Culture, Crime and Punishment by Ronald Kramer

Author:Ronald Kramer [Kramer, Ronald]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Criminology
ISBN: 9781352010831
Google: nBlHEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2020-10-01T04:23:49+00:00

Discourse

As a concept that can facilitate thinking culturally about crime and punishment, discourse is certainly important. However, making sense of discourse is complicated by the fact that it has been used in a variety of ways by scholars. In some accounts, discourse and ideology appear to overlap, but the concepts are generally perceived as outlining distinct theories of what constitutes power and how it operates through language. In Norman Fairclough’s (1989) account, for example, discourse is used to suggest that speaking or writing always constitute social processes, and are therefore inevitably linked to broader structural arrangements, such as those grounded in class, gender and/or race disparities. Whereas Fairclough’s use retains considerable overlap with Marxist thought, Michel Foucault utilises discourse to move away from some of the core assumptions about power that underpin Marx’s notion of ideology. Given that Foucault’s use has some important breaks with Marxist thought, and given the intellectual standing of Foucault within contemporary scholarship, it is his notion that will be discussed in more detail here.

Evidenced by his thorough examinations of contemporary institutions, it would not be unfair to say that Foucault was fascinated by the onset of modernity in the western world. Modernity can be understood as a fundamental shift in the organisation of everyday life. It represents a break with earlier social arrangements, such as feudalism, and is characterised by the emergence of capitalism, bureaucracy (or the rationalised administration of public life) and the displacement of religious authority by scientific reason (Weber 1979). Modernity also saw massive growth in population numbers and increases in average life expectancy (Foucault 1980, p. 151).

It is difficult to imagine, but a society that confronts the emergence of capitalism must somehow adapt to this new mode of producing commodities. Likewise, a society must address shifts in population numbers, bureaucratisation and so on. In short, populations must adjust attitudes and practices given the changes wrought by modernity. Herein lay something of a riddle for Foucault. How, for example, did society manage to accustom a very large portion of the population to suddenly work in a factory instead of on the land? How to regulate people in a way that ensures population numbers remain manageable? How to ensure that people will behave in accordance with social and cultural arrangements, and within the parameters established by modern law? In short, how does a society produce conformity in its members?

Foucault recognises that the capitalist class possesses power due to control and ownership of the means of production. However, he does not accept that the contradiction between the capitalist and labouring classes can be construed as the fundamental social contradiction. Relatedly, he does not accept that the power of the capitalist class accounts for the maintenance of social relations. Instead, the core social relation is constituted by conflict between the state/government and the population. A particular type of power – one that calibrates populations to modern social structures – corresponds to this social relation (Foucault 1977). ‘Discourse’ is used to designate this mode of power.

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