The Penal Imaginery: Thinking about the Social Significance of Punishment from the Perspective of those in Marginalised Social Spaces

We first outline some of the main contributions of sociology of punishment in its effort to theorise punishment beyond its legal aspects, but based on its symbolic components as a complex “social institution”. These approaches, however, limit the question of the “meaning” of punishment to its “function” within a specific theoretical model or to a dominant discourse in society. Based on the writings of Cornelius Castoriadis and Jacques Rancière, we adopt a theoretical program on the “penal imaginary” and using theories of interdiscourse, we propose a political theory of the penal imaginary and its “constituent” power. Using this analysis, we propose a theoretical position able to provide real analytical value to the social meanings of punishment that are produced among marginalized social groups who are the main subjects of penal practices.