Facing more terrorism, war and unending conflicts over what is deviant, it may be time again to listen to the powerful voices in A Political Analysis of Deviance. The messages reveal the importance of studying deviance and diversity as politics, and how we might transcend the current vulgar debate over freedom fighters versus terrorists. The first edition of the book, published in 1980, was the model for understanding whom and what controls the moral boundaries separating good from bad. In the new forward, Pat Lauderdale raises questions about the current usefulness of the model. The chapters in the book examine political life and its relationship to the study of deviance that often are ignored or suffocated before they become public. Now, we must ask innovative questions about our moral judgements and our fate as we move into this new century.
“Pat Lauderdale is aware keenly of the importance of the connection between deviance, diversity and politics. The flagship book of deviance as diversity is A Political Analysis of Deviance and serious scholars will welcome this new edition.”
Claudia von Werlhof
Institute for Political Science
Chair of Women’s Studies
University of Arizona
“This is a truly thoughtful and compelling set of papers, as important now - and in some ways even more important now - than they were a quarter of a century ago when they were first written. The study of deviance has always been the study of politics and ideology, and no one has a better grasp of that truth than the scholars assembled here.”
Kai Erikson
Department of Sociology
Yale University
Pat Lauderdale, Ph.D. in Sociology, Stanford University, is a Professor of Justice Studies and Adjunct Professor of Law at Arizona State University. He continues to purse a research agenda on politics, law, diversity, and nature. He explores the thematic threads of the alternative ways in which marginalized people struggle with dominant concepts of justice and injustice; how such people have fared in utilizing various means to attain justice; and the role of hegemony surrounding class, race, ethnicity, age, and gender in shaping conceptions of what is just or unjust. He is author or coauthor of numerous books, including Lives in the Balance: Perspectives on Global Injustice and Inequality, The Struggle for Control: A Study of Law, Disputes and Deviance, and Law and Society, Japanese translated version (Setsuo Miyazawa)
