Rethinking Law, Society and Governance

Gary Wickham is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Murdoch University in Western Australia. George Pavlich is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Alberta.

• Transforming images - society, law and critique, George Pavlich. Part 1 Genealogical entries - governance, the social and the colonies: genealogy, systemization and resistance in "advanced liberalism", Pat O'Malley; governing images of the Australian police trooper, Annette Pedersen; governing rural Australia -land, space and race, Russell Hogg and Kerry Carrington; governing unemployment -transforming "the social", William Walters. Part 2 Law, crime and the politics of co-social governance: the invention of the environment as a subject of legal governance, Jo Goodie; reconstructing the government of crime, Kevin Stenson; governmentality and law and order, David Brown. Part 3 Reframing ontology and critique: governing theory - ontology, methodology and the critique of metaphysics, Jeff Malpas; the art of critique or how not to be governed thus, George Pavlich.

...the advantage is that the broad base of the authors' approaches results in something thought provoking for a variety of readers. Few post-graduate level readers interested in law and order would not find engaging moments and compelling discussion in this text. It is interesting to read the sometimes sharply contrasting arguments next to one another. Trish Oberweis, Southern Illinois University The Law and Politics Book Review February 2002