Anthropocide

Rafe McGregor is Reader in Criminology at Edge Hill University, Lancashire, England. A critical theorist with research expertise in culture, political violence, and policing, he is the author of 20 books, including Anthropocide: An Essay in Green Cultural Criminology (2025), Recovering Police Legitimacy: A Radical Framework (2024), and Literary Theory and Criminology (2023). He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and of Advance HE.

“From the science of climate change, through insights from history and cultural criticism, to discussion of aesthetics and representation, this is an immensely accomplished essay about a world made barren. Focused on the existential meaning of the 2006 film Children of Men, McGregor describes maladies that are with us now – Anthropocide, de-civilization, over-reliance on technology – and makes us wonder how far fiction represents or misrepresents reality?”Nigel South, Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Criminology, University of Essex“Rafe McGregor is the master of the short monograph, the most creative contemporary critical theorist, and the closest thing this generation has to Fredric Jameson.”Avi Brisman, Professor of Justice Studies, Eastern Kentucky University“Rafe McGregor has written a solid and thought-provoking essay about the anthropocide we are facing, which he states will be experienced as economic, political, and social collapse, as a reversal of Elias’ civilizing process. He postulates that climate change is foremost a cultural challenge which must be responded to with cultural means, whereupon he in a pedagogical manner conveys how narrative representations, such as the film (and book) Children of Men, can be a resource for the insight, analysis, and evaluation of attitudes to and desires about the current crisis. I hereby strongly recommend the book, which I consider a great intellectual achievement. With this essay McGregor firmly establishes his place within green cultural criminology.”Ragnhild Sollund, Professor of Criminology, University of Oslo“In this important contribution, Rafe McGregor offers a powerful invitation to understand and imagine in a novel way the climate crisis. The book explores the dramatic and complex harms of climate change and denialism – focusing on how audience’s desires are shaped by cinematic fictions – through a combination of narratology and green and cultural criminologies. Written in an accessible way, this inspiring text provides conceptual and methodological tools that will be a precious resource for anyone interested in confronting climate change as a cultural challenge.”Lorenzo Natali, Associate Professor in Criminology, University of Milano-Bicocca

• Part I: The Problem Chapter 1: Crisis Chapter 2: Culture Chapter 3: Critique Part II: The Case Chapter 4: Story Chapter 5: Style Chapter 6: Symbolism Part III: A Solution Chapter 7: Counter Chapter 8: Configuration