On the 12th March the School of Law and Criminology Research Seminar series welcomed colleagues Frea Anderson, Assistant Lecturer in Criminology, to present on ‘Considering some challenges with expansive conceptions of prisons’ with discussant Dr Cormac Behan
The emergence of the interdisciplinary fields of carceral studies and carceral geography evidences a growing trend to expand and diversify conceptions of prisons. In critical scholarship the idea of the carceral has gained significant currency, articulating diverse forms of social entrapment existing outside prisons. This seminar revisited Foucault’s (1977) expansive interpretation of the carceral, which identifies interwoven modalities of criminalisation, surveillance, and punishment pervading modern societies. While this notion has been influential, it is worth addressing some ambiguities surrounding this concept. This seminar explored some philosophical and theoretical challenges posed by such expansive conceptions of prisons and consider how overusing the carceral may limit abolitionist horizons.
For more information on the School of Law and Criminology Seminar Series see here.