In the previous meeting of the reading project, we discussed the US-specific focus of Simon's work. It seems that Gemma was not the only one to spot this! In the newest issue of the European Journal of Criminology there is an article that tries to find parallel developments in the European Union. Here is the abstract:
Estella Baker
European Journal of Criminology 7(3) 187-213.
In Governing through Crime, Jonathan Simon offers an 'interpretation' of contemporary practices, discourses and experiences of the state in the USA that aims to provide a 'thick' account of the use of crime as a governance strategy. In support of this argument, he cites a variety of constitutional, cultural, economic, historical , political and social factors. Many of them are demonstrably US-specific. Therefore, any potential for exploring the application of his ideas to another governmental entity might appear to be precluded. This article challenges that supposition, investigating their possible relevance to an understanding of the European Union's evolving and increasingly significant role as a penal actor.
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Thanks for this, Ioannis. It'll be really useful, I think, to see the range of reviews the book has received, and whether these focus mainly on the US-specific aspect, or on broader theoretical issues; so if anyone else comes across more, do share!
ReplyDeleteI think Jonathan Simon’s work invites the curious analyst to see how it might apply in different ways and in different contexts, thus the ‘governing through’ tag has been used to analyse the extent to which migration control and anti-social behaviour are used to develop new forms and opportunities for governing (Bosworth and Guild 2008, Crawford 2009, both in the British Journal of Criminology); while the analysis of the US has been used to inform studies in a range of contexts and political entities including the UK (Waiton 2009 in Punishment and Society), New Zealand (Pratt 2008 in A&NZ Journal of Criminology), and the world, taken in this instance as a globalised system (Findlay in his 2008 monograph Governing through Globalised Crime).
ReplyDeleteI’m presently (still) puzzling over a paper I initially presented in the same session at the 2008 ESC in which Estella Baker presented her work. I’m interested in looking at how the Governing through Crime model can be applied to attempts to govern states rather than individuals. I think that Jonathan Simon’s own work on the redistribution of power within the US, and Estella Baker’s remarks about the shifting balance of power between the Commission on one hand and the Council and individual member states on the other suggest that there is some merit in pursuing this line. My case is that of international attempts to govern the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. See http://www.sps.ed.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/31364/Aitchison_ESC2008.pdf for slides and materials.
Thanks, Andy; this is a really useful overview of various ways in which the 'governing through crime' concept has been deployed to explore other contexts. I was going to ask at our meeting next Tuesday if there was a volunteer to do a round-up of the 'governing through crime'literature, so if anyone's interested, Andy's just given you a head-start.
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