Elias, ultra-realism and double-binds: Violence in the streets and the state

‘Ultra-realism’ has become an influential current in criminology, especially in the study of violence and explanations of trends in violent crime. Ultra-realist writers frequently make use of Norbert Elias’s theory of civilizing processes, while also often expressing reservations about his ideas. In this article, we argue that ultra-realists tend to make only partial and inaccurate use of Elias’s very extensive writings. Although he himself did not write very much about crime – and indeed was less concerned with violence per se than with the roots of aggressive impulses and their control – we place him in the context of the post-war sociology of deviance. We argue in particular that it is far from true that he was blind to political economy, since the state-formation processes are central to his theory. We relate our argument to double-bind processes, violent subcultures, moral panics, populism and recent political developments in Britain.

Powerful Inscriptions: On the Semiotic Phenomenology of BDSM

BDSM encompasses a range of practices—bondage and discipline (BD), dominance and submission (DS), sadism and masochism (SM)—involving the consensual exchange of power in erotic contexts. This chapter provides an overview of scholarship on BDSM, drawing on the history of academic studies of the phenomenon, ranging from the psychology of perversion, the sociology of deviance, and the feminist “sex wars” to more recent ethnographic and phenomenological turns. The chapter focuses on the importance of discourse and affect for making sense of BDSM, both for those who seek to analyze the phenomenon and for practitioners themselves. Drawing on ethnographic research and other data, the chapter shows how language and discourse are key to answering interconnected questions about the semiotics and phenomenology of BDSM (what these practices mean and how practitioners experience these practices affectively). Thus, a potential “linguistic turn” in BDSM studies is essential for future research on this erotic minority.

Michal Smetana: Nuclear Deviance. Stigma Politics and the Rules of the Nonproliferation Game.

This book examines the linkage between deviance and norm change in international politics. It draws on an original theoretical perspective grounded in the sociology of deviance to study the violations of norms and rules in the global nuclear non-proliferation regime. As such, this project provides a unique conceptual framework and applies it to highly salient issues in the contemporary international security environment. The theoretical/conceptual chapters are accompanied by three extensive case studies: Iran, North Korea, and India.

“The Dying Criminal”: The Image of the Anarchist Shlioma Asnin and the Political Struggle in Petrograd, June 1917

The paper considers the process of forming political authority during the 1917 Russian Revolution on the example of anarchist Shlioma Asnin. The importance of belonging to a subculture for building a political figure’s image and an enemy image is demonstrated. Various options of participation in a revolutionary subculture are considered, and mutual influence between common-criminal and revolutionary subcultures is described. Hard labor created “counter-mores” shared by both groups of criminals but social capital accumulated within political-prison subculture could not necessarily be translated into political authority at liberty. In Asnin’s case, perception of him as a revolutionary was undermined by a tattoo discovered on his body, the tattoo being linked to his common-criminal past before his “conversion” into a convinced anarchist. A revolutionary’s image was “assembled” from the elements some of which made the person unacceptable for society in general. Pathologization of opponents, in part due to subcultural identity, made political dialogue more difficult and increased the probability of violence. Methods of sociology of deviance were employed as the paper’s analytical apparatus.

Unsettling appearances: Diane Arbus, Erving Goffman and the sociological eye

Both the photographer Diane Arbus and sociologist Erving Goffman were fascinated by the way we present ourselves to others and this article sets out how each understood the drama of human interaction. It begins by exploring how their work parallels some developments in the sociology of deviance, and notes how Goffman was one of the earliest critics of this field, before briefly sketching out Arbus’s controversial career and then turning to a more detailed look at three of her images. It concentrates on how the gap between intention and effect, or what Goffman terms the difference between the impressions we ‘give’ and those we actually ‘give off’, are at the core of her work and this sociological insight animates her compositions. The article then describes how their work unsettles ‘normal appearances’ and provides rich resources for understanding human conduct.

Deviating From the Traditional Instructional Tools: Integrating Twitter in a Sociology of Deviance Course | S’éloigner des outils pédagogiques traditionnels : intégrer Twitter dans un cours sur la sociologie de la deviance

As the use of social media in post-secondary education expands, so does the research literature examining its effectiveness in engaging students. Studies have examined the use of Twitter as an assessment and engagement tool, and since this is a broad and growing research area, better understanding whether Twitter can promote these outcomes in an upper-level university course is valuable. This paper explores these themes based on a student survey (N=37) conducted in a Sociology Deviance course. It also reviews how students responded to the use of Twitter as a “community-classroom” engagement and assessment tool. Findings reveal that Twitter did contribute to some students’ sense of community. We offer suggestions for how instructors can successfully integrate Twitter activities into their course assessment to make them more engaging and to improve connectedness.L’utilisation des médias sociaux dans l’éducation postsecondaire prend de l’ampleur, entraînant l’augmentation de la documentation de recherche qui examine leur efficacité à motiver les élèves. Des études se sont penchées sur l’utilisation de Twitter comme outil d’évaluation et de participation. Comme il s’agit d’un domaine de recherche vaste et en croissance, il est important de mieux comprendre si Twitter peut favoriser ces résultats dans le cadre d’un cours universitaire de haut niveau. Cet article explore ces thèmes en s’appuyant sur un sondage réalisé auprès des étudiants (N=37) dans un cours de sociologie de la déviance. Il examine également comment les étudiants ont réagi à l’usage de Twitter comme outil de participation à une « classe-collectivité » et comme outil d’évaluation. Les conclusions révèlent que Twitter a contribué au sentiment d’appartenance à la collectivité de certains étudiants. Nous offrons des suggestions sur la façon dont les instructeurs peuvent intégrer avec succès des activités liées à Twitter dans leurs évaluations de cours afin de rendre ceux-ci plus motivants et d’améliorer la connectivité.

The People in the Square

This chapter offers an introduction to Washington Square Park as a social space, a place that is meaningful and comprehensible, amenable to sociological analysis. Visitors (“actors”) engage in behaviour that others, onlookers or bystanders (“audiences”) consider wrongful; what do they do in response? The author’s intention in this book is to address and answer two questions: What constitutes deviance in a fairly unconventional milieu? And: How does a very diverse collective of such unconventional parties get along in a fairly confined space? Unconventional, non-normative, or “deviant” events taking place in the park are observed and described by the author, such as a dog-owner letting a dog off-leash, beer-drinkers speaking loudly and in a vulgar fashion while listening to loud, amplified rap music, skateboarders whizzing by, almost colliding with pedestrians, marijuana sellers soliciting customers, the mentally disordered screaming and ranting, a percussionist banging extremely loudly on a metal plate. Some park-goers chastise the offenders, some walk away from them, others ignore them. What are the dynamics of these interactions? The author details these events and points out their implications for the sociology of deviance and social control.