Exceptionalism: Dr Louise Brangan

Our colleague Dr Louise Brangan from the University of Stirling was recently awarded the prestigious British Society of Criminology's Brian Williams prize for her article, 'Civilizing Imprisonment: The Limits of Scottish Penal Exceptionalism.'

It got us thinking about exceptions and exceptionalism – what makes one place that bit more special than somewhere else? In Scotland we often define ourselves to our big neighbour down south or look to Scandinavian nations to aspire to, often ignoring the complexities that can bring.

To help us make sense of these issues, Louise tells us about her years spent digging through the archives in Scotland, Ireland and the United States to try and work out what being exceptional actually means in relation to punishment.

Host: Dr Alistair Fraser

Produced and edited by Rachelle Cobain and Mark Cunningham

Follow Louise on twitter via: @LuluEile

You can read the award-winning article here: https://academic.oup.com/bjc/article/59/4/780/5272445

Music: 'Rewind' by Donna Maciocia and Sean H available to download from the Distant Voices EP 'Looking at Colours Again'.

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