SOLON: Promoting Interdisciplinary Studies in Bad Behaviour and Crime
SOLON (Society, Order, Law, Offences, Notoriety) was founded in 1999 at Nottingham Trent University by Dr Judith Rowbotham and Dr Kim Stevenson (now at Plymouth University) to promote Interdisciplinary Studies in Bad Behaviour and Crime. It currently consists of a Partnership with four institutions:
- Oxford Brookes University
- Manchester Metropolitan University
- Plymouth University
- Nottingham Trent University.
It brings together a range of disciplines, but chiefly law, criminology and history, drawing also on literature, geography, politics and anthropology etc. It works, also, across academic/practitioner boundaries, with legal professionals, policy-makers and other interested professionals and individuals. SOLON conceptualises 'bad' behaviour as that which goes beyond the purely criminal, to include that which is also offensive. It thus incorporates that which in legal terms falls under the remit of the civil process. Its concept of 'socially visible' offensive behaviour also provides a focus on that which is so high profile that, locally, nationally or internationally, it causes popular concern, outrage or even panic.
SOLON promotes consciousness of the reality that there are fluid boundaries, changing over time in different societies, between the societally-predicated and merely offensive and offences in the legal sense. Members of the SOLON network are encouraged to explore factors producing both change and continuities in attitudes towards offensive and offending conduct, especially through use of the concept of social panics and resultant moral outrage, frequently publicly expressed and disseminated through media forms.
In its mission to promote innovative forms of inter and cross-disciplinary academic-professional work, the Partnership seeks to provide a focus for both research and the application of that research to a range of issues and problems, past and present via conferences, workshops and publications. Its resources for so doing include its website, the (still expanding) SOLON database of Victorian Crime Reportage, and its recently launched e-journal, Crimes and Misdemeanours: Deviance and the Law in Historical Perspective.
SOLON is the acronym chosen for this major interdisciplinary and practitioner project. Solon, one of the Seven Wise Men of Athens, was a noted legal reformer.
The SOLON database
The SOLON database represents a searchable, qualitative database of crime reportage from the period when the modern genre of crime reportage was established, essentially the last fifty years of the nineteenth century. Sampling was done on a five-year basis, from 1851, including 1856, 1861, then 1865, 1870, 1875, 1880. Subsequently 1885, 1890, 1895, 1900 have been researched and are in the process of being added to the database, along with material from other years such as 1888. In all cases, at least one national newspaper was sampled on a daily basis for the year, and selections made on the basis of both typicality and important legal comment (including comment on the introduction of new legislation, unusual cases or judgements etc).
The SOLON journal
The SOLON journal currently has two issues per annum, in the spring and autumn, It publishes high quality and innovative interdisciplinary research by figures such as Barry Godfrey, Heather Shore, and Martin Wiener. It is free, both to view and download, providing an opportunity to keep up with recent research developments, through its publication of PhD thesis introductions and conclusions.
SOLON conferences
Since the initial Behaving Badly conference (2001) conferences have been a feature of SOLON's work, including its Hate Crimes conferences with the Hate Crimes Centre, Nottingham Trent University. Currently, working with the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, London, SOLON has seen the second successful conference in its Experiencing the Law series (all SOLON conferences carry CPD points), and planning is well under way for the third, in December 2008. SOLON is currently organising a War Crimes conference, with IALS and the Centre for Contemporary British History, in February 2009. In addition, it worked with the University of Rethymnon, Crete, to stage an international conference on the theme of Crime, Violence and the Modern State in March 2007. It was so successful, that a second Crime, Violence and the Modern State conference will be hosted by Hertzen State University in May 2009, bringing in also the University of Rethymnon as partner in this enterprise.
Details of SOLON conferences are publicised on the SOLON website, which also provides access to a wide range of information about current and future events and resources connected with Crime and Bad Behaviour.
SOLON partnerships
SOLON is a flexible association with the capacity to work on a variety of themes, and also to include a number of institutions. It is currently expanding to include Liverpool John Moore's University for example, and also works in association with the Feminist Crime Research Network and the Nottingham Centre for the Study and Reduction of Hate Crime.
It also has links with:
- the Galleries of Justice
- The National Museum of Law, based in Nottingham and a holder of important archive resources for the history of law, crime and punishment(including the National Prison Service Collection and the Rainer Foundation Archive with its records of institutions like the London Police Court Mission)
- the Museum Of Oxford.
SOLON works with a number of partner networks and centres interested in the themes of bad behaviour and crime or in their societal and legal contexts, including the:
- Institute of Advanced Legal Studies
- Centre for Contemporary British History (University of London)
- Rainer Foundation Communities that Care)
- Project Parity and the Criminal Justice Strands of the European Social Science History Association (Institute of Social History, Amsterdam)
- Social Science History Association of the USA.
Directors
SOLON is managed by a Board of Directors drawn from the partner institutions. Academics and practitioners from around the world are encouraged to join SOLON as members, where they receive information about ongoing research, can find information about potential research collaborations, and can be informed about appropriate events relevant to SOLON activities, conceived in the broadest sense. The SOLON website is a key tool in this dissemination of information, and also of research conclusions. However, SOLON also promotes publication of the work of network members, and attendees at its conferences, through special journal issues and through collected editions. Two such SOLON publications are available [Rowbotham and Stevenson (eds) Behaving Badly (2003) and Rowbotham and Stevenson (eds) Criminal Conversations (2005)] and a third volume, Avdela, D'Cruze and Rowbotham (eds) Crime, Violence and the Modern State is in preparation for publication in 2009.
The Board's disciplinary expertise brings together the core SOLON disciplines of Law and History, and also links in criminology and sociology. The board are:
- Dr Judith Rowbotham (Nottingham Trent University)
- Dr Kim Stevenson (now University of Plymouth)
- Dr David Nash (Oxford Brookes University)
- Dr Anne Marie Kilday (Oxford Brookes University)
- Dr Cath Little (Manchester Metropolitan University)
- Dr Richard Williams (University of Plymouth)
- Dr Lorie Charlesworth (Liverpool John Moore's University) is an Acting Director in anticipation of that University joining the SOLON consortium
- Dr Shani D'Cruze (currently Honorary Fellow, Keele) is an Emeritus Member of the Board in the light of her role as Director of the Feminist Crime Research Network).
Associate networks and centres
Feminist Crime Research Network
SOLON works with and hosts the webpages for the Feminist Crime Research Network (Director: Shani D'Cruze; Steering Group Members: Dr Louise Jackson (Edinburgh University), Dr Judith Rowbotham; Dr Kim Stevenson). Focusing on crime and gender in the twentieth century, FRCN organised an ESRC-funded seminar series on this theme between 2002 and 2004.
The Nottingham Centre for the Study and Reduction of Hate Crime
SOLON is also associated with The Nottingham Centre for the Study and Reduction of Hate Crime (Hate Crimes Centre), based in the Criminology Section of NTU, directed by Dr Mike Sutton. This draws together academics and practitioners from across the globe to discuss issues and advance policy in this area. Its conferences and publications, including the Internet Journal of Criminology, all promote information on a series of initiatives in the highly topical field of Hate Crime.
