Stuart Hall, Conjunctural Analysis and Cultural Criminology

Book excerpt: This book discusses Stuart Hall's unique contribution to criminology. It suggests that this is captured best in Hall’s commitment to understanding a given historical moment, or conjuncture, in its full complexity, and his continuous deployment of an appropriate methodology, conjunctural analysis, to do so. This provides a running thread linking Hall’s early work on youth subcultures, the media, the state and hegemony to his later work on racial identities, racism and the politics of difference. This is contrasted with more theoretically-driven work in cultural criminology. Its failure to adopt a conjunctural approach constitutes, for the author, something of a missed moment. To demonstrate the continuing relevance of this form of analysis, the book provides a conjunctural analysis of Brexit, including its psychosocial dimension and concludes with a brief analysis of Trump’s failure to get re-elected. The book is intended for students of criminology and cultural studies.