Daniel O'Connor

Associate Professor

PhD Sociology (Carleton)

photo of Daniel O'Connor

MA Sociology (Manitoba)
BA Criminology (Manitoba)

daniel.oconnor@uwaterloo.ca

519-888-4567 x 41366



Research and teaching areas

Research areas include:

  • Security and policing
  • Borders and governance
  • Regulation and law

Teaching areas include:

  • Social theory
  • Punishment and society
  • Crime and security
  • Sociology of culture, media & communications

Current research

My recent work is on issues of interstate governance and the policing of borders, security intelligence and policing networks, and policing and popular culture. I am currently working on two projects. The first examines the role of international agencies in the restructuring of systems of criminal law and justice. The second examines the role of interstate governance in the regulation and transformation of border security in North America and Europe.

Selected publications

  • O’Connor D,  Boyle P, Ilcan S, and Oliver M (2016) Living with insecurity: Food security, resilience, and the World Food Programme. Global Social Policy. Published Online (29 July, pp. 1-18). 

  • O’Connor, D. Interstate Governance: Security and Mobility at the Border. Montreal and London: McGill-Queen’s University Press. In Progress.

  • Daniel O’Connor with Kara Brisson-Boivin (2014) The Rule of Law, Security-Development and Penal Aid: The Case of Detention in Haiti.  Punishment and Society 15(5): 515-533. 

  • Daniel O’Connor, K. Brisson-Boivin, S. Ilcan. (2014) “Governing Failure: Development, Aid, and Audit in Haiti.” Conflict, Security and Development. (in press).

  • O’Connor, D. & W. de Lint (2009). “Frontier Government: The Folding of the Canada-US Border.” Studies in Social Justice. 3(1):39-66.
  • de Lint, W. and D. O'Connor (eds.) (2009). Security and Exclusion. Special Journal Issue of Studies in Social Justice. 3(1):1-143.
  • O’Connor, D., R. Lippert, D. Spencer & L. Smylie. (2008). “Seeing Private Security like a State.” Criminology and Criminal Justice. 8(2):203-226.
  • Cotter, R., W. de Lint, & D. O’Connor (2008). “Ordered Images: Cooking Reality in COPS.” Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture. 15(3):277-289.
  • de Lint, W., D. O’Connor, & R. Cotter.(2007). “Controlling the Flow: Security, Exclusivity, and Criminal Intelligence in Ontario.” International Journal of the Sociology of Law. 35(1): 41-58.
  • Ilcan, S., M. Oliver, & D. O’Connor. (2007). “Spaces of Governance: Gender and Public Sector Restructuring in Canada.” Gender, Place and Culture. 14(10): 75-92.
  • Lippert, R. & D. O’Connor (2006) “Security Intelligence Networks and the Transformation of Private Security.” Policing and Society. 16(1): 49-65
  • O’Connor, D. & S. Ilcan (2005) “The Folding of Liberal Government: Contract Governance and the Transformation of the Canadian Public Service in Canada.” Alternatives: Global, Local, Political. 30(1): 1-23.
  • Hutchinson, S. & D. O’Connor, (2005). “Policing The New Commons: Corporate Security Governance on a Mass Property in Canada.” Policing and Society. 15(2): 125-144.
  • O’Connor, D., R. Lippert, K. Greenfield, & P. Boyle (2004). “After the ‘Quiet Revolution’: The Self-regulation of Ontario Contract Security Agencies.” Policing and Society. 14(2): 138-157.
  • O’Connor, D. (2004). “Beyond the Frame: Ethical Encounters and Morality in Deleuze’s Cinematic Theory.” Postmodernism and the Ethical Subject. B. Gabriel & S. Ilcan, eds. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press. 207-223.
  • O’Connor, D. and R. Lippert. (2003). The Governance of Airport Security in Canada. Commissioned Report. The Law Commission of Canada.
  • Lippert, R. & D. O’Connor (2003). “Security Assemblages: Airport Security, Flexible Work, and Liberal Governance.” Alternatives. 28(3): 331-358.
  • Ilcan, S., D. O’Connor & M. Oliver (2003). “Contract Governance and the Canadian Public Sector.” Relations industrielles/Industrial Relations. 58(4): 620-643.
  • O’Connor, D. (2002). Mediated Associations: Cinematic Dimensions of Social Theory. Montreal and London: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
  • O’Connor, D., R. Shields, S. Ilcan, & E. Taborsky (2002). “Information and Knowledge Economies: Work and Management in the Canadian Federal Public Service.” In Kecheng Liu (ed.) Organizational Semiotics: An Evolving Science of Information Systems. . Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer. 21-40.
  • Shields, R., S. Ilcan, D. O’Connor, & E. Taborsky (2002). “The Impact of a Knowledge-Based Economy on Work in the Public Service: The ‘Virtual Organization’ of Expertise and Knowledge.” In M. Nakamura (ed.). Alliances, Cooperative Ventures and the Role of Government in the Knowledge Based Economy. The Centre for Japanese Research, Vancouver: University of British Columbia. 143-180.
  • O’Connor, D. (2000). “Media Cultures: Assemblages of Motion.” Space and Culture. 7: 4-20.
  • O’Connor, D. (2000). Guest Co-editor. “Assemblages” Special Issue. Space and Culture. 7: 1-84.
  • O’Connor, D. (1997). “Lines of Flight: The Visual Apparatus in Foucault and Deleuze.” Space and Culture. 1: 49-66.

Research grants

  • 2006-10 Principal Investigator, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Project Theme: Mobility and Security: Cross-Border Security Intelligence Networks.
    ($71,000)
  • 2002-06 Principal Investigator, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Project Theme: Work and Security Governance in the New Economy: Private Security in Ontario and Michigan.
    ($52,000)
  • 2002-03 Co-investigator, with R. Linden et.al. AUTO21 Networks of Centres of Excellence, Project Theme: National Study of Young Offender Involvement in Motor Vehicle Theft.
    ($15,000)
  • 2000-04 Co-investigator with Dr. R. Shields, et.al., Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Strategic Research Grant – Stage II, Project Theme: The Impact of a Knowledge-Based Economy on Work in the Public Service.
    ($390,000)
  • 1999 Co-investigator, with Dr. R. Shields, et.al., Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Strategic Research Grant – Stage I, Project Theme: Knowledge-Based Economies.
    ($5,000)