CJS Seminar: Yarin Eski
Location:
Online only
Date/time
Wed 2 April 2025
16:00-17:30
The Crime, Justice & Society Seminar Series presents
Toward a Prospective Typology of Astrocide
Yarin Eski (Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam)
About this event
Space expansionism embodied by space mining companies and planned space colonization dominate the space agenda. It is an inherently exploitative agenda that could have totally annihilative consequences in the future. Criminology, particularly space criminology, has only begun to analyze these developments critically. Resembling how European colonial expansionism was once driven by unbridled capitalism, leading to genocide and later, ecocide, space expansionism could result in astrocide. Yet, any future-oriented (theoretical) understanding of astrocide, defined as the destructive exploitation and total annihilation of celestial bodies and any potential extraterrestrial life, remains missing. Therefore, by learning from current definitions of astrocide and drawing from genocide studies, a prospective typology of astrocide is introduced, adapting Vahakn N. Dadrian’s genocide framework (1975) to outer space. Four forms of astrocide are proposed: latent astrocide (interplanetary contamination and planetary defense), utilitarian astrocide (astral exploitation of extraterra nullius), optimal astrocide (terraformation), and biocultural astrocide (transhumanism).
About the speaker
Dr Yarin Eski is an associate professor in Public Administration, doing research on and at the intersection of criminology, governance and policing. He is co-director of the Resilience, Security and Civil Unrest (ReSCU) R&I Lab at the Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam. Yarin arrived in Amsterdam in January 2018, having previously lectured at Liverpool John Moores University. He obtained his PhD in Criminology in 2015 from the University of Glasgow, and a SCCJR alumnus. Yarin is the author of the book Policing, Port Security and Crime Control, which was published by Routledge in 2016. He has also written A Criminological Biography of an Arms Dealer (2022, Routledge). Next to that, he has edited a collection of work on Genocide and Victimology (2021, Routledge). Moreover, having brought together academics and professionals in the field of maritime and port security, he has co-edited the book Maritime Crime and Policing (2023, Routledge). His most recent book A Criminology of the Human Species (2023, Palgrave Macmillan) delves into how the human species destructively interacts with its environment, other species, on Earth and in outer space. Furthermore, together with Jack Lampkin, he has co-edited the book Crime, Criminal Justice & Ethics in Outer Space: International Perspectives (2025, Routledge). His other (forthcoming) publications include theoretical and empirical papers on (maritime) security, ethnography, professional identities, socio-cultural aspects of policing, the use of force and accountability, hybrid threats (awareness), algorithmic policing and smart surveillance, biography, the arms trade, organised crime, illegal drug trafficking, corruption, undermining of democracy, genocide, mass extinction, space criminology and space crime (control), and existentialism. At the Oxford Academic Policing: a Journal of Policy and Practice, he is an editorial member.