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Documents |
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| NCJ Number:
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NCJ 161556
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| Title:
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Postmodernism and Critical Criminology (From Criminological Perspectives: A Reader, P 484-488, 1996, John Muncie, Eugene McLaughlin, and Mary Langan, eds. -- See NCJ-161531)
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| Author(s):
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A Hunt
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| Sale:
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Sage Publications Ltd
6 Bonhill Street
London, EC2A 4PU, United Kingdom |
| Publication Date:
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1996 |
| Pages:
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5 |
| Type:
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Issue overviews |
| Origin:
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United Kingdom |
| Language:
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English |
| Note:
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Abridged from "New Directions in Critical Criminology," P 79-95, 1991. |
| Annotation:
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This essay critiques the perspectives of "postmodernism" from the perspectives of critical criminology. |
| Abstract:
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Postmodernism's starting point is a critique of the Enlightenment as a failed rationalist project that has outlived its time but continues to encumber contemporary thought with illusions of a rational route to knowledge, a faith in science, and a belief in progress. The core of postmodernism is in its commitment to the shedding of the illusions of the Enlightenment. The political ambiguity of postmodernism is its insistence that the received dichotomy between Left and Right is itself a product of Enlightenment thought and that contemporary Left theoretical and political positions, especially Marxism, are inscribed with the illusions of the Enlightenment. Modernity and enlightenment are more complex, ambiguous, and nuanced than this one- dimensional critique permits. Although this essay empathizes with postmodernism's critique of instrumental reason, scientism, the cult of progress, and other facets of the Enlightenment, it believes that the Enlightenment's central project of social emancipation remains unrealized. Modern liberalism has lost the will to pursue this goal, so its realization has fallen to contemporary socialism; this in turn underlines the author's view that socialism must interact with and draw significantly from liberalism to fulfill this objective. 2 references |
| Main Term(s):
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Comparative criminology |
| Index Term(s):
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Socialism ; Critical criminology |
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To cite this abstract, use the following link:
http://www.ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/abstract.aspx?ID=161556
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