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This book provides an account of the distinctive way in which penal power developed outside the metropolitan centre. Proposing a radical revision of the Foucauldian thesis that criminological knowledge emerged in the service of a new form of power - discipline - that had inserted itself into the very centre of punishment, it argues that Foucault's alignment of sovereign, disciplinary and governmental power will need to be reread and rebalanced to account for its operation in the colonial sphere. In particular it proposes that colonial penal power in India is best understood as a central element of a liberal colonial governmentality. To give an account of the emergence of this colonial form of penal power that was distinct from its metropolitan counterpart, this book analyses the British experience in India from the 1820s to the early 1920s. It provides a genealogy of both civil and military spheres of government, illustrating how knowledge of marginal and criminal social orders was tied in crucial ways to the demands of a colonial rule that was neither monolithic nor necessarily coherent. The analysis charts the emergence of a liberal colonial governmentality where power was almost exclusively framed in terms of sovereignty and security and where disciplinary strategies were given only limited and equivocal attention. Drawing on post-colonial theory, Penal Power and Colonial Rule opens up a new and unduly neglected area of research. An insightful and original exploration of theory and history, this book will appeal to students and scholars of Law, Criminology, History and Post-colonial Studies.

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The colonial state has been an object of intense study and debate among historians and postcolonial scholars. In this special issue, devoted to questions of colonial state crime, I consider the utility of the colonial state as a conceptual and analytic category for state crime scholars. Focusing upon European colonialism in South Asia, the article first examines definitional problems: within what normative parameters might colonial state behaviour be understood and, thus, its transgressions and crimes registered? I then move to consider two contrasting schools of historiography and their difficulties in settling upon some agreed view of how colonizing foreigners connected with indigenous elites and masses to develop and implement strategies of rule. I suggest that the concept of a colonial state, to which culpability for state crimes may be ascribed, is a chimera and of limited use today. Instead, I describe a model of colonial governmentality and, through a case study of mass famine death, illustrate both its strengths and weaknesses for making sense of how such tragedies occurred and thus how insights from the historical field might improve our understanding of modern and postcolonial states today.

AbstractThis paper makes a linguistic reinterpretation of Welford's 1997 hijack hypothesis, arguing that the hijack of the discourse of the radical environment is simply a process of appropriation, i.e., the adoption of particular words in order to make use of them within the green corporations' own frames of experience. Results are presented from an empirical study using two large 'databases' of language. These are electronic collections of texts taken from British environmental organizations – the radical non‐governmental organizations (NGOs), and UK corporations that wish to be environmentally friendly – green business. The results show that there are very marked differences in the physical contextualization of a selection of words which are used by both the radical NGOs and green business. The paper concludes by noting the need to take the analysis a stage further by comparing the usage of particular words by the two discourse communities. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

SummaryExtended durations of postpartum non-susceptibility (PPNS) comprising lactational amenorrhoea and associated taboos on sex have been a central component of traditional reproductive regimes in sub-Saharan Africa. In situations of rising contraceptive prevalence this paper draws on data from the Demographic Health Surveys to consider the neglected interface between ancient and modern methods of regulation. The analysis reports striking contrasts between countries. At one extreme a woman's natural susceptibility status appears to have little bearing on the decision to use contraception in Zimbabwe, with widespread 'double-protection'. By contrast, contraceptive use in Kenya and Ghana builds directly onto underlying patterns of PPNS. Possible explanations for the differences and the implications for theory and policy are discussed.

Concerns about unexplained illnesses among veterans of the 1991 Gulf War appeared soon after that conflict ended. Many environmental causes have been suggested, including possible exposure to depleted uranium munitions, vaccines and other drugs used to protect troops, deliberate or accidental exposure to chemical warfare agents and pesticides and smoke from oil-well fires. To help resolve these issues, US and UK governments have sought independent expert scientific advice from prestigious, independent scientific and public health experts, including the US National Academies of Science and the UK Royal Society and Medical Research Council. Their authoritative and independent scientific and medical reviews shed light on a wide range of Gulf War environmental hazards. However, they have added little to our understanding of Gulf War veterans' illnesses, because identified health effects have been previously well characterized, primarily in the occupational health literature. This effort has not identified any new health effects or unique syndromes associated with the evaluated environmental hazards. Nor do their findings provide an explanation for significant amounts of illnesses among veterans of the 1991 Gulf War. Nevertheless, these independent and highly credible scientific reviews have proven to be an effective means for evaluating potential health effects from deployment-related environmental hazards.

ABSTRACT  Regional economies are continually undergoing adjustment as their firm populations react to changing tastes, technologies, and the challenges of outside competition. Adjustment typically takes place as the stock of jobs is renewed in each industry. This micro‐dynamic process of renewal has a substantial impact on the structure of national and regional economies. The primary objective of this paper is to measure the degree of renewal within the Canadian manufacturing economy as whole and within individual provinces. Using a longitudinal micro‐data set—which covers the population of manufacturing plants in Canada from 1973 to 1996—the study shows that the manufacturing sector experienced considerable job renewal. Two‐thirds of jobs in 1996 were newly created since 1973. There was considerable variation in provincial renewal rates. A decomposition analysis suggests this variation is not purely an artifact of the types of industries found in provinces, but reflects other characteristics of provincial economies.

Cultural analyses of empire inspired by Edward Said's Orientalism (1978) have focused on certain artefacts of imperial thought, representing them as emblematic of a totalizing Orientalist discourse. This article examines one such case in nineteenthcentury India: the identification and legal notification of communities as Criminal Tribes. Taking the case of the Mina tribe of northern India, an attempt is made to illustrate how strategies like the criminal tribes policy fall far short of reflecting some broad and monolithic approach to governance. By examining the divergent views of orthodox and authoritarian strains within British liberalism, and showing how they were directly reflected in quite different approaches to governing the Minas, the article reveals the criminal tribesman as less an archetype of British crime control strategy than the product of a limited and partial examination of the colonial archive. It is hoped that the present investigation of the case of the Mina tribe will provide a more complex and sophisticated understanding of the doctrines and strategies under which Britain governed its empire.

Recent trends towards more severe forms of punishment in western nations have been interpreted as undermining the central tenets of penal modernity: rationality, scientism and restraint. Analyses of the turn to penal severity have emphasized a variety of factors, each said to underpin this departure from modern penal doctrines. In this article I take up the issue of penal excess, arguing instead that it is a foundational and central element of penal modernity. Drawing upon historical material from a distinctly modern formation - the 19th-century colonial state - I illustrate how the idea and practices of penal excess were central to the constitution of the state in British India and to the governance of its population. The current turn towards more excessive punishment practices may thus be interpreted within a framework of recursions within penal modernity, rather than as signalling an end or fundamental transformation of the modern state.