The Social Immune System and the Cancer Stage of Capitalism When we think of a society’s “defense system,” we think of its armed forces. We have long been conditioned to do this. The military-industrial establishment and the armaments business are the world’s most powerful institutions of organized violence and international trade. For them to preserve […]
Archives
Piers Beirne
The Use and Abuse of Animals in Criminology: A Brief History and Current Review Beirne’s project is simply to place animal abuse firmly on the sociological agenda, given that scholarly studies of animal abuse remain virtually nonexistent and the topic is completely ignored in criminology textbooks. Historically, non-human animals have not been absent from criminological […]
Ronnie Lippens
Critical Criminologies and the Reconstruction of Utopia Ronnie Lippens make a plea for renewed utopian thinking in critical criminology. Critical criminology must avoid nihilism and postmodernist impossibilism, along with its fragmenting dynamics. Instead, it must make substantial efforts to fight the contemporary (postmodern) condition, where possibilities and opportunities for human emancipatory action are splintered, and […]
Vincenzo Ruggiero
COMMENTARY The Economic Field and the End of Mass Incarceration In a recent special issue of Social Justice (Vol. 42-2), a series of critical contributions examine recent developments in North American penal systems, offering hypotheses around the apparent end of mass incarceration. This commentary adopts a materialistic perspective, taking as a starting point the work […]
Vol. 44-2/3: Neoliberal Confinements: Social Suffering in the Carceral State
Neoliberal Confinements: Social Suffering in the Carceral State edited by Alessandro De Giorgi & Benjamin Fleury-Steiner This special issue aims to provide a cartography of some of the forms of social suffering experienced by marginalized and oppressed populations in the US carceral state. The contributors extend their gaze beyond the prison and its ancillary institutions […]
Vol. 47-3/4 — A Critical Theory of Police Power
A Critical Theory of Police Power in the Twenty-First Century edited by Mark Neocleous and the Anti-security Collective This special issue advances a critical theory of police power focusing on the inextricable link between the violence of police, the organization of the state, and the reproduction of capital. Analyzing police power from different perspectives and at different scales, the […]