{"id":4042,"date":"2025-03-11T13:16:16","date_gmt":"2025-03-11T13:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.manchester.ac.uk\/mancept\/?page_id=4042"},"modified":"2025-08-29T17:48:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T16:48:16","slug":"political-philosophy-of-crime-and-criminalisation","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.manchester.ac.uk\/mancept\/mancept-workshops\/list-of-panels-a-z-2025\/political-philosophy-of-crime-and-criminalisation\/","title":{"rendered":"Political Philosophy of Crime and Criminalisation"},"content":{"rendered":"

[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”3.0.47″ next_background_color=”#000000″ global_module=”322″][et_pb_fullwidth_menu global_parent=”322″ menu_id=”8″ submenu_direction=”downwards” fullwidth_menu=”off” module_class=”main-navigation” _builder_version=”3.17.6″ background_layout=”dark” \/][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ module_class=”header-image-section” _builder_version=”3.0.74″ custom_padding=”0px||0px|” custom_css_main_element=”padding-top:0px” transparent_background=”off” prev_background_color=”#000000″ next_background_color=”#000000″][et_pb_row custom_padding=”||0px|” custom_margin=”||0px|” parallax_method_1=”off” module_class=”header-image” _builder_version=”3.0.47″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/sites.manchester.ac.uk\/mancept\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/257\/2022\/02\/Oxford-Roadcrop.jpg” show_bottom_space=”off” _builder_version=”3.17.6″ border_color_all=”#ffffff” custom_margin=”0px|||” animation_direction=”left” use_border_color=”off” \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.0.74″ custom_padding=”||0px|” transparent_background=”off” prev_background_color=”#000000″ next_background_color=”#1d1d1d”][et_pb_row custom_padding=”||0px|” custom_margin=”||0px|” parallax_method_1=”off” module_class=”breadcrumbs-row” _builder_version=”3.0.47″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Breadcrumbs (do not remove)” module_class=”breadcrumbs” _builder_version=”3.17.6″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” module_alignment=”left” custom_css_main_element=”border-bottom: 1px solid #ececed;” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\nMANCEPT<\/a><\/span><\/span>\n

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Political Philosophy of Crime and Criminalisation<\/h1>\n

Room – ALB G.020<\/em><\/p>\n

Koshka<\/span> Duff (University of Nottingham); Paul Gorby (University of St Andrews)<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Across the political spectrum, \u2018criminal\u2019 is used as a slur. Insofar as a person is deemed criminal, they are assumed to lack political consciousness and motivation for their actions. Political philosophy has traditionally started from the perspective of the state, or in its more radical moments, the citizen; in both modes, it neglects the standpoints of criminalised subjects.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This derogatory and depoliticising approach to \u2018the criminal\u2019 has been problematised from a variety of perspectives. Abolitionist, decolonial, and queer critiques have been sharpened by global uprisings against police violence such as Black Lives Matter. In recognising that the law is constructed and maintained for the purposes of upholding particular forms of social power – including hierarchies of race, class, gender, disability, species, and sexuality – critical theorists and movements encourage us to reassess criminalised agents as potential figures of political resistance, transformation, and liberation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alongside the general depoliticisation of crime, we see an equal and seemingly opposite hyper-politicisation of certain groups deemed criminal, particularly those demonised through racially-coded categories of \u2018illegal\u2019 migration and \u2018terrorism\u2019. As critical security and migration scholars point out, however, this hyper-politicisation serves a similar purpose of excluding racial capitalism\u2019s \u2018others\u2019 from the sphere of legitimate political contestation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The marginalisation of crime in political philosophy today might seem surprising when we consider how major figures in the history of political thought, from John Locke to Hannah Arendt, sought to tie together their thinking about the political and the criminal. Their interventions shaped discourses that remain relevant today, posing us the challenge of untangling their emancipatory promise from their carceral consequences.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We propose three main avenues of inquiry for the workshop, while equally welcoming contributions that engage its themes in other ways.\u00a0<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Criminalisation as depoliticisation<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The first avenue will consider how contemporary political theories and public discourses operate to depoliticise acts and agents of criminality, and groups deemed criminal. It will question who gets labelled as criminal and why, attending to the ways criminalisation can silence and marginalise counter-normative subjects along multiple axes of oppression. Correspondingly, it will consider what roles criminalised activities, persons, and groups might play in political resistance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. The criminal as enemy<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      The second avenue will consider framings of the criminal as social enemy \u2013 a hyper-politicisation which equally serves to exclude the criminalised from the political community. How are racist and \u2018civilisational\u2019 discourses of crime and criminality deployed to legitimise border violence, \u2018counter-terror\u2019 laws, and other securitising measures? How are tropes of the enemy within, and labels like \u2018domestic extremist\u2019 and \u2018aggravated activist\u2019, used against civil disobedients, social movements, and modes of life which challenge heteronormative racial capitalism?\u00a0<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. The criminal in the history of political thought<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        From Beccaria\u2019s On Crime and Punishments<\/i> and Bentham\u2019s panopticon to Marx\u2019s critique of the criminalised lumpenproletariat and Goldman\u2019s anarchist ambivalence towards the \u2018unfortunates\u2019 she met in prison, notions of crime and criminalisation have long been vital to political philosophy. The workshop\u2019s third avenue will contemplate the position of the criminal in the history of political thought, asking how centring crime and criminalisation might get us to reassess major and marginalised thinkers in the philosophical canon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

        Dual session structure: two 20-minute presentations back-to-back, 10-minute pause for reflection, 40-minute discussion session (90 minutes total)<\/p>\n

        Single session structure: 20-minute presentation, 10-minute pause for reflection, 30-minute discussion session (60 minutes total)<\/p>\n

        Roundtable structure: 10-minute presentations back-to-back from discussants, 10-minute pause for reflection, 20-minute conversation guided by Chair, 20-minute audience-inclusive discussion session (90 minutes total)<\/p>\n

        \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
        \n


        Wednesday 3rd<\/sup> September<\/p>\n

        <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

        \n

        11:00-12:30<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

        		\n

        Registration<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

        \n

        12:30-13:30<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

        		\n

        Lunch<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

        \n

        13:30-14:00<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

        		\n

        Welcome Speech<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

        \n

        14:00-14:30<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

        		\n

        Introduction to the Workshop and Ice-Breaker<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

        \n

        14:30-16:00<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

        		\n

        Session 1<\/strong><\/p>\n

        Kieran Dunn<\/em>: Prison Intellectuals, Hyper-Politicisation, and Self-Contestation<\/p>\n

        Serrin Rutledge-Prior<\/em>: Politics of Presence in an Era of Mass Incarceration<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

        \n

        16:00-16:30<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

        		\n

        Tea and Coffee Break<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

        \n

        16:30-17:30<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

        		\n

        Social event for workshop participants (chill museum visit)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

        \n

        17:45-19:00<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

        		\n

        Wine Reception<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

        \n

        19:30<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

        		\n

        Conference Dinner<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

        \n


        Thursday 4th<\/sup> September<\/p>\n

        <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

        \n

        10:00-11:30<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

        		\n

        Session 2<\/strong><\/p>\n

        Clo\u00e9 Devalckeneer<\/em>: The Criminal as Sacrificial Enemy: Punishment and the Restorative Horizon<\/p>\n

        Joey Whitfield<\/em>: Lekil Chapanel: The Abejas of Acteal and the Creation of True Justice<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

        \n

        11:30-12:00<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

        		\n

        Tea and Coffee Break<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

        \n

        12:00-13:00<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

        		\n

        Session 3<\/strong><\/p>\n

        Tony Baugh<\/em>: A Theology of Crime: On Personhood, Illegitimate Capitalism, and Neo-Hegemonic Culture<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

        \n

        13:00-14:00<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

        		\n

        Lunch<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

        \n

        14:00-15:30<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

        		\n

        Session 4<\/strong><\/p>\n

        Roundtable: Contested Meanings of Crime and Criminalisation<\/p>\n

        Discussants: Koshka Duff (Chair)<\/em>, Suwita Hani Randhawa<\/em>, Joey Whitfield<\/em>, Emily Ferrante<\/em><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

        \n

        16:00-16:30<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

        		\n

        Tea and Coffee Break<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

        \n

        After 18:30<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

        		\n

        Informal dinner for workshop participants \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

        \n


        Friday 5th<\/sup> September<\/p>\n

        <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

        \n

        10:30-11:30<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

        		\n

        Session 5<\/strong><\/p>\n

        Paul Gorby<\/em>: Messiah, Madman, Criminal: Political Theologies of Redemption and the Critique of Legal Reason<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

        \n

        11:30-12:00<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

        		\n

        Tea and Coffee Break<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

        \n

        12:00-13:00<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

        		\n

        Session 6<\/strong><\/p>\n

        Wanda Canton<\/em>: An Enemy Among Us? A Critique of the Criminalising Community<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

        \n

        13:00-14:00<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

        		\n

        Lunch<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

        \n

        14:00-15:00<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

        		\n

        Session 7<\/strong><\/p>\n

        Koshka Duff:<\/em> \u00a0\u2018Get In the Protest Pen\u2019: The Limits of the Right to Protest and the Production of the Docile Protester<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

        \n

        15:00-16:00<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

        		\n

        Session 8<\/strong><\/p>\n

        Group discussion of next steps<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

        \n

        16:00-16:30<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

        		\n

        Tea and Coffee Break<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

        \n

        16:30-17:30<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

        		\n

        –<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

        \n

        17:30<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

        		\n

        End of Conference<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

         <\/p>\n

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