State Crime and Civil Activism: On the Dialectics of Repression and Resistance

ISBN-13: 9781138189775 / Angielski / Twarda / 2019 / 294 str.

Penny Green; Tony Ward

Opis

A fundamental problem within state crime scholarship surrounds the way in which state violence and corruption come to be defined and labelled as criminal, since states rarely criminalise their own activities. Should 'crime' be conceptualized as a legal construct - something defined and punished by domestic and international courts - or is it better understood as a violation of social norms that may or may not reflect legal definitions?
Building on four years of international field research in Turkey, Tunisia, Burma/Myanmar, Colombia, Kenya and Papua New Guinea, this book considers how civil society organizations (CSOs) have labelled and exposed state crime. Drawing on interviews with over 50 CSOs, this book explores where their information comes from, how they understand the boundaries of legitimate state action, how they regard and use the law, and what strategies and tactics they find effective in resisting state violence and corruption. It examines how oppositional or counter-hegemonic associations are able to develop and survive in repressive states and how they adjust to new conditions when the authoritarian state loosens its grip or undergoes revolutionary change.

Recenzje

"At the core of Green and Ward’s contribution is a detailed empirical account of the dialectical imperative created by state repression, the reproduction of its greatest adversary, a resilient civil society. This compendium is informed by the practice of people who live the dialectical imperative of state repression, often risking their safety, liberty and life. In the true Marxist spirit, the volume documents a living and breathing praxis as it unfolds through resistance to state crime and violence."

Dr. Dawid Stańczak, University of Ulster, UK, State Crime

"Over the last two decades, Penny Green and Tony Ward have led state crime analyses with insightful pieces that explore state crime connections to human rights, deviance, legitimacy, and structural relations of power, as well as to how a vibrant civil society is vital to resistance... In this book, they compel us to think further about how state crimes can be prevented and challenged by civil society organisations (CSOs)."

Dr. Elizabeth Stanley, Univerity of Victoria, NZ, Journal of White Collar and Corporate Crime