An update from the Cambridge Socio-Legal Group (CSLG)

The Cambridge Socio-Legal Group (CSLG) is an interdisciplinary discussion forum promoting debate on topical socio-legal issues and empirical research methodology. It adopts an inter-disciplinary approach aid is affiliated with the Institute of Criminology and the Centre for Family Research and Physiology, Development & Neuroscience (PDN), as well as the Law Faculty.

Recent Publications

Spaces of Care (edited by Loraine Gelsthorpe, Perveez Mody and Brian Sloan) was published in paperback last month, having been based on a CSLG project. The book reflects on specific aspects of conceptualising caring relations in 'spaces', including communities of care and abandonment, self-care and kinship care, spaces as 'gaps' in care, the meanings of marketised care, and the ways in which care is constructed and constrained in different ways in venues such as homes, prisons, workplaces and virtual spaces.

Domestic Violence and Parent-Child Separation

The CSLG supported a colloquium held in St Catharine’s College in September, 2022, entitled 'Domestic Violence and Parent-Child Separation'. PhD candidate Hannah Lucey from the Department of Social Anthropology successfully applied for the funding from the CSLG following a call for proposals. The idea for this colloquium emerged during a period of ethnographic research investigating the childrearing and caregiving experiences of homeless mothers in Dublin, Ireland. During this fieldwork, it became apparent that women’s mothering opportunities often suffered due to domestic abuse and were further undermined when the legal system held women responsible for their children’s exposure to violence. A central concern of this colloquium was to try to bridge the gap between academic theorisation and frontline practice, and to address the disaggregated approach to domestic abuse exhibited by women’s rights advocates and child protection workers.

The day-long colloquium was very successful and inspired a lively discussion. A proposal for an edited volume inspired by papers presented at the colloquium has been positively received by an academic publisher, and a completed draft of this volume has been submitted for peer review. Given the surging rates of domestic violence reported globally as result of the Covid pandemic, this volume has the potential to make a significant contribution to the literature, demonstrating both the necessity and complexity of keeping mothers’ experiences at the forefront.

Harm Reduction and Decriminalization of Sex Work

A special section of Sexuality Research and Social Policy, edited by Belinda Brooks-Gordon, Max Morris and Teela Sanders and published in December 2021, had its origins in a colloquium sponsored by the Cambridge Socio-Legal Group in 2020. The goal was to promote the exchange of ideas between a variety of disciplinary research fields and applied perspectives on harm reduction and the decriminalization of sex work.

The colloquium took place during the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic in February 2020. The special section provides an examination of sex work policy and research across 12 countries in four continents, providing an important space for international comparisons. The papers focused on both the lived experience of sex work and also the premises on which governance is built.The research represented supports calls by global health and human rights organizations for sex work decriminalization as the best strategy to reduce harm.

Seminars

The CSLG continues to host regular hybrid research seminars. Highlights in the past academic year include Sarah J. Lockwood (Assistant Professor in the Centre of Development Studies and Department of Politics and International Studies) speaking on the title 'Making Protest: Protest Brokers and the Technology of Mobilization' and Valentin Jeutner (Oxford University) on 'The Reasonable Person: A biographical introduction to an empathetic character'. Future seminars include Oliver Wilson-Nunn (Isaac Newton Research Fellow, Robinson College), who will be speaking on 'Beyond Mirrors and Windows: Exploring State-Society Relationships Through Prison and Film' on 1 February 2024.

For more information about CSLG refer to their page, or you can sign up to their mailing list.