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12 Soc. & Legal Stud. 5 (2003)

handle is hein.journals/solestu12 and id is 1 raw text is: 














NEW MODES OF GOVERNANCE

   AND THE COMMODIFICATION

           OF CRIMINOLOGICAL

                    KNOWLEDGE


                          REECE WALTERS
                       University of Stirling, UK



                             ABSTRACT

This article explores the influence of new modes of governance on the production of
criminological knowledge. In doing so, it examines the rise of discourses on risk and
critiques the ways in which academic environments are changing under new manager-
ialist philosophies. The article further explores the increasing 'commodification of
criminological knowledge' and analyses its effect on contemporary criminological
scholarship. Finally, this article examines the contours of critical criminological
scholarship and advocates for a criminology of resistance.


                          INTRODUCTION
HAT ARE the dangers of a 'market-led criminology'? How are new
         modes of governance in contemporary society, which focus on risk
         management, privatization, cost-effectiveness and individual
responsibility influencing the production of criminological knowledge?
What is the future for the critical voice within these changing economic and
political landscapes? Why ask questions about the production of crimino-
logical knowledge? Is this a topic worthy of debate? Surely criminology with
its increasing student numbers, its new degrees and journals and its flour-
ishing commercial opportunities are signs of a discipline in a healthy state?
  Nowadays 'success' is often determined by acceptance, relevance or prolif-
eration. The litmus test for assessing quality must be content, and not volume,
popularity, political versatility or pragmatic relevance. Toffler (1965) critiqued
the 'culture boom' in the United States during the post-war years, described
as the cultural revolution or renaissance (Grana, 1964). As Americans began

      SOCIAL & LEGAL STUDIES 0964 6639 (200303) 12:1 Copyright © 2003
      SAGE Publications, London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi,
                       www.sagepublications.com
                       Vol. 12(1), 5-26; 030842

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