International Journal of Criminology and Sociology

The Emergence of Urbanization and Urbanism in Phenomenological Structural Sociology

Paul C. Mocombe — 2026-02-11

Within Mocombe’s theories of phenomenological structuralism and consciousness field theory, this article outlines the emergence of the process of urbanization and urbanism as a way of life in the capitalist world-system. The paper connects, causally, the emergence of the latter with the formation of the former two, i.e., urbanization and urbanism, in the West.

Teratocracy and Contemporary Political Power

Fernando Gil Villa — 2026-02-23

This article introduces the concept of teratocracy to analyze contemporary forms of political power marked by the erosion of symbolic limits and the normalization of excess. Epistemologically, it aligns with the tradition of the criminological imagination articulated by Jock Young, reconnecting criminology and sociology through C. Wright Mills’ critique of abstracted empiricism. From a criminological perspective, it also draws on recent developments in zemiology and social harm approaches, shifting the analytical focus from crime to the production, normalization, and denial of harm. From an interdisciplinary perspective, the analysis examines processes of symbolic collapse and their implications for authority, responsibility, legitimacy, and social harm. Teratocracy is conceptualized not as governance without law, but as a mode of power organized around unbounded enjoyment, which reshapes moral boundaries and weakens mechanisms of accountability.

Bureaucratic Residence Regimes and the Integration of Syrian Refugee Women in Spain: A Sociological Analysis with Reference to Germany

Fernando Gil Villa — 2026-05-07

This article examines how bureaucratic residence regimes shape the integration experiences of Syrian refugee women in Spain, with Germany used as a contextual reference rather than as a fully matched empirical case. Moving beyond dominant integration indicators such as employment, education, and language acquisition, the study argues that legal status and administrative accessibility are constitutive dimensions of integration. The article draws on twenty-six semi-structured interviews with Syrian women residing in Spain and combines these data with an interpretive comparison of the policy and administrative frameworks that structure refugee reception and integration in Spain and Germany. The findings show that residence status is not merely a formal legal category but a lived condition that affects planning, mobility, access to institutions, and emotional security. Interviewees associated bureaucratic complexity with uncertainty, delay, and unequal treatment, and a large majority linked perceived discrimination to bureaucratic settings in Germany. At the same time, interviewees described Spain as relatively more facilitating in terms of residence stability, especially because many had obtained five-year asylum residence permits or had progressed to permanent residence or nationality. The article also highlights the gendered and cultural dimensions of integration, showing how administrative procedures intersect with caregiving responsibilities, language barriers, and differing understandings of family, emotion, and social relations. The study contributes to sociology by conceptualizing bureaucracy as a central mechanism in the production of integration, inequality, and institutional trust. It concludes that integration policy must be understood not only as a matter of social inclusion programming but also as a question of legal architecture and bureaucratic design.