The main themes addressed in my research can be grouped under two broad headings: first, the political economy and social psychology of punishment; and second, the implementation and consequences of penal and cognate policies. Jurisdictionally, the focus of my work to date has been on the Mediterranean region and the Anglo-American world from both national and international comparative angles. Methodologically, my research brings together theoretical concepts and insights from a variety of disciplinary fields, especially from sociology, anthropology, psychology and history, also fusing them with findings from fieldwork I have undertaken in criminal justice settings.
Political economy and social psychology of punishment
My past and ongoing work in the political economy and social psychology of punishment has included analyses of such themes as the politics of imprisonment under conditions of neoliberal capitalism in the UK and the US, with particular reference to the political management of socio-economic insecurities amongst the public; the relationship between the economy, state punishment in the form of imprisonment, and public punitiveness in Greece over the last three decades, especially as concerns the role neoliberalism may play in countries occupying a semi-peripheral position in the world economy; and the ways in which the reality and politics of common crime, corruption and political violence have been related to the rates and conditions of conventional imprisonment and immigration detention in Greece during the recent and continuing financial crisis. I have also recently initiated new projects on the links between processes of democratisation and the politico-economic evolution and functions of penal institutions in a range of transitional contexts (e.g., post-dictatorial, post-colonial), and on psychoanalytic and psychosocial perspectives in criminology.
Implementation and consequences of penal and cognate policies
My previous and ongoing work on the implementation and consequences of penal and cognate policies has addressed such themes as the conditions, experiences, and physical and symbolic effects of men's and women's conventional imprisonment and immigration detention in Greece; prisoners' perceptions of race relations in British prisons; the exercise of risk assessment, including practitioners' use of discretion and related issues of ethno-racial discrimination, in prison settings in Britain and Greece; the forms and effectiveness of prison reform interventions by national and international inspectorate and judicial bodies; and the implementation and effectiveness of schemes aimed to help prisoners in their transition back to the broader community (e.g., home leave, work release, and arts-based schemes). Plans are currently under way for a new project on the history of political exile on remote Greek islands as experienced and resisted by exiles themselves, based on secondary analysis of Professor Margaret E. Kenna's archive of handwritten newspapers from a commune of left-wing political exiles living on the Cycladic island of Anafi during the dictatorship of General Ioannis Metaxas (1936-1941) and the Axis Occupation (1941-1943).
Some of my published and forthcoming works can be found in the section Publications.
Political economy and social psychology of punishment
My past and ongoing work in the political economy and social psychology of punishment has included analyses of such themes as the politics of imprisonment under conditions of neoliberal capitalism in the UK and the US, with particular reference to the political management of socio-economic insecurities amongst the public; the relationship between the economy, state punishment in the form of imprisonment, and public punitiveness in Greece over the last three decades, especially as concerns the role neoliberalism may play in countries occupying a semi-peripheral position in the world economy; and the ways in which the reality and politics of common crime, corruption and political violence have been related to the rates and conditions of conventional imprisonment and immigration detention in Greece during the recent and continuing financial crisis. I have also recently initiated new projects on the links between processes of democratisation and the politico-economic evolution and functions of penal institutions in a range of transitional contexts (e.g., post-dictatorial, post-colonial), and on psychoanalytic and psychosocial perspectives in criminology.
Implementation and consequences of penal and cognate policies
My previous and ongoing work on the implementation and consequences of penal and cognate policies has addressed such themes as the conditions, experiences, and physical and symbolic effects of men's and women's conventional imprisonment and immigration detention in Greece; prisoners' perceptions of race relations in British prisons; the exercise of risk assessment, including practitioners' use of discretion and related issues of ethno-racial discrimination, in prison settings in Britain and Greece; the forms and effectiveness of prison reform interventions by national and international inspectorate and judicial bodies; and the implementation and effectiveness of schemes aimed to help prisoners in their transition back to the broader community (e.g., home leave, work release, and arts-based schemes). Plans are currently under way for a new project on the history of political exile on remote Greek islands as experienced and resisted by exiles themselves, based on secondary analysis of Professor Margaret E. Kenna's archive of handwritten newspapers from a commune of left-wing political exiles living on the Cycladic island of Anafi during the dictatorship of General Ioannis Metaxas (1936-1941) and the Axis Occupation (1941-1943).
Some of my published and forthcoming works can be found in the section Publications.