Disrupting Prison Policy

Dr Scott took abolitionist approaches as his starting point and explored radical alternatives to current penal policy. Furthermore, he explored what this approach might look like in Ireland and emphasised the value in looking towards dissenting voices in Irish history as a guidepost to shape an organic development of Irish abolitionist thought and practice. He emphasised why we need to radically reimagine a different future if we want to create a more just world. Slides and more workshop ou...

Dr Schliehe’s presentation explored women’s imprisonment, the unique harms for women in prison, and trauma informed practices in prisons. With a background in human geography, her research aims to understand, through the lens of the unique challenges women face in prison, if prisons can truly be “trauma informed” through analysing the implementation of trauma informed practices and training. Slides and more workshop outputs can be found at: https://www.jcfj.ie/research/international-p...

Dr Minson’s paper explored the imprisonment of women in two key ways: first, through highlighting the disruption it has on women and their families, especially children; and second, through elucidating ways in which we can disrupt these harmful cycles of punishment and trauma. Slides and more workshop outputs can be found at:https://www.jcfj.ie/research/international-prison-policy-workshop/

This is the last of the series of four episodes of The Ethics Age podcast which has discussed the book Theological Ethics in a Neoliberal Age, by Kevin Hargaden, who is the Social Theologian of the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice. In it, he and host Martina Madden talk about the book's theological solution to the Christian problem with wealth and wrangle with questions about the meaning of worship and what lament means in the context of the problems that neoliberalism has caused, such as the 2008 financial crash and climate breakdown. 

The third episode of The Ethics Age podcast explores the concept of debt, which forms a significant part of most lives within a neoliberal system. From the need for a mortgage, literally a 'death debt' to the need for personal debts to enable us to acquire the things that Capitalism tells us we want, we are mired in something that we spend our lives trying to escape. While in this position we are unable to take to the streets in protest, to object to the injustices in our society. We need to remain employable and therefore well-behaved because we need an income to pay off our debts. However, the Bible has a radically different imagination around debt. We have to do business with how neoliberalism has its grasp over our hearts, imagination, our desire. The things we want are so shaped by Capitalism that we can't even believe that life would be better if we didn't own the things ourselves. 

In the second episode of The Ethics Age podcast, social theologian Kevin Hargaden talks to Martina Madden about the role that narrative plays in moral reasoning, the story that neoliberalism contains and how parables differ from simple morality tales.

This episode of The Ethics Age podcast is the first in a series of four which discuss the book, Theological Ethics in a Neoliberal Age by Kevin Hargaden, social theologian of the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice (JCFJ). The book addresses the Christian problem with wealth and provides a persuasive theological critique of neoliberalism. Each one of the podcasts unpacks a different theme from the book, for readers and anyone interested in the topics it covers. In this episode, Kevin talks to his JCFJ colleague Martina Madden about the idea of neoliberalism as a religion, with its own doctrines, hierarchy and gods.For more information about the book visit www.theologicalethicsinaneoliberalage.org