Locating Deviance
Gerald Mars left school at 16 and worked in over thirty jobs before going to Cambridge at twenty-six to read anthropology and Economics followed by a Ph.D. at the LSE. In 2003 The Royal Anthropological Institute awarded him the Lucy Mair Medal in Applied Anthropology 'for consistent excellence in applied anthropology'. He is currently Hon. Professor of Anthropology at University College, London and Visiting Professor at University Campus Suffolk.
'Gerald Mars is an analyst in the classical traditions of social anthropology and urban ethnography. He is concerned to first understand and then describe, using classification schemes solidly based in the "how" of crime and deviance rather than by jumping mindlessly into the knee-jerk political reflexes of the "why do bad things happen?" and "how shall society punish what it cannot cope with?" questions. This book is essential reading for those, including most operational managers, who want to take a mental step back and ask fundamental questions about "what kind of society are we, that these unplanned outcomes occur?" and "how is it that we are all implicated in organizations that co-create deviance?".' David Weir, University Campus Suffolk, UK, and ESC Rennes, France 'This volume displays and also integrates Mars' major contributions over several decades to general social theory, anthropology and criminology. Combining subtle and meticulous ethnography with historically-informed innovation in theory, these studies provide master classes in using empirical work for the most ambitious theoretical arguments. In showing how deviance is central to social organization, he elegantly turns Durkheim's aphorism about the normality of crime into a strategy of general social inquiry into institutional dynamics.' Perri 6, Queen Mary College, University of London, UK 'Gerald Mars again demonstrates how, using anthropology's concepts and sensitive participant observation, he illumines areas other disciplines find difficult to reach. Via detailed case studies he uncovers the keys to organizational criminality that should appeal to criminologists, anthropologists and managers alike. Easy to read, essentially practical, its final chapter - charting the cultural bases of deviance in the financial service industries - is a tour de force.' Tom Selwyn, SOAS, University of London, UK 'Gerald Mars has been a lifelong student of human behavior as it is shaped and channeled by the cultures and structures of society. But he is at his anthropological best when he delves into the subcultural nuances and situational complexities of ordinary workers. There are few anthropologists of crime and deviance among ordinary folk. Gerald Mars is a master of research on workplace deviance. He digs deep and provides rich layered explanations that illuminate what we take for granted, yet his analysis is central to how we construct meaningful lives. In this latest work Mars integrates his lifetime observations grounded in empirical ethnographies, but reveals a theoretical progression and a deepening sophisticated analysis. This book not only integrates Mars' studies over a lifetime but provides insight into his own academic journey and that alone is a veritable delight.' Stuart Henry, San Diego State University, USA, author of The Deviance Process (1993); Degrees of Deviance (1999) and Social Deviance (2009)
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