Mattias De Backer

Mattias De Backer is guest professor and postdoctoral researcher at Vrije Universiteit Brussel and editor-in-chief of the open-access journal Criminological Encounters. He is a transdisciplinary researcher, travelling between criminology, sociology, philosophy and geography, holding a Master’s degree in Philosophy and Urban Studies, and a PhD in Criminology. Mattias works on topics related to youth, the city and migration and has an interest in creative/participatory methods and poststructuralist philosophy.

Mattias has published the monograph Radicalisering: donkere spiegel van een kwetsbare samenleving (2020) and the edited collections Refugee Youth, Migration, Justice and Public Space (2023) and Order and Conflict in Public Space (2016) and articles in, amongst others, Space and Culture, Qualitative Research, Social and Cultural Geography, Emotion, Society and Space and Urban Environment.