It has been 25 years since the last time a European Group conference was held in Norway, and over 10 years since it has been in any of the Nordic countries. The last one was held in Helsinki in 2003. At this years’ conference in Oslo there will be over 150 papers presented, and well over 250 people participating from over 40 different countries.
- We are both happy, and a bit overwhelmed that so many people are coming – says Professor Ragnhild Sollund, national representative for the European Group in Norway.
She has together with Associate Professor May-Len Skilbrei spent days reading abstracts and putting together this year’s programme. Both Ragnhild Sollund and May-Len Skilbrei work at the Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law at the University of Oslo which is hosting this years’ event.
The Department was founded more than half a century ago and is Scandinavia’s largest centre for criminological research and the only one of its kind in Norway. Head of the Department, Professor Kristian Andenæs, is looking forward to welcoming both old and new colleagues to the conference.
- We are lucky that we are part of the Faculty of Law and thus able to hold the conference in the Faculty buildings in the heart of Oslo. The conference venue is situated within a short walking distance to hotels and some of the major cultural attractions in Oslo – says Andenæs.
Critical Criminology in a Changing World - programme
Registration will start on Thursday 29 August at 12 o’clock noon, and the opening session will be held in the Old Town Hall.
- We are fortunate to have as plenary speakers both academics from our Department, such as Nils Christie, Thomas Mathiesen and Katja Franko Aas, as well as long-time European Group members: Maeve McMahon, Simon Hallsworth and Jock Young – says Sollund.
The conference in Oslo will mark the 40th anniversary for the European Group. Professor Thomas Mathiesen is looking very much forward to this, and remembers very well the first conference in 1973.
- I remember very well the first meeting in Florence, Italy, in 1973. At the meeting, on 11 September, we were told that Salvador Allende had just been deposed by General Augusto Pinochet’s military junta. We ran out of the lecture hall – and joined over 40 000 Italian communists showing their outrage on the streets of Impruneta – recalls Mathiesen.
True to the European Group’s legacy, some of the social events will also reflect its activist tradition.
- We will, among other social events, offer excursions to occupied buildings in Oslo as well as a meeting with KROM – The Norwegian Association for Penal Reform founded in 1968 – and one of the oldest prison abolitionist organisations in the world – tells Skilbrei.
Tradition and Innovation
The idea behind the call for papers was to invite people to reflect upon the roots of the European Group, the direction of critical criminology, and how and if it has been altered with the changes in society over the past 40 years.
As usual at the European Group conference, the final text of the call as well as the preliminary organization of the streams was a joint effort by the group in which members edited in the first draft and contributed with suggestions for streams, such as political activism, the concept of ‘crime’ and questions of power and gender within critical criminology and green criminology.
- Also as usual, however, members of the group are rather “disobedient” and the final program exemplifies that people will present papers about their own research according to their interests. Luckily; or rather obviously, these do to large degree reflect both the traditions of the group as well as the call.
The main topic of this year’s European Group conference remains Critical Criminology in a Changing World - Tradition & Innovation. The organisers invited papers on topics.
Sollund and Skilbrei are impressed by the range of topics and the quality of the abstracts, and have grouped them into several strands of sessions.
- At this year’s conference, we will also celebrate and reflect upon the heritage of Stan Cohen, says Sollund, with reference to the recently deceased Cohens’s central role in the establishment and role of the European Group. We are confident that this years’ conference will honour and celebrate not only Stan, but also those in the programme whose work reflects his spirit.
Andenæs, Sollund and Skilbrei – together with the rest of the academic staff and master students at the Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law, most of whom will be attending the conference, - are looking forward to welcoming the participants to Oslo.