Social Order in Europe

Safety and Social Order in an Improvising Society

Hans Boutellier, from the VU Amsterdam University, made a contribution to the 2012 Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology, in the category “Crime Prevention,” under the title “Safety and Social Order in an Improvising Society”. Here is the abstract: Social, cultural and political conditions in our late modern world have changed decisively during recent decades. One now speaks of a network society, which is the result of major processes such as globalization, the rise of individualism, and the dawn of the information era. Complexity without direction is a hallmark of this society, and it creates a pervasive uneasiness that manifests in antisocial behaviour, crime, excessive stress, fear, unrest, dissatisfaction, and frustration. This paper therefore addresses the central question: how can we draft a proposal for social order in a world without borders? By introducing the idea of an 'improvising society', we seek a middle way between hopeless cacophony and scintillating polyphony.

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Further Reading

• “Safety and Social Order in an Improvising Society”, by Hans Boutellier (Proceedings)