NCJ Number
106797
Date Published
1987
Length
225 pages
Annotation
Following a characterization of contemporary American capitalism, the nature of class conflict, and hegemony in which neighborhood dispute resolution (NDR) is embedded, the author argues that the primarily government-sponsored mechanisms of NDR are largely institutions of State political and social control.
Abstract
It is argued that NDR falsely affirms the neighborhood as the basis of justice in the community, presents a contrived idea of the community and collective self-help, uses community culture as a form of regulation, and distracts attention from broader community issues. Paradoxically, the practices of NDR help constitute the order of capitalism as much as they undermine it. These practices emerge directly from conflicts between capital and labor as played out in communities, NDR centers derived from the consequence of social crisis in capital accumulation, the extraction of labor, and the capitalist state. They also are a reaction by citizens to the management of everyday social life by the expanded network of State agencies. They represent the emergence of a form symbolizing increased State power. Index and approximately 360 references.