“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 [...]

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 [...]

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. [...]

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 [...]

Recently my daughter Nicole and I walked through the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, now a museum. I had been there before for an opening – in fact, my exhibit of lifers has been shown there – but had never been through this historic prison. I have posted a few photos of the prison on [...]

As my colleague Lisa Schirch suggests in The Little Book of Strategic Peacebuilding, here at CJP we use the term peacebuilding as an umbrella concept to include many fields of activity that contribute to just and peaceful societies. Colleague Barry Hart uses a wheel diagram to illustrate this. Each segment or spoke is a way [...]

“My soul cries out, let the fires of your justice burn,” the congregation sings on this Sunday. I lean over to my wife: “What does that mean?” “Maybe it means God is passionate about justice,” she whispers with a twinkle in her eye. True enough, but she knows that I think there’s more to it. [...]