For and against the political economy of punishment: thoughts on Bourdieu and punishment

Abstract

This chapter offers up proposals in the hope of overcoming some of the limitations of the political economy of punishment. To that end, some of the main contributions this trend makes will be highlighted; their value acknowledged and recovered for future works. Next, the most recent criticisms will be reviewed. The third part will be devoted to proposing some solutions departing from the work of sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, who considered some of the limitations of Marxist approaches in his own work.