Abandoning Controls?
| Author | Owen Wells |
| Published date | 01 March 1993 |
| Date | 01 March 1993 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/026455059304000123 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
If the history of Enlightenment
The absence of women
and black
thought which Neary mentions teaches
people from Ross’s work shows a
us anything, it is that asymmetric of
woeful lack of concern with social and
power are enabled and legitimated
cultural inbalances of power and fur-
through the use of what counts as true
ther highlights the way psychology
and objective knowledge, usually ex-
operates
bn
generalised and
pressed in quasi-scientific terms. By
mechanistic theories of cognition.
basing the legitimacy of repressive ac-
Also worrying is the way that the
tivities in a set of scientific concepts,
use of this programme dovetails into
such repression becomes represented
the current obsession within the Pro-
as ’normal’. In this century, ’science’
bation Service with what Bill Jordan
has enabled the incarceration of un-
has termed ’Authoritarian Bentl~amis~’,
married mothers as mentally ill, has
a
penchant for monitoring, regulation
prompted scientists to seek ’cures’ for
and surveillance which is directed not
homosexuality, has exposed conscripts
just at clients but also at staff. Already
to nuclear radiation and has informed
discussion papers on R &
R
have que
various strands of criminology and
tioned whether probation officers are
criminal pathology, from the bar-
needed at all to implement the pro-
barities of lobotimizing ’criminal types’
gramme. After all, ’programme integri-
to the work of various theorists of
ty’ places the emphasis on delivering
criminal personality from Eysenck to
the handbook’s contents. Maybe
Ross. The repressive application of
volunteers could do this, whilst proba-
such
tion officers deal with the
power through knowledge has
increasing
hardly been confined to capitalist
tide of monitoring and evaluation
society. Whilst there
forms in order
are
to
no doubt
prove that they’re giv-
various explanations and contortions
ing value for money.
to manoeuvre Marxist theory away
Neary is right to be wary of R&R
from...
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