Carcerality (CRIM90041)

Cultural, ideological, and political attachment to involuntary detention persists in most societies across the globe. This subject examines carcerality in its numerous incarnations and interrogates our attachment to it. The subject invites students to critically examine things we often overlook or take for granted as ‘natural’ or ‘commonsensical’. Students will learn and employ theoretical tools and empirical data to scrutinise the reasons, justifications, ‘effectiveness’, and consequences of our societal zeal to criminalise and incarcerate individuals and communities.

The subject aims at helping learners to appreciate punishment and detention as a complex social, political, historical, and economic phenomenon, rather than merely a purported crime-control measure. Equipping students with analytical tools, the subject promotes the development of a critical stance on how we as a society define, create, and perpetuate harm and social divisions. The subject offers students an opportunity to grow intellectually, becoming critical about public discourses and government policies concerning crime and punishment, whilst also facilitating checking one's own preconceptions and interrogating personal prejudices.