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Keywords

higher education, partnership, localism, reflexivity

Abstract

This paper engages with challenges of localism, collaboration and reflexivity in thinking about the conceptualisation and development of partnership learning communities between higher education and criminal justice institutions. Grounded in experiences of partnership working in the UK and Australia, our arguments are twofold: first, drawing on missions, policy and practice challenges, that there is a case to be made for partnership-working between higher education and criminal justice institutions; and second that, although there is a need to think about collaborative international structures, there is also a need to reflect critically on how different socio-political and cultural realities (both within and beyond national borders) might shape the particular nature of partnership working. Therefore, while warmly welcoming international collaboration in this field, we urge caution in importing or exporting different "models" of partnership working. We make the case, instead, for open-textured theoretical and empirical reflexivity.

Author Bio

Dr Amy Ludlow is Director of the MSt Programme in Criminology, Penology and Management and a Senior Research Associate at the Institute of Criminology, and an Affiliated Lecturer at the Faculty of Law at the University of Cambridge. Amy has conducted wide-ranging research in prisons, focussing especially on how organisational reforms in the sector, particularly marketisation and privatisation, affect prison staff culture and quality of life for staff and prisoners. Together with Ruth Armstrong, she founded and directs Learning Together, a higher education initiative that builds learning communities that span criminal justice system and university walls.

Dr Ruth Armstrong is a British Academy Post Doctoral Fellow and Senior Research Associate at the Institute of Criminology at the University of Cambridge. Ruth has conducted research internationally and in the UK on different aspects of life in prison and post release, especially focussing on the individual and social aspects of routes out of crime. Together with Amy Ludlow, she founded and directs Learning Together, a higher education initiative that builds learning communities that span criminal justice system and university walls.

Professor Lorana Bartels is a Professor of Criminology at the Australian National University and was previously Professor and Head of the School of Law and Justice at the University of Canberra, Australia. She is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Tasmania, a Life Member of Clare Hall at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law. She is a also member of the editorial boards of the Alternative Law Journal, Criminal Law Journal and International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology. Professor Bartels has published extensively on criminal justice issues, especially sentencing, corrections and the treatment of Indigenous peoples and women in the criminal justice system.

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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