Social Justice home

We are now offering custom classrom readers in pdf format upon request. For students in Professor Arriaza's course, please order here.

Recent Issues

Conflicts within the Crisis (Vol. 39, No. 1) investigates some of the most significant cycles of protest that have occurred across the globe since the current financial, economic, and political crisis started in 2007. It covers four Eurozone countries, Greece, Italy, Spain, and the UK, and one Mediterranean country involved in the Arab Spring, Egypt. Read the Introduction, see the article abstracts, or order the issue online

Juvenile Delinquency, Modernity, and the State (Vol. 38, No. 4) explores the changing meanings of "juvenile delinquency" and the relation between juvenile crime discourses and state authority in the 19th and 20th centuries. Read the Introduction, see the article abstracts, or order the issue online.

Education, Militarism, and Community (Vol. 38, No. 3) revolves around prominent influences on public education, including corporatization, militarism, and communities mobilizing in defense of their own interests. Read the Introduction, see the article abstracts, or order the issue online

Policing the Crisis: Policing in Crisis (Vol. 38, Nos. 1-2), edited by Kendra Briken and Volker Eick, discusses recent policing and security strategies, civil rights, and crime policy within the framework of the current financial and economic crisis. Read the "Introduction," see the article abstracts , or order the issue online now.

Community Accountability: Emerging Movements to Transform Violence (Vol. 37, No. 4) is edited by Ana Clarissa Rojas Durazo, Alisa Bierria, and Mimi Kim, who have extensive experience with grass-roots organizations, antiviolence activism within communities of color, and have been participants in debates about prisons and police responses to violence. Their feminist praxis as scholar/activists is reflected in the scope and breadth of this volume. Transdisciplinary and transnational in scope, contributors maintain high standards of political ethics, while maintaining a noteworthy commitment to mobilizing for real change. This special issue delivers on all essential dimensions of the debate on intimate violence. Read the "Introduction," see the article abstracts , or order the issue online now.

Imperial Obama: A Kinder, Gentler Empire? (Vol. 37, Nos. 2-3), edited by Robert P. Weiss and Gregory Shank, assesses "Obama's Wars," particularly in Afghanistan and north Africa, and the just war theory and counterterrorism doctrine used to justify them. There is detailed coverage of war crimes and violations of international law. The second set of articles examines the role of the military, private contractors, and psychologists and anthropologists in "enhanced interrogation," contributing to America's descent into torture under the cover of antiterrorism and counterinsurgency. The collection has been described as a significant contribution to the literature on these timely, difficult, and pressing issues. Read the "Introduction," see the article abstracts , or order the issue online now.

Sexuality, Criminalization, and Social Control (Vol. 37, No. 1) concentrates on the 30-year strategy of increasingly managing social problems through penal measures. To date, scholars have critically considered race in studies of criminalization, examining the severe and disproportionate effects on low-income communities and communities of color. They have also analyzed the gendered dynamics of incarceration. This special issue builds upon existing scholarship, by investigating multiple relationships between sexuality, criminalization, and social control. Read the "Introduction," see the article abstracts , or order the issue online.

Activist Scholarship: Possibilities and Constraints of Participatory Action Research (Vol. 36, No. 4) reflects the research and voices of scholars concerned with power and representation in academic scholarship. Contributors link the idea of democracy to research and scholarship and explore whether it is possible to authentically bridge the gap between the community and the academy. The issue addresses the possibilities and constraints for activist scholarship and adds to the growing body of work that exemplifies participatory action research as a methodology, ideology, and commitment. Read the "Introduction," see the article abstracts , or order the issue online now. Also of interest is Applied Research and Social Justice (Vol. 30, No. 4). See below.

Resisting State Criminality (Vol. 36, No. 3) focuses on the role of resistance in efforts to control or constrain the criminality of states. It examines some of the most egregious and systemic crimes, from genocide, mass murder, and environmental catastrophes, to the ongoing bombing of civilians. Contributors explore the most useful mechanisms available for reversing this pattern of impunity. Read the "Introduction," see the article abstracts , or order the issue online now.

Policing, Detention, Deportation, and Resistance (Vol. 36, No. 2) demonstrates that imprisonment, including immigrant detention, is essential to the U.S. drive to preserve geopolitical dominance. It examines activist efforts to resist this trend and urges the building of bridges between prison abolition and immigrant justice work. Read the "Introduction," see the article abstracts , or order the issue online now.

Policing Protest and Youth (Vol. 36, No. 1) examines the historical roots of recent forms of domestic spying and the fear campaigns that justify such programs. The longstanding wars on crime, drugs, and terror justify ongoing emergency legislation and a militarized approach to law enforcement. Authors look at how globalization affects policing practices in the United States, including the policing of protest and of inner-city youth, with the associated scandals and abuse. Articles consider activist responses to paramilitary policing of peaceful protest and to anti-gang units. Read the "Introduction," see the article abstracts , or order the issue online now.

Migrant Labor and Contested Public Space (Vol. 35, No. 4) looks at the impact of immigrant labor, particularly from Mexico and Asia, at the local level. It remains a polarizing issue that the Obama administration may not address during his first term, disappointing Latino leaders and immigration advocates. Meanwhile, lacking a pathway to citizenship and union protections, immigrant day laborers remain subject to harassment from hostile private citizens and law enforcement. Read the "Introduction," see the article abstracts , or order the issue online now.

War, Crisis, and Transition (Vol. 35, No. 3) explores the moral responsibility of individuals in a time of war, the complicity of international financial institutions in Africa's tragic genocides, the dumping of toxic waste in the Third World, and the damage done internationally by neoconservative wars of choice and the use of torture. Read the "Introduction," which frames the issues as they are unfolding under Barack Obama's presidency, see the article abstracts , or order the issue online now.

Asian American and Pacific Islander Population Struggles for Social Justice (Vol. 35, No. 2) looks at the factors that shape oppositional consciousness and the possibility for collective action in urban communities -- particularly traditional Asian ethnic enclaves -- around land use, affordable housing, as well as labor and community preservation. Read the "Introduction" or article abstracts , or order the issue online now.

Citizenship Surveillance of La Gente: Citizenship Theory, Practice, and Cultural Citizen Voices (Vol. 35, No. 1) covers the power imbued in citizenship ideologies and practices in schools, communities, and national forums. Read the "Introduction" or article abstracts , or order the issue online now.

Securing the Imperium: Criminal Justice Privatization and Neoliberal Globalization (Vol. 34, Nos. 3-4), edited by Bob Weiss, discusses the current resurgence, global expansion, and market concentration of the private security industry. Privatization of police, prisons, and the military is addressed in terms of the U.S., China, Latin America, the U.K., Australia, and South Africa. Read the "Introduction" or article abstracts , or order the issue online now. Another recent issue, Beyond Transnational Crime (Vol. 34, No. 2), offers a global framework for integrating crime control, national security, politics, and international relations. The issue emphasizes border militarization, environmental crime, and the corruption of counterterrorism efforts in Iraq and Australia. Read the "Introduction" or article abstracts , or order the issue online now.

Art, Identity, and Social Justice (Vol. 34, No. 1), edited by Edward J. McCaughan and Emmanuel David, discusses the role of the visual arts, theater, and performance in the social justice struggles of communities as diverse as American Indians, Bahamians, North American and Mexican feminists, working-class women in England, and LGBTQ communities of color in New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area. Authors address identity and difference within contested relationships of power and structural inequality, including race, class, gender, sexuality, and nation. Read the "Introduction" or article abstracts , or order the issue online now. Also available is the companion volume, Art, Power, and Social Change (Vol. 33, No. 2). These essays explore dimensions of the role of art in processes of social change. Some address the power of art as a voice of dissent, as a tool for advancing social justice and democracy, as the core of a revolutionary strategy, and as a source of memory and future ways of knowing. Other essays warn about the art of power, such as government and art world censorship, the co-optive ability of capitalism, and the blinding force of Western rationalization. Read its "Introduction" or article abstracts. Or order the issue online now.

Deaths in Custody and Detention (Vol. 33, No. 4): This special issue, edited by Phil Scraton and Jude McCulloch, examines deaths in custody and detention (including state hospitals and mental health, police and prison custody, and young offenders' institutions). The volume sets out to consider how advanced democratic states inquire into and investigate deaths in controversial circumstances. Also considered are the deadly force and exceptional incarceration policies associated with the "war on terror" waged by the U.S. and U.K. Articles and essays cover the U.K., Ireland, the U.S. (including, Guantanamo -- see Rita Maran's analysis), and Australia and mix academic pieces with accounts from prisoners and campaigners. 205 pages. Read the issue "Introduction" or article abstracts. Or order the issue online now.

Privatization and Resistance: Contesting Neoliberal Globalization (Vol. 33, No. 3), edited by Adalberto Aguirre, Jr., Volker Eick, and Ellen Reese, explores the danger of neoliberal globalization in terms of social issues such as the privatization of housing, economic welfare, security, and the delivery of goods and services. Sections on economic rights and municipal services, policing, urban development, and resistance to privatization show how global trends take local form in Canada, the U.S., the U.K., Germany, South Africa, Mexico, and Central America. Articles highlight the challenges of resisting neoliberal policies and the conditional nature of effective resistance. 200 pages. Read the issue "Introduction" or article abstracts. Or order the issue online now.

Immigrant Rights and National Insecurity (Vol. 33, No. 1) features essays by Susanne Jonas and other contributors on the future implications of the great immigration battle of 2006, the deportation phenomenon in Europe and the Caribbean, pro-immigrant social movements, and the relationship. Jonas' article is available online: click here. Earlier issues focusing on immigration include: Gatekeeper's State: Immigration and Boundary Policing in an Era of Globalization (Vol. 28, No. 2, 2001); Immigration: A Civil Rights Issue for the Americas in the 21st Century (Vol. 23, No. 3, 1996); and Resisting Militarism and Globalized Punishment (Vol. 31, Nos. 1 and 2, 2004). Read the current "Introduction" or article abstracts. Or order the issue online now.

Waging War over Public Education and Youth Services: Challenging Corporate Control of Our Schools and Communities (Vol. 32, No. 3) helps us comprehend the war being waged over public education and services. It offers a critical theoretical framework on how social justice work can dismantle the considerable barriers erected by the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind (NCLB) policy. The volume looks at the way in which challenges to education, welfare, and notions of security affect particular groups and entire communities, as well as how they respond, resist, and create alternatives. It advances our understanding of the ways in which communities and institutions can support the development of agency among underserved youth, particularly given the Right's dominance over the nature and content of education, and thus address the roles of public institutions in a democracy. Read the "Introduction" or article abstracts. Or order it online now.

See also Pedagogies for Social Change (Vol. 29, No. 4), which covers the "new market economy" paradigm that now dominates the U.S. in the field of education. We face increased state and nationwide efforts to control learning and teaching under the guise of "standards" and "accountability." A growing number of educators and community activists are resisting this trend through innovative, progressive practices in classrooms at all levels and through organizing students, parents, and teachers to defend their educational rights. This issue of Social Justice captures examples of this resistance in California universities and elsewhere and offers critiques of the "standards" movement. Edited by Susan Roberta Katz & Cecilia O'Leary. Read the "Introduction."

Resisting Militarism and Globalized Punishment (Vol. 31, Nos. 1-2) examines the widening net of incarceration, immigration policing, and drug and crime enforcement, as well as the role of an increasingly authoritarian national security state in a globalized 21st-century economy. This transnational phenomenon is the fruition of a conservative program, initiated in the Reagan and Thatcher years, and continuing under George W. Bush and Tony Blair’s New Labour, that lowers the cost of labor, makes regressive tax cuts, reduces environmental regulations (especially in the U.S.), guts affirmative action and welfare benefits, and greatly expands the military and the criminal justice system. It pushes the world to accept unilateralist, preemptive militarism, most notably with the Bush-Blair intervention in Iraq. The U.S. and Britain have been engaged in a prison-building binge, such that the U.S. now has the highest rate of incarceration of any modern democracy and England has become the prison capital of Western Europe. Articles in this issue speak to an integrated system of global workforce management and governance that is increasingly based on restricting civil, political, and human rights. Read the "Introduction."