Dangerous Others, Insecure Societies examines the turn in post-industrial societies towards a fear of cultural, racial or religious externality, adopting a ground-breaking analysis which considers 'insecurity' a constituent part of 'otherness', rather than something separate or following from it. By addressing the link between insecurity and otherness, this book sheds light on the contemporary cultures of fear and risk that have made possible the aggressive measures that followed the 2001 terrorist attacks in the US and which continue to dominate contemporary geopolitics. The result of particular socio-economic and political circumstances, a sense of fear in relation to the Other has emerged as a replacement for the social bond, as otherness and danger are increasingly associated with one another - a development that appears paradoxical in the modern, globalized world. Bringing together the latest research from scholars in the UK, Europe and Australia, Dangerous Others, Insecure Societies engages with diverse issues surrounding migration, authoritarianism and social exclusion to consider the implications of a culture of fear and exclusion for multicultural, globalized, networked societies. As such, it will appeal to sociologists, geographers, social anthropologists and political scientists concerned with questions of identity, citizenship, exclusion and belonging.

Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras are a prominent, if increasingly familiar, feature of urbanism. They symbolize the faith that spatial authorities place in technical interventions for the treatment of social problems. CCTV was principally introduced to sterilize municipalities, to govern conducts and to protect properties. Vast expenditure has been committed to these technologies without a clear sense of how precisely they influence things. CCTV cameras might appear inanimate, but Opening the Black Box shows them to be vital mediums within relational circulations of supervision. The book principally excavates the social relations entwining the everyday application of CCTV. It takes the reader on a journey from living beneath the camera, to working behind the lens. Attention focuses on the labour exerted by camera operators as they source and process distanced spectacles. These workers are paid to scan monitor screens in search of disorderly vistas, visualizing stimuli according to its perceived riskiness and/or allurement. But the projection of this gaze can draw an unsettling reflection. It can mean enduring behavioural extremities as an impotent witness. It can also entail making spontaneous decisions that determine the course of justice. Opening the Black Box, therefore, contemplates the seductive and traumatic dimensions of monitoring telemediated ‘riskscapes’ through the prism of camera circuitry. It probes the positioning of camera operators as ‘vicarious’ custodians of a precarious social order and engages their subjective experiences. It reveals the work of watching to be an ambiguous practice: as much about managing external disturbances on the street as managing internal disruptions in the self.

Is violent conflict inevitable? What is it in our social nature that makes us conduct wars, genocides and persecutions? The answer lies in how we are programmed to bond and form communities that demand loyalty in order to let us belong. The analysis in this book cuts through the social sciences in order to show the fundamentals of violent conflict. The book investigates conflict at the level of sociality. It reorganises existing theories of conflict under that perspective and brings them to bear upon the link between violence and togetherness. It introduces the key concept of closure to describe the conditions under which human groups start to perceive their position as similar and their reality as polarised. This is how normality starts breaking down and fault lines appear. Violent conflict is then analysed as a reaction that seeks change more rapidly than conditions seem to allow. Global comparative data from numerous studies – including M. Mousseau's works – are used to disentangle the factors that contribute to "democratic peace", that is, the fact that democratic societies do not go to war with each other. This inquiry reveals the new dimension of sociodiversity, which allows societies where individuality is strong to constantly produce alternatives and avoid closure. The book concludes with a coda on peace and sociodiversity which explains how contemporary societies can ensure durable peace and adequate social justice at the same time. Written in a clear and direct style, this volume will appeal to students, researchers and scholars with an interest in political sociology, anthropology, international relations, war studies, as well as conflict and peace studies.

Restorative Justice Volume 5, Number 2, June 2016 Edited by David M. McCarthy The Emergence of Restorative Justice in Ecclesial Practice Thomas Noakes-Duncan Restorative and Transformative Justice in a Land of Mass Incarceration Amy Levad Soteriology, Eucharist and the Madness of Forgiveness Christopher McMahon Breaking Out: The Expansiveness of Restorative Justice in Laudato Si' Eli McCarthy Catholic Theology of Post-Conflict Restorative Justice:The Doctrine of Hypostatic Union as a Viable Inspiration Rev. Raymond Aina, MSP Just War Theory and Restorative Justice: Weaving a Consistent Ethic of Reconciliation Anna Floerke Scheid Restorative Justice and the International Criminal Court John Kiess Restorative Justice in Baltimore Virginia McGovern and Layton Field A Theological Understanding of Restorative Justice Margaret R. Pfeil Symposium on the 2015 Synod of Bishops on the Family Kari-Shane Zimmerman, James T. Bretzke, S.J., Jana Bennett,Andrew Kim, and Christina Astorga

The nature and configuration of borders, and the relationship between state borders and societies, have changed. In the 21st century, internationalism, transnationalism, and super-diversity have further provoked complexities and anxieties. It seems that as border and migration regimes undergo dramatic transformations, their public profile increases. This book revisits borders, bordering practices, and meanings, with a particular focus on the United Kingdom as a case study. Bastian A. Vollmer examines not only the theoretical and historical dimensions of borders but also various empirical data, including extensive text corpora and dozens of in-depth interviews. Expanding on the concept of vernacular security—that is, an everyday understanding of security—he argues that the existential value of borders is not merely physical, but extends into the order and future construction of states and societies. This book demonstrates decisively that the concept of the border has not left the centre stage of philosophy, political theory, and political sociology, but has instead emerged as a focal point for multidisciplinary engagements. It further demonstrates how attention to a vernacular perspective can inform those engagements, yielding vital insights. As such, it should appeal to students and scholars across disciplines interested in the contemporary development and relevance of borders and their discursive cultures.

One of the major characteristics of our contemporary culture is a positive, almost banal, view of the transgression and disruption of cultural boundaries. Strangers, migrants and nomads are celebrated in our postmodern world of hybrids and cyborgs. But we pay a price for this celebration of hybridity: the non-hybrid figures in our societies are ignored, rejected, silenced or exterminated. This book tells the story of these non-hybrid figures Ð the anti-heroes of our pop culture. The main example of non-hybrids in an otherwise hybridized world is that of deep old age. Hazan shows how we fervently distance ourselves from old age by grading and sequencing it into stages such as ‘the third age’, ‘the fourth age’ and so on. Aging bodies are manipulated through anti-aging techniques until it is no longer possible to do it anymore, at which point they become un-transformable and non-marketable objects and hence commercially and socially invisible or masked. Other examples are used to elucidate the same cultural logic of the non-hybrid: pain, the Holocaust, autism, fundamentalism and corporeal death. On the face of it, these examples may seem to have nothing in common, but they all exemplify the same cultural logic of the non-hybrid and provoke similar reactions of criticism, terror, abhorrence and moral indignation. This highly original and iconoclastic book offers a fresh critique of contemporary Western culture by focusing on that which is perceived as its other Ð the non-hybrid in our midst, often rejected, ignored or silenced and deemed to be in need of globally manageable correction.

This volume represents the beginning of a 'cross pollination' of different social scientific disciplines, bridging the boundaries between national and disciplinary epistemic communities in the worlds of European welfare markets. It maps the common ground and uncovers new research directions for the future study of actors, policies and institutions shaping the growth and dynamics of European welfare markets. The book defines welfare markets as politically shaped, regulated and state supported markets that provide social goods and services through the competitive activities of non-state actors. The chapters focus on what happens after states have initiated welfare markets, with equal weight given to the analysis of the agency of state actors and non-state actors in the contraction, stabilisation, and disruption of welfare markets. By focusing the analysis on two cases of welfare markets, private pensions and home-based domestic/care work, the contributions explore and compare the dynamics of different types of markets. The research will be of use to sociologists and scholars of social policy interested in the social dimension of welfare markets, political scientists and political economists, as well as diverse epistemic communities across the social sciences. Chapter 1 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Preface: A silent companion in a liquid world -- 1 Phobos, a god repressed -- 2 Fear of the machine -- 3 Human adaption to the machine -- 4 Natural and moral disasters -- 5 Danger as an everyday experience -- 6 Social security and individual insecurity -- 7 Fear of invasion -- 8 Fear of exclusion -- 9 Waste in our future -- 10 The frailty of personal relationships -- 11 Forms of reassurance -- 12 Globalisation and "overclass"--13 The Panopticon inside the net -- 14 The anxiety-inducing state and the management of insecurity

Through nine ethnographic case-studies, Edges of Global Transformation explores situations where global transformations associated with neoliberalism meet local realities. The “edge” of transformation is characterized by uncertainty, as old patterns are consumed and new formed. The nine case studies from Africa, Europe and the Middle East shed light on how uncertainty plays an inevitable and essential role in the grey zone between macro-transformations and local responses. Despite the tremendous difference in precariousness between these cases, each contributor explores ways in which transformations are conceived and acted upon within the space of possibility that is opened and apprehended locally. The role of uncertainty as an active force is explored throughout the book. While in some cases, uncertainty has a clear restricting effect; other cases illustrate its potential as a productive force. As a contribution to understanding the dynamic of the local realities of global change, the book will be valuable reading for anyone interested in globalization and the neoliberal world order.

This book questions punishment as concept, social phenomenon and contemporary practice. It unpacks punishment’s nature and the assumptions that underpin it, examines its targets, objectives and implications, locates punishment and punitivity within their social contexts, and aims to unsettle the idea that there is something common-sensical, necessary and unavoidable about punitive justice. Questioning Punishment develops its argument through an innovative structure organised around five central questions: what punishment is; who punishment’s targets and subjects are; how punishment is perpetuated and experienced; when and where punishment unfolds and why we punish. It ends by considering the implications of this enquiry to understandings of punishment and broader pursuits of justice. It is essential reading for all those engaged with the sociology of punishment and prisons, criminal justice, and theoretical criminology.