Presenation on Asian and southern criminology.pptx

This is a presentation of a journal written my Leon Maoosavi in Asian and Southern Criminology.

1. A friendly critique of 'Asian Criminology' and 'Southern Criminology' Leon Moosavi

2. Introduction During colonial era, not only the territory but ideas, knowledge and philosophy were also colonized. Scholars have attempted to decolonize social sciences for several decades with little success. 'Asian criminology' and 'Southern criminology' are the latest projects that seek to decolonize criminology from its Westerncentric bias. They advocate 'a new criminological imagination from the ' perihery '.

3. Emerging point Asian Criminology Southern Criminology Asian Criminological Society & Asian Journal of Criminology founded in 2006 Started as  a paradigm in 2009 when Jianhong Liu published 'Asian Criminology- Challenges, Opportunities and Directions'. 'Southern Criminology' published by Kerry Carrington , Maximo Sozzo and Russell Hogg in 2016

4. The problem with criminology; Ethnocentrism Widespread belief that academic scholarships beyond the Weat is low-quality, irrelevant or even non-existent. Dominated by white men from the US and the UK Western social science is just as Westerncentric today as it was half a century ago even though many other aspects of cultural, political and economic life have rapidly internationalised . (Kurzman 2017: 787-788). WHY?? because socio-historic factors that have crafted a distinctive narrative about whose knowledge is superior, which results in privileging Western criminologists.

5. Attempted solutions Katheryn K. Russel (1992)- 'black criminology' Chris Cunneen (1999)- 'post- colonial criminology' Biko Agozino (2004)- ' the decolonization of criminology'; 'Counter Colonial Criminology', 'African Criminology'  These critics called into question the integrity of the entire discipline of criminology including radical forms of criminology like critical criminology for failing to address politics of knowledge production and reproducing the colonial hierarchies within research and teaching. Despite several calls, there has not been enough progress for internationalizing criminology.

6. Why so Westerncentric ? Orientalist attitude ( Orientalism is a particular way of looking at Asian countries adopted by Western authors and creators. ) Socio-political factors such as: -Lack of financial and institutional support for non- West criminology -Difficulties in obtaining official data -Insufficient academic freedom - 'brain drain' caused by criminologists migrating to West Non-west criminology is often expected to offer straightforward solutions rather than original concepts and theories which may compromise the quality of scholarship produced.

7. Why so Westerncentric ? Prevailing expectation to publish research in English Language to demonstrate competency The USA and UK is a hub for students of criminology to learn and take back Western theories and approaches to their own country. Discrimination by criminological organization and scholarly associations. A need to pursue 'decoloniality of knowledge and understanding' to overcome the problem of 'the coloniality of knowledge'.

8. Similarities between Asian and Southern Criminology Same observation and criticism on largely unidirectional and uncritical flow of criminological knowledge from North ‘attributing epistemic privilege to socially marginalized subjects’ based on the claim that there is ample criminological material that is produced in the periphery that is worthy of consideration. seek to prioritize research agendas that are more important for peripheral societies rather than reinforcing Western agendas. For example, given that a higher proportion of people in the non-West live in rural settings than is the case in the West, Asian and Southern criminologists may give greater attention to rural crime than has been common in Western criminology

9. Similarities more prepared than Western criminologists to consider the importance of religion in relation to crime   keen to prioritize the postcolonial context of most Asian and Southern societies. Post colonialism has been almost entirely ignored in criminological scholarship. they manage to find a way of being critical of criminology without dismissing it as irredeemable as some others have.

10. Limitation   lack of sustained critique hence , vague to the extent that offering a definition of what constitutes Asian criminology or Southern criminology is still unclear.  Is Asian Criminology? produced by Asians, or  informed by Asian culture, or  about Asia or all three? Is  Global South  a place, a political environment, an economic condition, a cultural type or a historical position? Whether Asian criminology and Southern criminology are theories, paradigms, schools, projects, models, approaches....?

11. Neither of them have offered sufficient reflection about what makes their projects different from the efforts to decolonize criminology that preceded them. insufficient interrogation of their philosophical, epistemological (relating to the theory of knowledge, especially with regard to its methods, validity, and scope, and the distinction between justified belief and opinion) and ontological premises (object of inquiry) not offered enough reflection on whether the decolonization of criminology is even possible  To rectify the limited theorizing about Asian criminology and Southern criminology, there needs to be ‘a theoretical shakedown’ of both paradigms that seek to refine them further, something which this article attempts to do.

12. Why need critical analysis? For decolonizing knowledge by incorporating neglected non-Western scholarship To overcome theoretical complexities  To allow for awareness of areas that Asian and Southern criminologists have not given enough attention to, such as the potential need to decolonize criminological research methods so that they are more suitable to non-Western contexts, 

13. Partiality within them Asian Criminology Southern Criminology more grounded in East Asia than it is in Southeast Asia, South Asia, Central Asia or the Middle East almost all of the Asian Criminological Society’s annual conferences have been held in East Asia since they began in 200 9.  almost half of the contributors are based in Western countries, specifically Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, most of whom are not Asian.  Handbook of Asian Criminology-  four-fifths of the contributors are based in the Global North (if one agrees that Australia is not part of the Global South) In the Palgrave Handbook of Criminology and the Global South - almost half of the 79 contributors are based in Australian institutions.  Southern criminology is dominated by Australian criminologists there are more contributors who are based in the United States and the United Kingdom than are based in the whole of Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Caribbean combined. 

14. What should be done? . For Asian criminology and Southern criminology to deserve the titles that they have given themselves they will therefore need to find ways of showcasing the diverse scholarship that is produced throughout Asia and the Global South , or else they will fall victim to committing the same error that they may criticize Western criminologists for enacting, which is to claim to speak on behalf of those whom they do not represent.

15. Raewyn Connell warned: The alternative to ‘northern theory’ is not a unified doctrine from the global South. No such body of thought exists nor could it exist. Indeed, one of the problems about northern theory is its characteristic idea that theory must be monological, declaring the one truth in one voice. It seems to me that a genuinely global sociology must, at the level of theory as well as empirical research and practical application, be more like a conversation among many voices. ( 2006 : 262)

16. need to avoid occidentalism as it may overly glorify non-Western criminology just because it is non-Western and may dismiss Western criminology just because it is Western. There are moments when Asian and Southern criminologists acknowledge the usefulness of Western criminology and indeed have explicitly recognized the danger of caricaturing Northern criminology and romanticizing Southern criminology.  It is for this reason that we may wish to talk about ‘decolonizing criminology’ or ‘internationalizing criminology’ rather than introducing a new ontological category such as ‘decolonized criminology’, ‘internationalized criminology’, ‘Asian criminology’ or ‘Southern criminology’, all of which may give the impression that what is sought is a new branch of criminology rather than an adjustment to the entire discipline. 

17. The end