Welcome
to
Volume I
of the Red Feather Journal of
Postmodern Criminology
Vol 1: Contents
001 OVERVIEW
The first Article, by Barak, Henry and Milovanovic, provides an Overview of Postmodern
Criminology.
002 TOPOLOGICAL
CONSTRUCTIONS OF CRIMINOLOGIC REALITIES
by Bruce Arrigo.
In this article, Arrigo uses topological theory to discuss differences between pre-modern, modern and postmodern constructions of theories of Crime. He goes on to offer some ideas about replacement discourses based upon the work of Lacan.
003 DUELING PARADIGMS
The third article, Dueling Paradigms, by Dragan Milovanovic, gives the reader a broad view
of differences between modern and postmodern approaches to knowledge and to criminology.
In this article, Dragan examines differences between these paradigms; these dimensions
include the nature of:
(1) society and social
structure,
(2) social roles,
(3) subjectivity/agency,
(4) discourse,
(5) knowledge,
(6) space/time,
(7) Causality, and
(8) social change.
004 A CONSTITUTIVE THEORY
OF JUSTICE
by TR Young
In this article, Young uses postmodern understandings of texts about the sources and solutions to crime and apply them to a theory of Justice.
In brief, Young says that it is necessary to create/constitute definitions of crime; explanations of crime and to offer solutions to the kind of behavior constructed as crime. However, Young asserts, an affirmative postmodern approach to a theory of Justice requires a much different way of defining, policing and preventing unwanted behavior.
Generally, the use of Crime-as-Text to reproduce hierarchies of class, gender, racism as well as to privilege given nations and exclusionary politics is hostile to the human project.
Instead, Young suggests a version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a more affirmative approach to the constitution of theories of Justice. An affirmative postmodern theory of Justice requires both praxis and praxis societies organized in rich democratic format. See other articles in this series including the Red Feather Manifesto authored by Chas A Ostenle, below.
005 MANIFESTO FOR
PRAXIS SOCIETIES
And For A Global Democratic and Socialist Political Economy
By Chas A Ostenle,
Research Scholar,
the Red Feather Institute
In the Manifesto, Ostenle goes beyond a postmodern critique and exploration of postmodern criminology to suggest how, using the language and categories of the earlier Communist Manifesto, affirmative postmodern criminologists and other scholars in social science might want to work to maximize praxis for all persons and all peoples.
The Manifesto is part of a larger agenda in which Ostenle and the Red Feather Institute work to replace Criminal Justice with Social Justice.
126 THEORIES OF CRIME; CRIMES OF
THEORISTS
By TR Young.
Young presents a critique of conventional theories some of which are themselves criminal in that they reproduce crime rather than prevent it. Young then presents several theses which are central to a activist criminology in which both discourse and social policy are oriented to social justice rather than criminal justice. The paper concludes with some programmatic suggestions for a Low Crime Society based upon the work of Hulsman, Kramer, Quinney and others.
[Note: This article is No. 126 in the Transforming Sociology Series of the Red Feather Institute. It was written several years before work on non-linear dynamics in crime began. A Postmodern Criminology must include such work in its agenda for the 21st Century].