Richard Huggins

Towards a post‐national polity: the emergence of the Network Society in Europe

This chapter explores the prospects for a postnational polity in Europe where the territorial base of power is replaced by a system of networks and flows in which the principal resource is knowledge. The argument depicts a united Europe as a space of flows rather than as a super- or supra-statist entity. Tensions that arise between a Europe of networks and spaces and a Europe of places are examined, partly through a study of the burgeoning European Information Society Project which attempts to harness these developing networks in the service of European integration. Issues relating to the democratic nature of governance without government in the network polity are highlighted to exemplify the difficulties of re-imagining Europe. The rhetoric surrounding the European Information Society expresses the ambivalence within a programme that foresees Europe as a web of discursive spaces while continuing to acknowledge the power of the old imagined communities based upon territory and ethnicity.

Towards an effective social care model for arrest referral: Implications for criminal justice interventions for problem drug users

Aims: To assess an operational model for arrest-referral schemes that successfully facilitates the entry of highly entrenched and chaotic problem drug users into specialist drug-treatment services. Methods: (1) An examination of case records from a voluntary arrest-referral service (SMART CJS) based across the Thames Valley region of the UK during 2002–2003; (2) Probablistic database linkage of agency case records with the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System (NDTMS); (3) participant observation and semi-structured interviews with agency staff. Findings: Over half of problem drug users (58%) maintained contact with the scheme following initial contact in police custody. Referrals were made to a wide range of social-care services in addition to specialist drug treatment to include prison-based services, housing support and primary care. This model was able to demonstrate very high levels of specialist drug treatment uptake (53%) following referral. There was a close relationship between the average length of time a problem drug user entered treatment following contact in police custody and the average length of an active case file. Such an approach was considered essential to maintain motivation with clients. Discussion: This social care model has operational validity in ensuring treatment uptake of recidivist problem drug-using offenders. Continuity of care alongside referrals addressing wider community harms including social exclusion and public health should be encouraged.

Anti-Politics or the Triumph of Postmodern Populism in Promotional Cultures?

AbstractPromotional cultures, to use Wernick.s expression, have transformed communication, as the ideology of the market seeps into every facet of social life. Promotional texts, whether verbal, written or visual, now have great impact upon cultural formation and are contributing to a reflexive transformation of both individual and collective political identities. Much commentary on political change (and especially electoral change) is exercised by a powerfully normative concern with the alleged death of modernist forms of politics and political discourse. This paper goes beyond metaphorical hand-wringing to examine changes in the cultural currents which are transforming the politics of many post-historical societies, and which are conveniently summarised in the changing character of electoral politics and campaign discourses. Although frequently discussed as a kind of anti-politics, these currents, and their phenomenal appearance in the guise of media parties and forms of lifestyle marketing are producin...

Cricket for people who don't like cricket?: Twenty20 as expression of the cultural and media zeitgeist

In the run-up to the cricket One Day International (ODI) World Cup played on the Indian subcontinent in the spring of 2011, an interesting fact emerged, albeit one not directly related to prospective events on the field of play.

Anti-politics or the triumph of postmodern populism in promotional cultures?

Abstract Promotional cultures, to use Wernick’s expression, have transformed communication as the ideology of the market seeps into every facet of social life. Promotional tests, whether verbal, written or visual, now have great impact upon cultural formation and are contributing to a reflexive transformation of both individual and collective political identities. Much commentary on political change (and especially electoral change) is exercised by a powerfully normative concern with the alleged death of modernist forms of politics and political discourse. This paper goes beyond metaphorical hand-wringing to examine changes in the cultural currents which are transforming the politics of many post-historical societies, and which are conveniently summarised in the changing character of electoral politics and campaign discourses. Although frequently discussed as a kind of anti-politics, these currents, and their phenomenal appearance in the guise of media parties and forms of lifestyle marketing are producing a highly self-referential style of electoral discourse, and better understood as intimations of postmodern populism, where that involves: (I) a growing reliance on the techniques and outputs of culture industries to provide sites where meaning is constituted, (II) a de-centring of ideas about authentic forms of publicness and (III) the side-lining of palpable modern forms of politics, like mass political parties. Recent and current developments in campaigns in the USA, Italy and the UK are extracted for detailed comment. ©