Creating the “other” in research, photography, justice

“Much of qualitative research,” writes researcher Michelle Fine, “has reproduced…a colonizing discourse of the ‘Other.'”  So also, she might have added, has photography.  So also has justice. (See “Working the Hyphens:  Reinventing Self and Other in Qualitative Research” in Denzin & Lincoln eds., Handbook of Qualitative Research, 1st Ed.) Nils Christie has spoken of this otherness as....

Three justice orientations

Stanford Law Professor Herbert Packer has argued that two opposing justice orientations dominate U.S. policy debates: crime control vs. due process. Could a restorative justice orientation provide a “third way?” that transcends these poles? The following identifies some assumptions of each. Crime control orientation: emphasis on order and security Order is essential in society so....

Restorative “beer summit?” – and a new subscription link

Thanks to Brian Gumm, our web guru at CJP, you can now subscribe to this blog via email or RSS feed.  If you sign up for email notice you will received an email notice when a new entry is posted.  You’ll find the sign-up links in the right column. Several people or articles have described....

Research as art, transformation and justice

During the last several weeks I turned 65.  I also discovered the field of arts-based research (ABR). These two events are more connected than they may seem.  As I contemplate moving toward semi-retirement, I have been thinking that I might devote more of my attention to the arts and to their intersection with restorative justice.....

Is there justice in restorative?

Following the recent 2nd Annual Conference of Restorative Justice Practices International I had the privilege of spending several days on Salt Spring Island off the coast of Vancouver, British Columbia, with three experienced restorative justice practitioners who are former students of mine – Catherine Bargen, Aaron Lyons and Matthew Hartman.  Our conversations were wide-ranging while....

What do restorative justice and revenge have in common?

When I wrote Changing Lenses in the 1980s, I positioned the concepts of retributive and restorative justice as opposites.  Later, in The Little Book of Restorative Justice, I acknowledged that this was not always helpful and, in fact, masked some important commonalities between their underling assumptions.   Now I want to go further and explore the....