Zookeepers@40: Partisanship and Critical Social Science

Centre for Criminology and Criminal Justice
University of Central Lancashire
23rd-25th June 2008

In the Spring of 1968, when Europe’s major cities were besieged by
radicals and revolutionaries and waves of political opposition swept the
developed and developing world, Alvin Gouldner published an essay in The
American Sociologist entitled ‘The Sociologist as Partisan: Sociology
and the Welfare State’ in which he accused the ‘Becker School’ of
being ‘zookeepers’ of deviance.  In substance, the essay took direct
issue with Howard Becker’s (1967) short reflection in Social Problems
‘Whose Side are We on?’ and, in particular, his claim that the
critical question facing social science ‘is not whether we should take
sides, since we inevitably will, but rather whose side are we on.’
For Gouldner, the crucial question facing critical social science was
not whose side are we on but how do we take sides?  Gouldner’s essay
was nothing if not prescient.  In it he pinpointed with some accuracy
the radical motivations of a soon-to-emerge ‘new criminology.’  In
July of the same year that Gouldner launched his assault on Becker a
group of disaffected young social scientists established the National
Deviancy Conference in a direct challenge to conservative, mainstream
British criminology and inaugurated forty years of ‘critical’ and
‘radical’ criminologies.

With these two anniversaries in mind, the substance of the conference,
in part, is to reflect on the impact of the essay on, and the debate it
inaugurated in, critical social science and also to consider the meaning
of 'partisanship' today.  The conference seeks to explore questions such
as:
?What has been the lasting impact of Gouldner's essay?
?Has Gouldner's legacy been transcended, rejected, ignored?
?What has it meant to 'choose sides' in the intervening period?
?What does partisanship mean today?
?Can social science avoid 'bland confessions' of partisanship whilst
remaining critically engaged?

Keynote Speakers

Pat Carlen, whose books include: Women and Punishment, and Analysing
Women’s Imprisonment.

Jeff Ferrell, Texas Christian University, USA, whose books include
Crimes of Style; Tearing Down the Streets; and Empire of Scrounge.

Charles Lemert, Andrus Professor of Sociology, Wesleyan University,
USA, whose books include Sociology after the Crisis; Social Things: An
introduction to the Sociological Life; and Postmodernism Is Not What You
Think.

Jock Young, Kent University, UK, whose books include The Exclusive
Society; and The Vertigo of Late Modernity.

Abstract Guidelines
Abstracts should be no more than 300 words in length, on disc or as an
email attachment, listing name, organisation, contact address, telephone
and email address, and should include the title of the proposed paper.
Abstracts should be submitted by 31st March 2008.

Papers are expected to be 25-30 minutes in length and contributions
should be written and presented in English.  All presenters of papers
will need to register for the conference and pay the registration fee.

Please address all abstracts and enquiries to: -
Emma Kelly
Conference Officer
Conference and Events Management Office
University of Central Lancashire, Foster Room 10
Preston PR1 2HE, UK

Tel:  +44 (0) 1772 892654
Fax: +44 (0) 1772 892977              
Email: [log in to unmask]

Enquiries about the conference may also be made to Martin O’Brien.
Email: [log in to unmask]











=================================

Professor David S. Wall, 
Centre for Criminal Justice Studies,
School of Law, 
University of Leeds. 
Leeds. 
LS2 9JT UK 
+ 44 (0)113 343 1881
+ 44 (0)113 343 5033 
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