Comments on: Postfordism & crime.

Postfordism & crime.

slipperywhenwet — Wed, 30 Apr 2003 20:22:50 -0800

The return of the dangerous classes: crime control in the 21st century. "The language of crime control seems to be today on the verge of eclipsing all others - in particular that of social rights – and becoming the single, all encompassing goal of social policy."
Sounds topical? John Lea's work on the changes postfordism has brought to crime control are even more relevant now than they were when he wrote them back in the nineties. [more]

By: slipperywhenwet

slipperywhenwet — Wed, 30 Apr 2003 20:28:49 -0800

Lea's website includes links to a number of his other essays. So far I've only gone through Postfordism and Criminality. It's denser than Return of the Dangerous Classes but is a very worthwhile. A reciprocity between legal and illegal business is a general feature of contemporary capitalism ... and is symptomatic of an economic climate in which capital has to resort increasingly to breaking its own rules in order to remain viable.

By: Sonny Jim

Sonny Jim — Thu, 01 May 2003 16:25:17 -0800

The essays and lecture notes on organized crime are worth a look too. I'm a bit doubtful about certain of his 'big picture' conclusions about 19th-21st century convergences (they seem a bit polemical and doctrinaire to me), but I guess it's refreshing to see someone using nineteenth century social history in this way. The piece on Engels is a good example. However, I suppose the parallels are there to be made, and that in itself can't be a good thing. It just goes to show that a Marxist framework (shorn, perhaps, of its revolutionary utopianism) can continue to elicit useful insights into social history and change.

By: i_am_joe's_spleen

i_am_joe's_spleen — Thu, 01 May 2003 19:32:14 -0800

I really enjoyed reading this and am still mulling it over. Great link, SWW.