C. Wright Mills and the Criminological Imagination: Prospects for Creative Inquiry(Classical and Contemporary Social Theory)

In spite of its widespread use within criminology, the term ’criminological imagination’, as derived from C. Wright Mills’ classic The Sociological Imagination, has yet to be fully developed and clarified as an analytic concept capable of guiding theorizing or empirical enquiry. This volume, with a preface by Elliot Currie, engages with and reflects on this concept, exploring C. Wright Mills’ work for criminological enquiry. Bringing together the latest work of leading scholars in the fields of criminology and sociology from around the world, C. Wright Mills and the Criminological Imagination investigates the emergence and lineage of a criminological concept indebted to Mills’ thought, adapting and applying it to a specifically criminological context. With attention to theoretical concerns and, as well as the application of the criminological imagination in concrete empirical research, this volume sheds new light on the methodological and analytical aspects of the criminological imagination as a multifaceted concept and explores the possibilities that it offers for the emergence of an imaginative criminological practice. As such, it will appeal to scholars across the social sciences with interests in sociology and social theory, criminology, criminal justice studies, law and research methods.

Table of Contents:
Foreword, Elliott Currie; C. Wright Mills and the criminological imagination: introductory remarks, Jon Frauley. Part I C. Wright Mills, the Criminological Imagination and the Criminological Field: For a refractive criminology: against science machines and cheerful robots, Jon Frauley; The demise of the criminological imagination: thirty years later, Frank P. Williams III; Contemporary criminology and the sociological imagination, Eamonn Carrabine; The criminological imagination in an age of global cybernetic power, Stephen Pfohl. Part II The Criminological Imagination, Theoretical Insights, Empirical Implications: The implications of the sociology of C. Wright Mills for modern criminological theory revisited, Joseph A. Scimecca; Sympathy and the criminological imagination, Melanie White; Re-imagining social control: G.H. Mead, C. Wright Mills and beyond, Nicolas Carrier. Part III The Criminological Imagination, Empirical Insights, Theoretical Implications: Critical research values and C. Wright Mills’ Sociological Imagination: learning lessons from researching prison officers, David Scott; Neo-liberalism, higher education and anti-politics: the assault on the criminological imagination, Alana Barton and Howard Davis; Imagining the unthinkable: climate change, ecocide and children, Rob White; The criminological imagination and the promise of fiction, Stephanie Piamonte; Imagining transnational security projects, David Nelken

About the Author :
Jon Frauley is Associate Professor of Criminology at the University of Ottawa, Canada. He is the author of numerous articles and book chapters, including Criminology, Deviance and the Silver Screen: The Fictional Reality and the Criminological Imagination and co-editor of Critical Realism and the Social Sciences: Heterodox Elaborations.

Review :
’The critical humanism of C. Wright Mills is only rarely encountered in criminology, which remains a field of study characterized by an undeveloped imagination. For anyone who wants to see how enriching Mills' intuitions can be to criminology, this is an essential book. From now on, when administrative or realist colleagues ask the trite, prosaic question what are the policy implications of your theory?, we are allowed to retort what are the theoretical implications of your policy?’ Vincenzo Ruggiero, Middlesex University, UK ’To build a creative and critical criminology for the twenty-first century will require a major effort of innovative, critical and even speculative scholarship. Drawing on C. Wright Mills’ vision of the sociological imagination, this book provides both a vital stimulus and key pointers - new ways of thinking summed up in the idea of the criminological imagination - towards how such an enterprise can be brought into being.’ Pat O’Malley, University of Sydney, Australia "The book asks important questions, which are also relevant to others fields...I highly recommend this book for all criminologists and social scientists." Anne Alvesalo-Kuusi, Sosiologia