EG-2022-05-NEWSLETTERDownload

Dear comrades and colleagues of the European Group

We hope everyone is doing well – the year is flying by and we are finally getting closer to the first in-person annual conference since Barcelona in 2019. In many ways, everything has changed, and nothing has changed. We have individually and collectively gone through the pandemic, some losing loved ones on the way. Politics has changed internationally, with increasing and worrying shifts to the right, and  the state of the environment seems to degrade as each day passes. At the same time, friendships continue and the same fights for social and political justice ruminate.

It is in times like these that collectivity and mutual support can be of its greatest value. Of course, there are ups and downs and not everyone will agree on everything but the fundamentals of the European Group have remained the same throughout its legacy.

For that reason, and as we move to the 50th annual conference, we dedicate this month’s edition to the founders of the European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control, originally FANTOMAS, and have been delighted to be able to publish reflections from Karl F. Schumann this month. We are sure you agree the image he has shared brings much nostalgia, and some of you reading this may even recall the first conference. Karl has kindly provided some of the original documents, which you can see below.

These are some of the foundations of the EG, and like so much else, everything and nothing has changed as time has passed since this picture was taken. We have welcomed many critical thinkers from beyond Europe, coordination teams have changed, and new people arrive every year. We hope still that, as we soon come to the end of our time as coordinators, we retain the critical foundations and build collectively into positive interventions, radical structural change, and with the increased vigor and energy that each annual conference always brings.

This edition includes calls for papers, interviews and of course information on the 50th Annual Conference. We are thankful to our colleagues working in and with the Torino organisation committee, and the stream coordinators for all their efforts in collating abstracts. As you will see, we have extended the call for papers and registration until 31st May, so please get abstracts in and we very much look forward to seeing you in Torino in September 2022.

Take care all – in solidarity,

Vicky, Katja, Dani and Simone [EG incumbent coord. team]