Alex Luscombe
Biographic Data
| ID | 4078884 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Alex Luscombe |
| GIVEN NAMES | Alex |
| FAMILY NAME | Luscombe |
| SIGNATURE | LUSCOMBE A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Toronto |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3052-5401 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 57 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Police Funding and Crime Rates in 20 of Canada's Largest Municipalities
Tandis que la littérature évaluant diverses pratiques et reformes policières continue de s’accroitre, il y a présentement peu de recherche qui examine le financement de la police au Canada. Pour décrire la situation présente du financement de la police au Canada, nous recueillissions et publions des données sur les dépenses municipales de services policiers de 2010 à 2021 de 20 des municipalités urbaines les plus peuplées au Canada. Notre analyse…
Governing through transparency
This paper examines the state of Canada’s federal access to information (ATI) regime. Drawing from literature on government transparency, we conceptualize Bill C-58 and the problems it proposes to address as a form of policy discordance. We assess the recent digitization of ATI in Canada by analyzing data on request abandonment, record exemptions, as well as variation by ministry. In so doing, we identify tensions between strategic narratives of …
Access to information research in the digital era
In the four decades since Canada's Access to Information Act (1983) came into force, the massive proliferation of digital technologies has prompted significant transformations in the operations of modern governments. The impacts of this digital era on access to information (ATI) research in Canada—by which we mean both research on ATI law (and its administration) as well as research using ATI law (to generate data)—have not received the scholarly…
Changing of the Guards
Although service outsourcing has spread throughout Canada’s prisons and jails, into its police, courts, and national security institutions, and along the border in recent decades, the expanding scope and pace of corporate involvement in criminal justice functions has not been closely investigated. Changing of the Guards provides a comprehensive assessment of privatization and private influence across the twenty-first-century Canadian criminal jus…
Algorithmic thinking in the public interest
Jumpstarting the Justice Disciplines
Computational methods are increasingly popular in criminal justice research. As more criminal justice data becomes available in 'big' and other digital formats, new means of embracing the computational turn are needed. In this article, we propose a framework for data collection and case sampling using computational methods, allowing researchers to conduct thick qualitative research – analyses concerned with the particularities of a social context…
Deciphering the Decline
Background: Newspaper op-eds are an underexplored mode of communication that frame social, cultural, and political issues. Analysis: This article uses an unsupervised machine-learning approach called structural topic modelling to map changes in the content of a corpus of Canadian newspaper op-eds on freedom of information (FOI) law spanning a 20-year period. This makes it possible to investigate changes in the content of newspaper op-eds over tim…
Race, cannabis and the Canadian war on drugs
Freedom of Information Research and Cultural Studies
Introducing the idea of subterranean affinity, this article explores how methodological use of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests can contribute to the field of cultural studies. Contributing to literatures on transparency and secrecy, we consider six ways that FOI requests can contribute to and extend the field of cultural studies. These six intersections entail a productive engagement with secrecy, which dissolves the typical opposition of t…
Freedom of Information and Social Science Research Design
This chapter considers Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) as a viable tool for academic research. To date, journalist, campaigners or concerned consumers have been to the forefront in using FOIs to gain information on issues as diverse as politician’s expenses, the cost of policing a royal event or the levels of food hygiene in restaurants. Yet this line of enquiry appears to be infrequently used by academic researchers. The chapter concentrates o…
Police foundation governance and accountability
Police foundations are new private organizations used by public police services to raise corporate monies in North America. This article examines problems of governance and accountability arising in relation to police foundations and police services. Drawing from interviews, freedom of information requests and records from city archives, we analyze interlocks between corporations and police foundations via board membership. Because of the influen…
Deception Declassified
This article asks why and how governments keep secrets from publics, journalists and politicians using the strategy of ‘cover storying’. To develop a theory of cover storying, insights are drawn from political sociologies of state secrecy and from recent sociological examinations of secrecy and deception in organisations. This theory is illustrated by analysing Cobra Mist, a secretive and deceptive Anglo-American Cold War intelligence operation. …
The Police Foundation’s Rise
A new kind of organization has emerged in public policing across the United States and Canada: the ‘police foundation’. The foundation’s private, nonprofit legal status allows it to engage in private fundraising activities that police, as public bodies, cannot. In many municipalities, police foundations raise funds directed toward police procurement practices and operations. We discuss reasons for and detail the rise and growth of these foundatio…
Gift-Giving, Disreputable Exchange, and the Management of Donations in a Police Department
To supplement funding and strengthen relationships with the community, police departments often accept donations from individuals and businesses. These donations are a form of disreputable exchange: they are permitted but laden with the potential for controversy. Gift-giving is generally forbidden in public agencies because it conflicts with bureaucratic organizational principles of impersonality and fairness and equality before the law. Acceptin…
Online Readers’ Comments as Popular Texts
Background Despite paid-duty policing and associated public opinions being an increasingly controversial topic in Canadian news media, there has been limited research about them.Analysis This article combines discourse and content analyses to examine the public opinions towards paid-duty policing in Canada expressed in the online readers’ comment sections of news articles. Conceptualizing comments as popular texts, the article discerns several th…
Theorizing freedom of information
Brokering Access Beyond the Border and in the Wild
Contributing to literature on jurisdictional variation in freedom of information (FOI) law and policy, we draw from accounts of experiences of FOI requests submitted to police agencies in nine Canadian provinces and ten US states. We conceptualize these experiences using notions of “brokering access,” “law in the wild,” and “feral law.” Our findings demonstrate key differences in how public police agencies store, prepare, and disclose information…
Criteria for quality in qualitative research and use of freedom of information requests in the social sciences
Access to information (ATI) and freedom of information (FOI) requests are an under-used means of producing data in the social sciences, especially across Canada and the United States. We use literature on criteria for quality in qualitative inquiry to enhance ongoing debates and developments in ATI/FOI research, and to extend literature on quality in qualitative inquiry. We do this by building on Tracy's (2010) article on criteria for quality in …
Police-sponsorship networks
This article examines relational ties between private sponsors and public police departments based on sponsorship of Canadian and international policing conferences and galas. Using network analysis and descriptive statistics, we investigate ties among 375 sponsors and 16 law enforcement conferences and galas held in 2015 in Canada, the US, and the UK. Of 16 police conferences and galas, 13 are connected via common sponsors. We discern trends in …
Hannah Arendt and the Art of Secrecy; Or, the Fog of Cobra Mist
Using Hannah Arendt as our guide, we examine the imperfect and at times curious mechanisms through which state projects enact an aura of secrecy and deception. To date, International Political Sociology (IPS) has paid strikingly little attention to the workings of secrecy and deception in politics. Arendt’s contributions to international political sociologies of state secrecy are threefold. First, Arendt’s reflections on lying and secrecy occur a…
High policing and access to information
Brodeur’s concept of high policing is now a staple in sociology and criminology. While scholars have added to debates about high policing by focusing on private provision and pluralization, methodological concerns related to high policing remain underdeveloped. Here, we examine the use of access to information (ATI) requests as a methodological tool for producing data on high policing. We argue that despite the utility of ATI for social scientist…
Theorizing freedom of information
Brokering Access Beyond the Border and in the Wild
Contributing to literature on jurisdictional variation in freedom of information (FOI) law and policy, we draw from accounts of experiences of FOI requests submitted to police agencies in nine Canadian provinces and ten US states. We conceptualize these experiences using notions of “brokering access,” “law in the wild,” and “feral law.” Our findings demonstrate key differences in how public police agencies store, prepare, and disclose information…
Criteria for quality in qualitative research and use of freedom of information requests in the social sciences
Access to information (ATI) and freedom of information (FOI) requests are an under-used means of producing data in the social sciences, especially across Canada and the United States. We use literature on criteria for quality in qualitative inquiry to enhance ongoing debates and developments in ATI/FOI research, and to extend literature on quality in qualitative inquiry. We do this by building on Tracy's (2010) article on criteria for quality in …
Governing through transparency
This paper examines the state of Canada’s federal access to information (ATI) regime. Drawing from literature on government transparency, we conceptualize Bill C-58 and the problems it proposes to address as a form of policy discordance. We assess the recent digitization of ATI in Canada by analyzing data on request abandonment, record exemptions, as well as variation by ministry. In so doing, we identify tensions between strategic narratives of …
Police Funding and Crime Rates in 20 of Canada's Largest Municipalities
Tandis que la littérature évaluant diverses pratiques et reformes policières continue de s’accroitre, il y a présentement peu de recherche qui examine le financement de la police au Canada. Pour décrire la situation présente du financement de la police au Canada, nous recueillissions et publions des données sur les dépenses municipales de services policiers de 2010 à 2021 de 20 des municipalités urbaines les plus peuplées au Canada. Notre analyse…
Deception Declassified
This article asks why and how governments keep secrets from publics, journalists and politicians using the strategy of ‘cover storying’. To develop a theory of cover storying, insights are drawn from political sociologies of state secrecy and from recent sociological examinations of secrecy and deception in organisations. This theory is illustrated by analysing Cobra Mist, a secretive and deceptive Anglo-American Cold War intelligence operation. …
Police-sponsorship networks
This article examines relational ties between private sponsors and public police departments based on sponsorship of Canadian and international policing conferences and galas. Using network analysis and descriptive statistics, we investigate ties among 375 sponsors and 16 law enforcement conferences and galas held in 2015 in Canada, the US, and the UK. Of 16 police conferences and galas, 13 are connected via common sponsors. We discern trends in …
Police foundation governance and accountability
Police foundations are new private organizations used by public police services to raise corporate monies in North America. This article examines problems of governance and accountability arising in relation to police foundations and police services. Drawing from interviews, freedom of information requests and records from city archives, we analyze interlocks between corporations and police foundations via board membership. Because of the influen…
The Police Foundation’s Rise
A new kind of organization has emerged in public policing across the United States and Canada: the ‘police foundation’. The foundation’s private, nonprofit legal status allows it to engage in private fundraising activities that police, as public bodies, cannot. In many municipalities, police foundations raise funds directed toward police procurement practices and operations. We discuss reasons for and detail the rise and growth of these foundatio…
High policing and access to information
Brodeur’s concept of high policing is now a staple in sociology and criminology. While scholars have added to debates about high policing by focusing on private provision and pluralization, methodological concerns related to high policing remain underdeveloped. Here, we examine the use of access to information (ATI) requests as a methodological tool for producing data on high policing. We argue that despite the utility of ATI for social scientist…
Police-sponsorship networks
This article examines relational ties between private sponsors and public police departments based on sponsorship of Canadian and international policing conferences and galas. Using network analysis and descriptive statistics, we investigate ties among 375 sponsors and 16 law enforcement conferences and galas held in 2015 in Canada, the US, and the UK. Of 16 police conferences and galas, 13 are connected via common sponsors. We discern trends in …
Hannah Arendt and the Art of Secrecy; Or, the Fog of Cobra Mist
Using Hannah Arendt as our guide, we examine the imperfect and at times curious mechanisms through which state projects enact an aura of secrecy and deception. To date, International Political Sociology (IPS) has paid strikingly little attention to the workings of secrecy and deception in politics. Arendt’s contributions to international political sociologies of state secrecy are threefold. First, Arendt’s reflections on lying and secrecy occur a…
Gift-Giving, Disreputable Exchange, and the Management of Donations in a Police Department
To supplement funding and strengthen relationships with the community, police departments often accept donations from individuals and businesses. These donations are a form of disreputable exchange: they are permitted but laden with the potential for controversy. Gift-giving is generally forbidden in public agencies because it conflicts with bureaucratic organizational principles of impersonality and fairness and equality before the law. Acceptin…
Online Readers’ Comments as Popular Texts
Background Despite paid-duty policing and associated public opinions being an increasingly controversial topic in Canadian news media, there has been limited research about them.Analysis This article combines discourse and content analyses to examine the public opinions towards paid-duty policing in Canada expressed in the online readers’ comment sections of news articles. Conceptualizing comments as popular texts, the article discerns several th…
Theorizing freedom of information
Brokering Access Beyond the Border and in the Wild
Contributing to literature on jurisdictional variation in freedom of information (FOI) law and policy, we draw from accounts of experiences of FOI requests submitted to police agencies in nine Canadian provinces and ten US states. We conceptualize these experiences using notions of “brokering access,” “law in the wild,” and “feral law.” Our findings demonstrate key differences in how public police agencies store, prepare, and disclose information…
Criteria for quality in qualitative research and use of freedom of information requests in the social sciences
Access to information (ATI) and freedom of information (FOI) requests are an under-used means of producing data in the social sciences, especially across Canada and the United States. We use literature on criteria for quality in qualitative inquiry to enhance ongoing debates and developments in ATI/FOI research, and to extend literature on quality in qualitative inquiry. We do this by building on Tracy's (2010) article on criteria for quality in …
Police foundation governance and accountability
Police foundations are new private organizations used by public police services to raise corporate monies in North America. This article examines problems of governance and accountability arising in relation to police foundations and police services. Drawing from interviews, freedom of information requests and records from city archives, we analyze interlocks between corporations and police foundations via board membership. Because of the influen…
Deception Declassified
This article asks why and how governments keep secrets from publics, journalists and politicians using the strategy of ‘cover storying’. To develop a theory of cover storying, insights are drawn from political sociologies of state secrecy and from recent sociological examinations of secrecy and deception in organisations. This theory is illustrated by analysing Cobra Mist, a secretive and deceptive Anglo-American Cold War intelligence operation. …
The Police Foundation’s Rise
A new kind of organization has emerged in public policing across the United States and Canada: the ‘police foundation’. The foundation’s private, nonprofit legal status allows it to engage in private fundraising activities that police, as public bodies, cannot. In many municipalities, police foundations raise funds directed toward police procurement practices and operations. We discuss reasons for and detail the rise and growth of these foundatio…
Freedom of Information and Social Science Research Design
This chapter considers Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) as a viable tool for academic research. To date, journalist, campaigners or concerned consumers have been to the forefront in using FOIs to gain information on issues as diverse as politician’s expenses, the cost of policing a royal event or the levels of food hygiene in restaurants. Yet this line of enquiry appears to be infrequently used by academic researchers. The chapter concentrates o…
Race, cannabis and the Canadian war on drugs
Freedom of Information Research and Cultural Studies
Introducing the idea of subterranean affinity, this article explores how methodological use of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests can contribute to the field of cultural studies. Contributing to literatures on transparency and secrecy, we consider six ways that FOI requests can contribute to and extend the field of cultural studies. These six intersections entail a productive engagement with secrecy, which dissolves the typical opposition of t…
Changing of the Guards
Although service outsourcing has spread throughout Canada’s prisons and jails, into its police, courts, and national security institutions, and along the border in recent decades, the expanding scope and pace of corporate involvement in criminal justice functions has not been closely investigated. Changing of the Guards provides a comprehensive assessment of privatization and private influence across the twenty-first-century Canadian criminal jus…
Algorithmic thinking in the public interest
Jumpstarting the Justice Disciplines
Computational methods are increasingly popular in criminal justice research. As more criminal justice data becomes available in 'big' and other digital formats, new means of embracing the computational turn are needed. In this article, we propose a framework for data collection and case sampling using computational methods, allowing researchers to conduct thick qualitative research – analyses concerned with the particularities of a social context…
Deciphering the Decline
Background: Newspaper op-eds are an underexplored mode of communication that frame social, cultural, and political issues. Analysis: This article uses an unsupervised machine-learning approach called structural topic modelling to map changes in the content of a corpus of Canadian newspaper op-eds on freedom of information (FOI) law spanning a 20-year period. This makes it possible to investigate changes in the content of newspaper op-eds over tim…
Police Funding and Crime Rates in 20 of Canada's Largest Municipalities
Tandis que la littérature évaluant diverses pratiques et reformes policières continue de s’accroitre, il y a présentement peu de recherche qui examine le financement de la police au Canada. Pour décrire la situation présente du financement de la police au Canada, nous recueillissions et publions des données sur les dépenses municipales de services policiers de 2010 à 2021 de 20 des municipalités urbaines les plus peuplées au Canada. Notre analyse…
Governing through transparency
This paper examines the state of Canada’s federal access to information (ATI) regime. Drawing from literature on government transparency, we conceptualize Bill C-58 and the problems it proposes to address as a form of policy discordance. We assess the recent digitization of ATI in Canada by analyzing data on request abandonment, record exemptions, as well as variation by ministry. In so doing, we identify tensions between strategic narratives of …
Access to information research in the digital era
In the four decades since Canada's Access to Information Act (1983) came into force, the massive proliferation of digital technologies has prompted significant transformations in the operations of modern governments. The impacts of this digital era on access to information (ATI) research in Canada—by which we mean both research on ATI law (and its administration) as well as research using ATI law (to generate data)—have not received the scholarly…
Political science (18 works) · Law (16 works) · Sociology (13 works) · Computer Science (10 works) · Law (10 works) · Public relations (10 works) · Freedom of information (6 works) · Policing Practices and Perceptions (6 works) · Public Administration (6 works) · Epistemology (5 works)