Skip to main content

Criminology Seminar Series - Smash the corporation! Extending abolition beyond prisons and the police to capitalism and the corporate form

When:
Venue: Online

Book your place

Smash the corporation! Extending abolition beyond prisons and the police to capitalism and the corporate form

Speaker: Dr Grietje Baars (City, University of London)

With discussant Dr Sarah Lamble (Birkbeck)

Abstract: Since the 2020 Black Lives Matter Uprising the call for abolition has grown exponentially louder and been transmitted more widely including in the UK. Thanks to the work of activist academics such as Ruth Wilson Gilmore in the US and Sarah Lamble in the UK (amongst many others) abolitionism is now a common discussion topic in the classroom as well as in organising meetings and signal groups, such as those working to ‘Kill the Bill’. The gradual normalisation of abolitionism as a left demand also opens up space to imagine what it would look like to extend abolitionist thinking and practice outward into wider realms such as that of corporate accountability. It is a known fact that (especially multinational) corporations are responsible for much of the human and environmental harm around the world which has led many to call for corporations to be held to account in domestic and international tribunals for international crimes, environmental law and human rights abuses. What would an abolitionist perspective encompass here? My talk will focus on three interrelated themes. One dives into the practical side of joining the abolition of carceral systems and logics with the abolition of capitalism so as to achieve reparation and redistribution (and touches also on the role of the economy in the ‘original’ abolitionist debate). A second suggests, perhaps counterintuitively, that the current trends towards the privatisation and automation of justice prepare the way for a ‘scaled up’ transformative justice capable of transforming relations of production. A third is about what the question might look like from a ‘victim’s’, and ecological perspective.

This is a Birkbeck Centre for Political Economy and Institutional Studies (CPEIS) event.

About the Criminology Seminar Series
In line with the School of Law, Birkbeck's research and teaching ethos, the Criminology Seminar Series aims to provide a platform for critical and interdisciplinary research, showcasing prominent and path-breaking research on crime, criminal justice and related themes by scholars from within and beyond Birkbeck. The series is convened by Dr Sappho Xenakis, School of Law, Birkbeck.

Attendance to the events is free but registration is required. Talks from the 2020/21 series will be available for download via the website. Find out more about the series here. The hashtag for the event is #BBKCrimSeries.

This event is open to the public and free to attend however booking is required via this page. The event will be hosted on Collaborate, a free to access website. You will be sent a link to access the event upon registration.

Contact name: