Preface to the special issue: Neoliberalism and penality: Reflections on the work of Loïc Wacquant
| Author | Leonidas K. Cheliotis |
| DOI | 10.1177/1748895810383633 |
| Published date | 01 November 2010 |
| Date | 01 November 2010 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Preface to the special issue:
Neoliberalism and penality:
Reflections on the work of
Loïc Wacquant
Leonidas K. Cheliotis
Queen Mary, University of London, UK
For nearly two decades now, through an extensive and ever-growing series of interven-
tions in academia and beyond, Loïc Wacquant has been scrutinising and criticising what
he views as the inextricable link between the ascendancy of neoliberalism and the rise of
the penal state. As Loader and Sparks indicate in their contribution to this special issue,
many feel that criminology has refined and expanded its intellectual resources thanks to
inputs by a sociologist of Wacquant’s stature. And with good reason, for he simultane-
ously breaches a host of boundaries which have long impaired scholarly engagement
with crime and punishment. These are the boundaries between theoretical analysis and
empirical research, between disparate empirical strands, between diverse disciplinary
realms, and between science and politics.
Wacquant’s work combines sophisticated theoretical construction with an intrepid
search for empirical evidence in both qualitative and quantitative sources, from urban
and prison ethnographies to official crime and criminal justice statistics. Due not least to
the multifariousness of his subject matter, Wacquant also brings together concepts,
insights, and data from a variety of academic disciplines and sub-fields: from criminol-
ogy and sociology to geography and anthropology, and from youth deviance, policing,
and imprisonment to ethnoracial relations, the welfare system, and the economy. All this,
finally, he does with a passionate and unrelenting commitment to the practice of demo-
cratic politics; that he strives to debunk social, scientific, and official myths such as those
of the ‘new law-and-order reason’ (Wacquant, 2009a: 243–69) is because he wishes to
alter the parameters of public discussion and thereby help redress poverty and inequality.
And indeed, Wacquant’s arguments appear to have percolated amongst journalists, pol-
icy-makers, practitioners, activists, unionists, interested citizens, and university students
(see Wacquant, 2009b: 161–76).
Interest in the work of Wacquant has intensified in recent months on the occasion of
the publication of his two latest books, Punishing the Poor and Prisons of Poverty. In
Corresponding author:
Leonidas K. Cheliotis
Email: l.cheliotis@qmul.ac.uk
Criminology & Criminal Justice
10(4) 327–330
© The Author(s) 2010
Reprints and permission: sagepub.
co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1748895810383633
crj.sagepub.com
To continue reading
Request your trial