Chaos, Criminology, and Social Justice: The New Orderly (Dis)Order FROM THE PUBLISHER
Chaos theory challenges the presumption that the cosmos is orderly, linear, and predictable - but it does not imply pure randomness and chance events. Rather, chaos-informed postmodernist analysis introduces a new vision by celebrating unexpected, surprise, ironic, contradictory, and emergent elements. Scholars in many disciplines are taking this perspective as an alternative to the entrenched structural functionalism and empiricism rooted in linear science. In the early 1990s studies began to emerge applying chaos theory to criminology, law, and social change. This book brings together some of the key thinkers in these areas. While the book emphasizes the usefulness of the conceptual tools of chaos theory in critical criminology and law, its ultimate goal goes beyond theory-building to provide vistas for understanding the contemporary social scene and for the development of the new just society.
SYNOPSIS
Key researchers in the fields of criminology and law demonstrate the application of the conceptual tools of chaos theory in providing new theoretical insights and suggested transformative practices for building the just society.
FROM THE CRITICS
Booknews
Applies chaos theory to criminal law and social change, describing
some contemporary approaches in developing a critically informed
postmodern analysis with chaos theory as one of its main constitutive
threads. Among the topics are conceptual differences between
postmodern and modern paradigms, geometric forms of violence, and a
non-linear articulation of social movement theory. Assumes no deep
understanding of chaos theory, though some previous exposure to the
basic concepts would help.
Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
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