Roy Coleman | The Open University (original) (raw)
Papers by Roy Coleman
Space and Culture
Early 20th-century urban expansion developed alongside media technologies to aid communication ac... more Early 20th-century urban expansion developed alongside media technologies to aid communication across increasingly differentiated and divided social groupings. Early sociologists maintained that this technology was problematic in relation to the potential for social solidarity and broad citizen political participation. This article extends these early ideas in relation to the synoptic city: a component of neoliberal statecraft generating its own media infrastructure, imaginaries, and messaging pertaining to the ideal city and the right to the city. In this article, it is argued that synoptic power is conjoined with a culture of entrepreneurialism attempting to confer legitimacy on the latter in emotional, sensual and value-specific terms. Synoptic technologies attempt to cultivate common experiences ‘for the many’ but are in fact produced by ‘the few’, with the possible danger of generating highly scripted views of entrepreneurial space and ‘place’ through celebratory animation and ...
Bolstered by the new wave of theoretical innovation and methodological scepticism that had tentat... more Bolstered by the new wave of theoretical innovation and methodological scepticism that had tentatively begun in 1968 with the formation of the radical, National Deviancy Conference (NDC), a number of seminal texts were published during the 1970s which developed the critical themes and perspectives initially identified by those participating in the NDC. These texts contested not only the mystifying, algorithmic quantification of positivist criminology, and the reductive emphasis on the individualization of criminal behaviour that flowed from this methodological position, but also implicitly confronted the conjoined, cosy and intertwined relationship which many in the discipline had developed with micro and macro structures of power and domination, including the state and its institutions (Walters, this volume). This relationship was based on the rhetoric of benevolent, progressive reform which both generated a criminology of ‘compliance and complicity’ while simultaneously excluding significant areas of social and political life which had a direct bearing on the nature of, and response to, criminal and deviant behaviour. Profoundly important political and cultural processes, including the question of the state, did not feature on the radar of conventional criminological endeavour, nor the nebulous, administrative pluralism which underpinned it. However, for critical criminologists, state power, and the interests the state served in a grossly unequal social world, became increasingly important as critical criminology moved from the amorphous conceptualization of social control underpinning labelling theory’s often idealized glamorization of transgressive male criminality to a more materialist, Marxist based interpretation of power, and, by extension, the processes of criminalization and control emanating from the state and its institutions
State Power Crime, 2009
Bolstered by the new wave of theoretical innovation and methodological scepticism that had tentat... more Bolstered by the new wave of theoretical innovation and methodological scepticism that had tentatively begun in 1968 with the formation of the radical, National Deviancy Conference (NDC), a number of seminal texts were published during the 1970s which developed the critical themes and perspectives initially identified by those participating in the NDC. These texts contested not only the mystifying, algorithmic quantification of positivist criminology, and the reductive emphasis on the individualization of criminal behaviour that flowed from this methodological position, but also implicitly confronted the conjoined, cosy and intertwined relationship which many in the discipline had developed with micro and macro structures of power and domination, including the state and its institutions (Walters, this volume). This relationship was based on the rhetoric of benevolent, progressive reform which both generated a criminology of ‘compliance and complicity’ while simultaneously excluding significant areas of social and political life which had a direct bearing on the nature of, and response to, criminal and deviant behaviour. Profoundly important political and cultural processes, including the question of the state, did not feature on the radar of conventional criminological endeavour, nor the nebulous, administrative pluralism which underpinned it. However, for critical criminologists, state power, and the interests the state served in a grossly unequal social world, became increasingly important as critical criminology moved from the amorphous conceptualization of social control underpinning labelling theory’s often idealized glamorization of transgressive male criminality to a more materialist, Marxist based interpretation of power, and, by extension, the processes of criminalization and control emanating from the state and its institutions
Smith (1996: 230-232) characterized the late twentieth century crusade for a "new urban frontier"... more Smith (1996: 230-232) characterized the late twentieth century crusade for a "new urban frontier" as akin to the Wild West of nineteenth century America. In the last ten years, not only in the North American context but in Europe too, extending the boundaries of the urban frontier-economically, politically, and culturally-has galvanized powerful urban coalitions in the task of re-taking-both ideologically and materially-city spaces from the visible and symbolic elements of urban degeneration. The project of urban reclamation has not been neutral but has been formulated within a post welfare, neoliberal politics that has promoted a ideology of self responsibilisation within a climate of moral indifference to increasingly visible inequality. These ideological shifts have been fuelled by, and consolidated in, an evolving form of state ensemble that, as a rapidly moving target (Hay 1996: 3), has been largely neglected in criminological analysis. It is the contention of this paper that the agents and agencies of the neoliberal state are constructing the boundaries and possibilities of the new urban frontier while simultaneously engaging in a project of social control that will have far-reaching consequences for how we understand the meanings of public space, social justice and the parameters of state power.
Urban Studies, 2005
Recent debates have drawn attention to the centrality of crime and disorder discourses within the... more Recent debates have drawn attention to the centrality of crime and disorder discourses within the rationale of contemporary urban entrepreneurial rule and how these have targeted ideological and political resources onto policing 'quality of life' infractions on the streets. In extending these insights, the paper focuses upon the regeneration of urban order in the UK and how this is being increasingly practised through a form of corporatised statecraft that underpins the shaping of discourses and responses to crime, harm and risk in city spaces. Attention is given to the processes by which 'regeneration' and entrepreneurialised governance are not only 'opening-up' but also 'closing-down' urban spaces as objects of surveillance and regulation. It is not only that crimes on the streets and associated hindrances to entrepreneurial rule are selected as the proper objects of power; at the same time, and through a series of integrally linked processes, other...
British Journal of Criminology, 2006
Sociology, 2000
... Structural disadvantage disappears from view. Why, finally, does a book declared as future-or... more ... Structural disadvantage disappears from view. Why, finally, does a book declared as future-oriented says nothing at all about internet-based sources of information? ... Therapeutic communities were hailed in the 1950s as an antidote to the inhumanity of the large asylums. ...
Local Economy, 2004
... Those working in and around the camera network display the tendencies characteristic of a ...... more ... Those working in and around the camera network display the tendencies characteristic of a ... The Government's own Social Exclusion Unit found the gaps between wealth and poverty in Liverpool ... Renewal Fund as part of a 'pledge to help the poor' (Neighbourhood Renewal Unit ...
International Review of Law, Computers & Technology, 1998
Page 1. INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF LAW COMPUTERS & TECHNOLOGY, VOLUME 12, NUMBER 1, PAGES 27–45,... more Page 1. INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF LAW COMPUTERS & TECHNOLOGY, VOLUME 12, NUMBER 1, PAGES 27–45, 1998 From the Dockyards to the Disney Store: Surveillance, Risk and Security in Liverpool City Centre ... Page 3. From the Dockyards to the Disney Store 29 ...
European Urban and Regional Studies, 2005
The New Punitiveness: Current Trends, …, 2005
A hard core of prolific offenders-just 5,000 people-commit around 1 million crimes each year, nea... more A hard core of prolific offenders-just 5,000 people-commit around 1 million crimes each year, nearly 10 per cent of all crime. That's only 15 or 20 people for each of our Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships. Yet they are wreaking havoc. The financial loss is ...
Critical Criminology, 2000
Smith (1996: 230-232) characterized the late twentieth century crusade for a "new urban frontier"... more Smith (1996: 230-232) characterized the late twentieth century crusade for a "new urban frontier" as akin to the Wild West of nineteenth century America. In the last ten years, not only in the North American context but in Europe too, extending the boundaries of the urban frontier-economically, politically, and culturally-has galvanized powerful urban coalitions in the task of re-taking-both ideologically and materially-city spaces from the visible and symbolic elements of urban degeneration. The project of urban reclamation has not been neutral but has been formulated within a post welfare, neoliberal politics that has promoted a ideology of self responsibilisation within a climate of moral indifference to increasingly visible inequality. These ideological shifts have been fuelled by, and consolidated in, an evolving form of state ensemble that, as a rapidly moving target (Hay 1996: 3), has been largely neglected in criminological analysis. It is the contention of this paper that the agents and agencies of the neoliberal state are constructing the boundaries and possibilities of the new urban frontier while simultaneously engaging in a project of social control that will have far-reaching consequences for how we understand the meanings of public space, social justice and the parameters of state power.
Criminal Justice Matters, 2013
Criminal Justice Matters, 2006
Criminal Justice Matters, 2009
Crime, Media, Culture, 2011
Crime, Media, Culture, 2005
... 1999; Ferrell, 2001) and in European cities (Belina and Helms, 2003; Koskela, 2004). Understa... more ... 1999; Ferrell, 2001) and in European cities (Belina and Helms, 2003; Koskela, 2004). Understanding the trajec-tories of particular social control projects requires comparative international studies within which to place debates in relation to changes in urban spatial justice ...
Space and Culture
Early 20th-century urban expansion developed alongside media technologies to aid communication ac... more Early 20th-century urban expansion developed alongside media technologies to aid communication across increasingly differentiated and divided social groupings. Early sociologists maintained that this technology was problematic in relation to the potential for social solidarity and broad citizen political participation. This article extends these early ideas in relation to the synoptic city: a component of neoliberal statecraft generating its own media infrastructure, imaginaries, and messaging pertaining to the ideal city and the right to the city. In this article, it is argued that synoptic power is conjoined with a culture of entrepreneurialism attempting to confer legitimacy on the latter in emotional, sensual and value-specific terms. Synoptic technologies attempt to cultivate common experiences ‘for the many’ but are in fact produced by ‘the few’, with the possible danger of generating highly scripted views of entrepreneurial space and ‘place’ through celebratory animation and ...
Bolstered by the new wave of theoretical innovation and methodological scepticism that had tentat... more Bolstered by the new wave of theoretical innovation and methodological scepticism that had tentatively begun in 1968 with the formation of the radical, National Deviancy Conference (NDC), a number of seminal texts were published during the 1970s which developed the critical themes and perspectives initially identified by those participating in the NDC. These texts contested not only the mystifying, algorithmic quantification of positivist criminology, and the reductive emphasis on the individualization of criminal behaviour that flowed from this methodological position, but also implicitly confronted the conjoined, cosy and intertwined relationship which many in the discipline had developed with micro and macro structures of power and domination, including the state and its institutions (Walters, this volume). This relationship was based on the rhetoric of benevolent, progressive reform which both generated a criminology of ‘compliance and complicity’ while simultaneously excluding significant areas of social and political life which had a direct bearing on the nature of, and response to, criminal and deviant behaviour. Profoundly important political and cultural processes, including the question of the state, did not feature on the radar of conventional criminological endeavour, nor the nebulous, administrative pluralism which underpinned it. However, for critical criminologists, state power, and the interests the state served in a grossly unequal social world, became increasingly important as critical criminology moved from the amorphous conceptualization of social control underpinning labelling theory’s often idealized glamorization of transgressive male criminality to a more materialist, Marxist based interpretation of power, and, by extension, the processes of criminalization and control emanating from the state and its institutions
State Power Crime, 2009
Bolstered by the new wave of theoretical innovation and methodological scepticism that had tentat... more Bolstered by the new wave of theoretical innovation and methodological scepticism that had tentatively begun in 1968 with the formation of the radical, National Deviancy Conference (NDC), a number of seminal texts were published during the 1970s which developed the critical themes and perspectives initially identified by those participating in the NDC. These texts contested not only the mystifying, algorithmic quantification of positivist criminology, and the reductive emphasis on the individualization of criminal behaviour that flowed from this methodological position, but also implicitly confronted the conjoined, cosy and intertwined relationship which many in the discipline had developed with micro and macro structures of power and domination, including the state and its institutions (Walters, this volume). This relationship was based on the rhetoric of benevolent, progressive reform which both generated a criminology of ‘compliance and complicity’ while simultaneously excluding significant areas of social and political life which had a direct bearing on the nature of, and response to, criminal and deviant behaviour. Profoundly important political and cultural processes, including the question of the state, did not feature on the radar of conventional criminological endeavour, nor the nebulous, administrative pluralism which underpinned it. However, for critical criminologists, state power, and the interests the state served in a grossly unequal social world, became increasingly important as critical criminology moved from the amorphous conceptualization of social control underpinning labelling theory’s often idealized glamorization of transgressive male criminality to a more materialist, Marxist based interpretation of power, and, by extension, the processes of criminalization and control emanating from the state and its institutions
Smith (1996: 230-232) characterized the late twentieth century crusade for a "new urban frontier"... more Smith (1996: 230-232) characterized the late twentieth century crusade for a "new urban frontier" as akin to the Wild West of nineteenth century America. In the last ten years, not only in the North American context but in Europe too, extending the boundaries of the urban frontier-economically, politically, and culturally-has galvanized powerful urban coalitions in the task of re-taking-both ideologically and materially-city spaces from the visible and symbolic elements of urban degeneration. The project of urban reclamation has not been neutral but has been formulated within a post welfare, neoliberal politics that has promoted a ideology of self responsibilisation within a climate of moral indifference to increasingly visible inequality. These ideological shifts have been fuelled by, and consolidated in, an evolving form of state ensemble that, as a rapidly moving target (Hay 1996: 3), has been largely neglected in criminological analysis. It is the contention of this paper that the agents and agencies of the neoliberal state are constructing the boundaries and possibilities of the new urban frontier while simultaneously engaging in a project of social control that will have far-reaching consequences for how we understand the meanings of public space, social justice and the parameters of state power.
Urban Studies, 2005
Recent debates have drawn attention to the centrality of crime and disorder discourses within the... more Recent debates have drawn attention to the centrality of crime and disorder discourses within the rationale of contemporary urban entrepreneurial rule and how these have targeted ideological and political resources onto policing 'quality of life' infractions on the streets. In extending these insights, the paper focuses upon the regeneration of urban order in the UK and how this is being increasingly practised through a form of corporatised statecraft that underpins the shaping of discourses and responses to crime, harm and risk in city spaces. Attention is given to the processes by which 'regeneration' and entrepreneurialised governance are not only 'opening-up' but also 'closing-down' urban spaces as objects of surveillance and regulation. It is not only that crimes on the streets and associated hindrances to entrepreneurial rule are selected as the proper objects of power; at the same time, and through a series of integrally linked processes, other...
British Journal of Criminology, 2006
Sociology, 2000
... Structural disadvantage disappears from view. Why, finally, does a book declared as future-or... more ... Structural disadvantage disappears from view. Why, finally, does a book declared as future-oriented says nothing at all about internet-based sources of information? ... Therapeutic communities were hailed in the 1950s as an antidote to the inhumanity of the large asylums. ...
Local Economy, 2004
... Those working in and around the camera network display the tendencies characteristic of a ...... more ... Those working in and around the camera network display the tendencies characteristic of a ... The Government's own Social Exclusion Unit found the gaps between wealth and poverty in Liverpool ... Renewal Fund as part of a 'pledge to help the poor' (Neighbourhood Renewal Unit ...
International Review of Law, Computers & Technology, 1998
Page 1. INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF LAW COMPUTERS & TECHNOLOGY, VOLUME 12, NUMBER 1, PAGES 27–45,... more Page 1. INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF LAW COMPUTERS & TECHNOLOGY, VOLUME 12, NUMBER 1, PAGES 27–45, 1998 From the Dockyards to the Disney Store: Surveillance, Risk and Security in Liverpool City Centre ... Page 3. From the Dockyards to the Disney Store 29 ...
European Urban and Regional Studies, 2005
The New Punitiveness: Current Trends, …, 2005
A hard core of prolific offenders-just 5,000 people-commit around 1 million crimes each year, nea... more A hard core of prolific offenders-just 5,000 people-commit around 1 million crimes each year, nearly 10 per cent of all crime. That's only 15 or 20 people for each of our Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships. Yet they are wreaking havoc. The financial loss is ...
Critical Criminology, 2000
Smith (1996: 230-232) characterized the late twentieth century crusade for a "new urban frontier"... more Smith (1996: 230-232) characterized the late twentieth century crusade for a "new urban frontier" as akin to the Wild West of nineteenth century America. In the last ten years, not only in the North American context but in Europe too, extending the boundaries of the urban frontier-economically, politically, and culturally-has galvanized powerful urban coalitions in the task of re-taking-both ideologically and materially-city spaces from the visible and symbolic elements of urban degeneration. The project of urban reclamation has not been neutral but has been formulated within a post welfare, neoliberal politics that has promoted a ideology of self responsibilisation within a climate of moral indifference to increasingly visible inequality. These ideological shifts have been fuelled by, and consolidated in, an evolving form of state ensemble that, as a rapidly moving target (Hay 1996: 3), has been largely neglected in criminological analysis. It is the contention of this paper that the agents and agencies of the neoliberal state are constructing the boundaries and possibilities of the new urban frontier while simultaneously engaging in a project of social control that will have far-reaching consequences for how we understand the meanings of public space, social justice and the parameters of state power.
Criminal Justice Matters, 2013
Criminal Justice Matters, 2006
Criminal Justice Matters, 2009
Crime, Media, Culture, 2011
Crime, Media, Culture, 2005
... 1999; Ferrell, 2001) and in European cities (Belina and Helms, 2003; Koskela, 2004). Understa... more ... 1999; Ferrell, 2001) and in European cities (Belina and Helms, 2003; Koskela, 2004). Understanding the trajec-tories of particular social control projects requires comparative international studies within which to place debates in relation to changes in urban spatial justice ...