Virtual Special Issue of the British Journal of Criminology
Sustaining Futures: Remaking Criminology in an age of Global Injustice
Editors: The Conference Organising Committee
This virtual special issue of the British Journal of Criminology has been developed as part of the preparations for the 2023 Annual Conference of the British Society of Criminology, hosted by the School of Justice at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan). The conference’s theme, this year, is ‘Sustaining Futures: Remaking Criminology in an age of Global Injustice’.
This special issue seeks to engage with, and provoke, discussion around three broad overlapping themes. First, the challenge of sustainability as a central motif through which to provoke positive change in a range of contexts. Second, the continuing, and embedded, inequalities which challenge the persistence of grand narrative approaches to explaining transgression (in all its forms), censure and punishment. Finally, it seeks to provoke a widening of the discourse surrounding the purpose and reach of criminology in an era characterised by difference rather than consensus.
In selecting the articles for this issue, we have been guided by criteria of remaining relevant to the areas of thematic importance, the need to attempt to balance the broad boundaries of the discipline and a wish to highlight (and, potentially, to bridge) the micro-macro divide. During this process, we were delighted to reacquaint ourselves with, and subsequently include, the work of Professor Barbara Hudson, formerly of UCLan, whose scholarship engaged so powerfully with the themes of this year’s conference.
We hope that this selection of articles will act as a catalyst for renewed thinking about the contemporary tensions faced by our societies and communities, encourage us to consider different futures and to appreciate the ways in which criminology can extend its current boundaries to meet these challenges.
