, please do so as early as possible so that the place can be offered to one of your fellow students.
Close of Course Selection is on the 10 October 2025 (dependant on availability of course places).
Please Note: No places will be offered on Social Policy courses UNTIL 1pm on 29th September 2025.
For queries contact: socialpolicy.msc@lse.ac.uk
Course content
This course focuses on global developments in modern policing, and on the issues and challenges those developments implicate. The course follows police scholarship's move from the study of policing in specific contexts to making sense of the police institution through an international and comparative lens. Further to that move, SP473 re-poses traditional questions surrounding the police role and function in the context of contemporary debates about security and globalisation: among other topics, these include the policing of transitional societies and emergent democracies, the privatisation of policing, policing public order, and the effects of social movements — such as the demand to defund the police — that call for radical change in policing and the provision of security.
Teaching
15 hours of seminars and 15 hours of lectures in the Autumn Term.
This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn Term.
All teaching will be in accordance with the which specifies a minimum of two hours taught contact time per week when the course is running in the Autumn Term (AT) and/or Winter Term (WT). Social Policy courses are predominantly taught through a combination of in-person lectures and In person classes/seminars. Further information will be provided by the Course Convenor in the first lecture of the course.
Formative assessment
Presentation
Students are invited to prepare two pieces of formative coursework:
- The first piece of formative work will take the form of a short group presentation on 'policing developing democracies' that students will design and deliver before Reading Week.
- The second piece of formative work will take the form of essay outline - in effect an outline answer to the longer summative essay, including a full introductory paragraph.
Indicative reading
- Andreas, P. and Nadelmann, E. (2006). Policing the Globe: Criminalization and crime control in international relations. Oxford University Press.
- Bell, M. C. (2017). Police reform and the dismantling of legal estrangement. The Yale Law Journal, 126(7), 2054.
- Bowling, B., Reiner, R., & Sheptycki, J.W. (2019). The politics of the police. Oxford University Press.
- Bradford, B., Jauregui, B., Loader, I. and Steinberg, J., (Eds). (2016). The Sage Handbook of Global Policing. Sage.
- Brodeur, J.-P. (2010). The Policing Web. Oxford University Press.
- Koehler, J., & Cheng, T. (2023). Settling institutional uncertainty: Policing Chicago and New York, 1877–1923. Criminology, 61(3), 518-545.
- Newburn, T. (ed). (2004). Policing: Key Readings. Willan.
Additional Reading:
- Butler, J. (2020). The Force of Nonviolence: An Ethico-Political Bind. Verso.
- Foucault, M. (2003). Abnormal: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1974-1975. Verso.
- Johnston, L. (2006) Transnational security governance, in Wood, J. and Dupont, B. (eds) Democracy, Society and the Governance of Security. Cambridge University Press.
- Mouffe, C. (2013). Agonistics: Thinking the world politically. Verso.
- Sheptycki, J. (1998). ‘Policing, postermodernism and transnationalisation’. British Journal of Criminology. 38: 485-503
- Thompson, E.P. (1977). Whigs and Hunters: The Origins of the Black Act. Allen Lane.
- Fleetwood, J., & Lea, J. (2022). Defunding the police in the UK: Critical questions and practical suggestions. The Howard Journal of Crime and Justice, 61(2), 167-184.
- McElhone, M., Kemp, T., Lamble, S., & Moore, J. M. (2023). Defund–not defend–the police: a response to Fleetwood and Lea. The Howard Journal of Crime and Justice, 62(2), 277-282.
Assessment
Assessment Pathway 1
Presentation (20%)
Essay (80%)
Assessment Pathway 2
Essay (80%)
Literature review (20%)
Essay (80%) & Coursework (20%, either as a group presentation or a 1,000-word book review)
Key facts
Department: Social Policy
Course Study Period: Autumn Term
Unit value: Half unit
FHEQ Level: Level 7
CEFR Level: Null
Total students 2024/25: 31
Average class size 2024/25: 16
Controlled access 2024/25: YesCourse selection videos
Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.
Personal development skills
- Team working
- Problem solving
- Communication