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Dr Sue Penna

Senior Lecturer in Applied Social Science

Degree: BA Sociology, Lancaster; CQSW, Lancaster; PhD Sociology and Social Administration, Lancaster

Associated research centres and groups: Child Welfare Research Unit CWRU, Cultural Political Economy Research Centre

Current Teaching

Criminology: Part 1 Crime and Social Life (consortially taught). I give lectures on: a) changing conceptions of, and responses to crime historically, and b) transnational organised crime

Criminology: 205 Criminological Thought (consortially taught). I give lectures on: classical and positivist criminology, Merton and strain theory, marxism and critical criminology, post-fordism, globalisation, and information society.

Criminology: 313 Organised Crime (full-unit)

Research Interests

Research Interests

My primary research expertise is in two areas.

The first is in sociological accounts of social change. I have been interested in developing social theoretical accounts of policy and social welfare, and most of my work has concentrated on situating welfare and policy within social theoretical problematics of historical and contemporary social change. I have an inter-disciplinary background and have concentrated until recently on developing my theoretical understandings and applying theory to the substantive areas of social welfare and criminal justice. Here I been concerned with engaging with other theoretical works, or analysing policy documents.

The second is policy as a technology of governance, with particular reference to the connections between policy areas in the European Union and other sites of multilevel governance. Policy measures are never simply about technical issues of this or that situation and constituency - for example, social welfare policy has been implicated in nation-building, economic development, managing populations and structuring social divisions, and welfare and welfare policies are central to the governance and regulation of modern societies. I have been interested in the relationship between social and economic policy for some time, in terms of the role of policy in the development of political economies, and am currently examining the commodification of health and social care services in the EU, the expression of the EU's 'social' dimension within a primarily economic discourse, and wider theoretical questions in relation to understanding how the governance of social welfare is effected through the EU and its insertion in other institutions of global governance such as the International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organisation.

More recently, in examining the concept of 'social harm' in relation to criminal activity, the relationship between, and apparently mutual dependence of, legal and illegal markets and legal and illegal forms of authority have become significant to my work. Three lines of empirical enquiry have developed here. The first is organised, transnational crime. In 2006-7 I gained access to a police force in England , and started looking at how police officers make operational decisions when policing cross-border, 'enterprise crime', in the context of contemporary social change. The second is the policing of environmental crime, and the third is cultures of illegal consumption, particularly in relation to young people's use of weapons and violent street crime. These areas of research have important implications for understandings of 'welfare' and the political and social conditions underpinning its institutional delivery.

Teaching

I have taught a number of courses in social work and social policy, including: Anti-discriminatory Practice, Theories of Welfare and Globalisation, Social Change and Social Protection in the European Union. I am currently teaching on the consortially taught courses ASSC 102: Crime and Social Life andASSC 205: Criminological Thought; and my full-unit course ASSC 313: Organised Crime.

Potential Doctoral Proposals

the political economy of welfare; the commodification of welfare; the political economy of crime; the relationships between welfare and crime, social and criminal justice policy; a social harm approach to organised crime.

older publications (see below for recent pubs)

Articles in refereed journals:

2005 O'Brien, M., Tzanelli, R., Yar, M. and Penna, S. 'The Spectacle of Fearsome Acts: crime in melting p(l)ot of Gangs of New York', in Critical Criminology, 13:17-35

2004 Yar, M. and Penna, S. 'Between Positivism and Post-modernity?: Critical Reflections on Jock Young's The Exclusive Society' in Br Jnl Criminology, 44: 533-549

2000 Penna, S., Paylor, I. and Washington, J. 'Globalisation, Social Exclusion and the Possibilities for Global Social Work and Welfare', European Jnl Social Work, 3 (2):109-122

1998 Penna, S. & O'Brien, M., 'Postmodernism and Social Policy: a small step forwards?', translated into Croatian and reprinted in S. Zrinak (ed), Globalizacija I socijalna drava, Zagreb: Studijski centar socijalnog rada Pravnog fakulteta Sveuilita u Zagrebu (Study Centre for Social Work, Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb) pp 135-159

1997 Penna, S. & O'Brien, M. 'Inequality, Transformation and Political Agency: reflections on Teresa Elbert's "Red Feminism", Rethinking Marxism, 9 (3):95-102

1997 O'Brien, M. & Penna, S., 'European Policy and the Politics of Environmental Governance',Policy and Politics, 25 (2):185-200 (Lead author, Martin O'Brien)

1996 Penna, S. & O'Brien, M., 'Postmodernism and Social Policy: a small step forwards?' Journal Of Social Policy, 25(1):39-61

1996 O'Brien, M. & Penna, S., 'Postmodern Theory and Politics: perspectives on citizenship and social justice', Innovation: The European Journal of Social Sciences 9, (2):185-203

1994 Hay, C., O'Brien, M. & Penna, S., 'Modernity & Self Identity: the "hollowing out" of social theory', Arena Journal, 2:45-76

BOOKS

2002 O'Brien, M. and Penna, S. Theorising Welfare. Enlightenment and Modern Society. Translated by Dr. Young-Hwa Kim, Dept.of Social Welfare, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, S. Korea. Published by Daihak Publishers, Seoul, S.Korea. Expanded

1999 O'Brien, M., Penna, S. & Hay, C., (eds), Theorising Modernity: Reflexivity, Identity & Environment in Giddens' Social Theory. Addison Wesley Longman

1998 O'Brien, M. & Penna, S. Theorising Welfare: Enlightenment and Modern Society, London, Sage.pp248

Chapters and substantial sections in books:

2008 Penna, S & O'Brien, M. Neo-Liberalism, in Social Work Theories and Methods (eds) Gray, M & Webb, S.A. Sage

2002 O'Brien, M. & Penna, S 'Introduction to the Korean Edition of Theorising Welfare: contemporary developments in welfare theory' in O'Brien, M. and Penna, S. Theorising Welfare. Enlightenment and Modern Society. Translated by Dr. Young-Hwa Kim, Dept.of Social Welfare, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, S. Korea. Published by Daihak Publishers, Seoul, S.Korea pp 14-33

2000 Abercrombie, N, Warde, with Deem, R, Penna, S, Sayer, A, Soothill, K, Urry, J, & Walby, S. Contemporary British Society. Polity Press. My contribution is Chapter 7 'Race and Ethnicity', and sections on 'Welfare and The State', 'Unemployment' and 'Poverty'. Blackwell.

2000 Penna, S, entries on the following: 'Modernity', 'Postmodernity', 'Poststructuralism' and 'Postmodernism' in Davies, M, (ed), The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Social Work. Blackwell

1999 Penna, S, Hay, C, & O'Brien, M, 'Introduction', in O'Brien, M., Penna, S. & Hay, C., (eds), Theorising Modernity: Reflexivity, Identity & Environment in Giddens' Social Theory Addison Wesley Longman. pp 1-16

1998 O'Brien, M. & Penna, S., 'Oppositional postmodern theory and welfare analysis: anti- oppressive practice in a postmodern frame', in J. Carter, (ed), Postmodernity and the Fragmentation of Welfare, London: Routledge. pp 49-66

1996 Hay, C., O'Brien, M. & Penna, S., 'Modernity & Self Identity: the 'hollowing out' of social theory', reprinted in Bryant, C. & Jary, D. (eds), Anthony Giddens: A Critical Assessment, London: Routledge.

Research Reports

1995 Penna, S, Paylor, I and Soothill, K. Job Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction: A Study of Residential Care Work, National Institute of Social Work, London.

short biography

I was a mature student, starting my degree with an 8 yr old son in tow, which proved very useful as he had a good sense of geography and could lead me around the campus, which seemed bewildering to me at the time, even though it was much smaller than it is today. For several years we lived in Barker cottage, now a restaurantI believe, but then a lovely cottage in the middle of a field surrounded by sheep and cows - spooky at night to someone who had come from a city. After my degree in Sociology I undertook a postgrad social work course, and then an ESRC funded PhD in sociology on the political economy of welfare states. After working for social services (with children with severe learning disabilities) I came back to Lancaster to Applied Social Science on a research contract, & from that moved into a lecturing post teaching on the Applied Social Science degree. I worked part-time for many years, becoming full-time in 2000. However, the ASS degree was laid down in 2004 and I started teaching criminology in 2005, where I examine the global dimensions of crime rather than welfare, and Enlightenment thought on criminal justice rather than on social welfare. Nowadays, instead of being led around campus by my son, I'm led around by my grandson.

Eprints Publications Repository and Bibliographic Database

Sue Penna has 19 selected publication records listed on this webpage. Use links to access abstracts and full text where available. View all records to sort by date, type and title. For all ePrints records go to http://eprints.lancs.ac.uk

Penna, Sue and Kirby, Stuart (2009) Children and the ‘new biopolitics of control’:identification, identity and social order. Youth Justice, 9 (2). pp. 143-156.

O'Brien, Martin and Penna, Sue (2008) Social exclusion:some conceptual issues. International Journal of Social Welfare, 17 (1). pp. 84-92.

O'Brien, Martin and Penna, Sue (2007) Critical Criminology: Chaos or Continuity? Criminal Justice Review, 32 (3). pp. 246-255.

Penna, Sue E. (2006) What price health and social care? : competition, commodities and consumers. UNSPECIFIED.

Penna, Sue E. (2005) The Children Act 2004: Child Protection and Social Surveillance. Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, 27 (2). pp. 143-157. ISSN 1469-9621

Yar, Majid and Penna, Sue (2004) Between Positivism and Post-modernity? Critical Reflections on Jock Young�s The Exclusive Society. British Journal of Criminology, 44 (4). pp. 533-549. ISSN 1464-3529

Penna, Sue (2004) Policy Contexts of Social Work in Britain: the wider implications of 'New' Labour and the 'New Legal regime'. Social Work & Society, 1 (1). pp. 1-21.

Penna, Sue and Yar, Majid (2003) From Modern To Postmodern Penality? A Response to Hallsworth. Theoretical Criminology, 7 (4). pp. 469-482.

O'Brien, Martin and Penna, Sue and Hay, Colin (1999) Theorising modernity : reflexivity, identity and environment in Giddens' social theory. Longman, London and New York. ISBN 0582307430

Penna, Sue (1998) Introduction. In: Theorising medernity : reflexivity, environment and identity in Giddens' social theory. Longman, New York, pp. 1-16. ISBN 0582307430

Associated Keywords: Applied Social Science, Civil liberties, Commodification of health and social care, Crime and new technologies, Crime control, Discourse, Epistemology, European Union social policy, Fair trading, Global governance, Globalisation, Globalisation & mobility, Human rights, Information society, International political economy, Organised crime in relation to hazardous wastes and social harm, Policy, Politics, Postcolonial, Post-communist states, Postmodernism, Regulation, Supranational governance, Terrorism, Theories of modernity, Theory

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