Workshop: Penal governance and liberal-democratic contestations
Location:
Neil MacCormick Room,
Old College
Date/time
Fri 6 November 2026
09:30 - 18:00
About the event
Penal governance in contemporary societies is becoming increasingly diverse in different democratic settings, as the political circumstances become more complex and contested. Issues of penal governance, which have long occupied the attention of penal thinkers, are becoming more challenging due to the changing features of issues pertaining to penal decision makers, the intended targets of penal repression, penal instruments and tools that are used, and the real-life challenges that prompt these changes. This workshop brings together scholars interested in the nature of the relationship between penal governance and the wider social and political processes at the times of significant contestations of the liberal-democratic order.
Agenda of the day
9,30-10,00: Welcome (coffee)
10,00-10,15: Introduction to the workshop
10,15-11,00: Penal populism reloaded? On the penal agenda of the radical right Professor José A. Brandariz (University of A Coruña, Spain)
11,00-11,45: From politicisation to governmental versatility: A genealogy of penal policy
Dr Alessandro Corda (Queen’s University Belfast, United Kingdom)
11,45-12,00: Coffee break
12,00-12,45: Penal power, social control and the governance of belonging in backsliding populist democracies
Dr Milena Tripkovic (University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom)
12,45-13,30: Policing and politics in post-communist transition: stalling, sliding, arriving?
Dr Andy Aydin-Aitchison (University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom)
13,30-14,30: Lunch
14,30-15,15: 'Mercy Mercy Me - criminology's contestations and "the ecology"'
Prof. Richard Sparks (University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom)
15,15-16,00: Urban Safety and the Conservative Turn in Spain’s Medium-Sized Cities
Dr Cristina Fernández Bessa (University of A Coruña, Spain)
Image credit: Adobe stock