Resisting the spiral of silence: reflections on Thomas Mathiesen’s contributions to surveillance studies, social silencing and abolitionism
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In late 2021, some six months after his death, the University of Oslo held a commemoration of the work of Professor Thomas Mathiesen. As this issue of Justice, Power and Resistance will attest, Mathiesen cut across definitions of theorist, scholar, pedagogue and archetypal academic activist. In this short intervention, I pay tribute to the influence Thomas’ work has had not only on my own, but on so many interventions around injustice and ever-expanding aspects of surveillant social controls which proliferate contemporarily. In doing so, this short article will highlight an overview of his most recognised work, before delving into a perspective that I consider to be more relevant than ever: Mathiesen’s conceptualisation of ‘silent silencing’ (Mathiesen, 2004). Overall, this contribution seeks to remind those new to studies of harm and social control of the value of critical work which came before us, and the need to engage, reflect and rebuild perspectives such as Mathiesen’s in ways which are meaningful to contemporary problems and optimal (abolitionist) solutions.
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Abdelhady, D., Gren, N. and Joormann, M. (2020) (eds) Refugees and the Violence of Welfare Bureaucracies in Northern Europe, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
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Boochani, B. and Tofighian, O. (2021) The weaponisation of time: indefinite detention as torture, in M. Bhatia and V. Canning (eds) Stealing Time: Migration, Temporality and State Violence, London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp 65–83. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-69897-3_4
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Canning, V. (2017) Gendered Harm and Structural Violence in the British Asylum System, Abingdon: Routledge.
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Canning, V. (2020) Keeping up with the kladdkaka: kindness and coercion in Swedish immigration detention centres, European Journal of Criminology, 17(6): 723–43. doi: 10.1177/1477370818820627
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Canning, V. and Whyte, D. (2019) The harms of the neoliberal university, Paper presented at the British Society of Criminology Annual Conference, University of Lincoln, July.
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Lindberg, A. and Edward, S. (2021) Contested dreams, stolen futures: struggles over hope in the European deportation regime, in M. Bhatia and V. Canning (ed) Stealing Time: Migration, Mobilities and State Violence, London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp 83–104. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-69897-3_5
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Mathiesen, T. (1965) The Defences of the Weak: A Sociological Study of a Norwegian Correctional Institution, London: Tavistock.
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Mathiesen, T. (1974) The Politics of Abolition: Essays in Political Action Theory, London: Martin Robertson.
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Mathiesen, T. (1980) Law, Society, and Political Action: Towards a Strategy Under Late Capitalism, London: Academic Press.
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Mathiesen, T. (1981) Law and order: the view from Scandinavia, Social Justice, (15): 57–8.
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Mathiesen, T. (1990) Prison on Trial, London: Sage.
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Mathiesen, T. (2004) Silently Silenced: Essays on the Creation of Acquiescence in Modern Society, Winchester: Waterside Press.
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Mathiesen, T. (2013) Towards a Surveillant Society: The Rise of Surveillant Systems in Europe, Winchester: Waterside Press.
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Mathiesen, T. (2015) The Politics of Abolition Revisited, Abingdon: Routledge.
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Mclaren, P. (2019) The future of critical pedagogy, Educational Philosophy and Theory, 52(12): 1243–48. doi: 10.1080/00131857.2019.1686963
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Renehan, N. (2022) Responding to coercive control in criminal justice domestic violence perpetrator programmes in England and Wales: conceptual, operational, and methodological complexities, Probation Journal, 70(3): 242–60. doi: 10.1177/02645505221141952
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