We are delighted to present the sixth book in the Studies in Social Harm series. The series seeks to contribute to the emerging field of zemiology – a cutting edge approach within the social sciences prioritizing the investigation of the serious harms that take place in society. Individually, and collectively, the books expose how some of the most damaging harms are not necessarily those which are illegal; very often they escape sanction or even moral opprobrium. Too often they are ‘normalized’, seen as part and parcel of the natural fabric or functioning of society that cannot be disturbed or interfered with. Yet, as each of our contributors has uncovered, harms occur not because of individual wickedness or aberrant behaviour but due to the very way societies are organized. As Pemberton (2015) explains in his eloquent exposition of different capitalist formations and their relation to the production of specific harms – structural harms result from avoidable and alterable social arrangements, and are ultimately preventable events.

To understand the full panoply of harms that occur in society Studies in Social Harm has encouraged authors from varied disciplinary foci, premised on the idea that we must embrace different disciplines and unify them towards this common goal. Evgenia Iliadou's book Border Harms and Everyday Violence is an excellent illustration of this endeavour. Bringing together scholarship from migration studies, zemiology and social anthropology, Iliadou's book provides a unique investigation of the unfolding European ‘refugee crisis’ from 2015 onwards using Lesvos as a case study. In 2015 Lesvos was thrust into the international spotlight becoming both ‘the epicentre and allegory of the one the worst forced displacements in history’. For Iliadou, this ‘crisis’ was far from sudden, isolated or even exceptional.

Iliadou provides a fascinating interrogation of border harms and violence on the island, exposing the normalization and routinization of everyday practices of human degradation. By exploring the situation of Lesvos – an island in the Eastern Aegean promoted as a beautiful and scenic travel destination for discerning travellers – Iliadou exposes its janus-faced nature by linking contemporary border harms to a much longer genealogy of border violence towards people migrating to the region.