David Skarbek  (Brown University, USA) will present his book  “The Puzzle of Prison Order” (2020, Oxford University Press). The event will be moderated by Florian Hartjen (King’s College London). Interested? Register by mail to nous.spotlight@gmail.com to obtain the Zoom access link.

David Skarbek develops a theory of why life in prison varies so much. He investigates life in a wide array of prisons—in Brazil, Bolivia, Norway, a prisoner of war camp, England and Wales, women’s prisons in California, and a gay and transgender housing unit in the Los Angeles County Jail—to understand the hierarchy of life on the inside. Drawing on economics and a vast empirical literature on legal systems, Skarbek offers a framework to understand why life on the inside varies in such fascinating and novel ways, and also how social order evolves and takes root behind bars.

NOUS Spotlight is an ongoing series of brief, focused Zoom meetings for scholarly discussion. Each of the meetings begins with one scholar presenting some piece or aspect of his work in a short, max. 15-minute introduction. After that, there is time for questions and discussion within the group, under the guidance of a moderator. NOUS Spotlight is directed at a scholarly public. Its aim is to foster interdisciplinary international discourse: We want to share and discuss what we are currently working on. We cover a very wide range of fascinating topics.

Please note that the event takes place at 5 pm GMT (London), which is 6 pm CET (Berlin).