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Cultural criminology and primitive accumulation: A formal introduction for two strangers who should really become more intimate

Northumbria University, UK

Simon Winlow

University of York, UK

In this brief polemic we argue that a renewed critical approach to the destructive power of capitalism is essential for criminological theory. The current focus on the allegedly plural and transgressive sub-cultural foreground of criminality has drawn our attention away from the restrictive and constitutive politico-cultural power that the mutating ‘deep structure’ of capitalism wields over contemporary social life. Rather than delve into the hapless post-political worlds of inter-subjectivity, relativism and micro-exotica in the expectation of finding organic forms of ‘resistance’, yield ground to cynical actuarialism and retreat from serious critical reasoning, 21st-century criminology must take a step forward in addressing the increasingly competitive, anxious and criminogenic culture of advanced capitalism as it enters a revived and notably brutal phase of primitive accumulation. It can do this by tightening its empirical focus, strengthening its theoretical approach and deepening its philosophical foundations.

Key Words: criminology • critical theory • culture • politics • resistance

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