1st Edition
Pervasive Prevention A Feminist Reading of the Rise of the Security Society
`The Prevention Society' is a definition that can otherwise be summarized as: the information society, the risk society, the surveillance society or the insecure society. This book shows the connections and differences between these explanations, whilst providing a gender reading of the ways in which social control manifests itself through precautionary measures. Today’s diffuse and pervasive prevention imperative symbolizes both a self-defining doctrine and the justification for a means of repression, segregation, and exclusion. From bodies to daily life and preventative war, Pervasive Prevention investigates the effects of this imperative for social control, its connection with neo-liberal hegemonic ideology, and the centrality in its dealings with women and the feminine.
Biography
Tamar Pitch is Professor of Philosophy and Sociology of Law in the Faculty of Law, University of Perugia. She is co-editior of the journal `Studi Sulla Questione Criminale'. Her recent publications include: `The Gender of Security: Women and Men in the City; and Fundamental Rights: cultural diversity, social inequality, sexual difference'.
'This fascinating analysis dissects the numerous components of the prevention imperative in contemporary societies, linking new forms of social control with hegemonic neo-liberal ideology. The gendered reading offered adds originality to this thought-provoking, superb, book.' Vincenzo Ruggiero, Middlesex University, UK 'In Pervasive Prevention, Tamar Pitch, one of Europe's leading legal theorists, has produced the book that many of us have been thirsting for: a feminist analysis of the security society. With her usual clarity, drollery, and perspicacity, Pitch provides a gendered analysis of the new forms of social control that pervade our lives.' Nicole Rafter, Northeastern University, USA 'Are the features of post-modern social control - risk, security, management, segregation, surveillance "new"? And should we worry about them? Tamar Pitch has written a dense, thoughtful and stimulating book that shows clearly how the "imperative to prevent" leads to social policies far less benign than the folk wisdom of "prevention is better than cure". Her feminist reading of these features and her creative application of critical theory make this a distinctive and important contribution. Stanley Cohen, London School of Economics, UK
