Jonathan Ilan

Dr Jonathan Ilan

Small Group Project 2017

Crossing borders: Marginality and opportunity in contemporary British urban youth culture

Marginalised urban youth in contemporary Britain struggle to square their own aspirations, society’s expectations and the disadvantages they face in the course of their lives. As a consequence, their lived experiences often consist of competing narratives around entrepreneurialism, education and criminality. At different times, each of these different approaches to life will exert a greater pull; they can be practised simultaneously and jostle for attention. Mediating and articulating these concerns are grassroots music scenes: predominantly grime and rap. All too often, however, these diverse issues are studied in silos even where they fuse together at the level of lived experience and everyday lives. This research brings together experts in all of these fields to better conceptualise the lifeworlds and choices of marginalised youth.

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Areas of interest

Criminology Crime Justice Street Culture Urban Ethnography Music Marginalisation Youth Urban Studies Sociology

Cohort

RRG2

Biography

Jonathan Ilan joined the University College Dublin Sutherland School of Law in 2023 from the Department of Sociology and Criminology, City, University of London where he is now an Honorary Senior Lecturer. He is a cultural criminologist with an interest in the ways in which social structures, systems of meaning, crime and justice are intertwined. He is a keen scholar of street culture, theoretical criminology and urban ethnography, analysing phenomena as diverse as drill rap music, radicalisation and the policing of marginalised communities. His work seeks to make sense of crime and its control at this particular ‘conjuncture’ of mass digital mediatisation, burgeoning socio-economic inequality, hyper-individualism and public anxiety.

Johnny’s work is inherently multi-disciplinary speaking beyond criminology to youth studies, urban studies, sociology, social theory, anthropology, legal studies and more. He is dedicated to shaping future scholarship through participation in international editorial boards and networks.

Biographical details correct as of 13.05.26