Abstract

Punishing the Other draws on the work of Zygmunt Bauman to discuss contemporary discourses and practices of punishment and criminalization. Bringing together some of the most exciting international scholars, both established and emerging, this book engages with Bauman's thesis of the social production of immorality in the context of criminalization and social control and addresses processes of 'othering' through a range of contemporary case studies situated in various cultural, political and social contexts. Topics covered include the increasing bureaucratization of the business of punishment with the corresponding loss of moral and ethical reflection in the public sphere; punitive discourses around border control and immigration; and exclusionary discourses and their consequences concerning 'terrorists' and other socially and culturally defined outsiders. Engaging with national and global issues that are more topical now than ever before, this book is essential reading for academics and students of involved in the study of the sociology of punishment, punishment and modern society, the criminal justice system, philosophy and punishment, and comparative criminology and penology.