Culture, space, and the indignity of inequality: Evidence from two court ethnographies and a public defender experiment
The Department of Sociology is excited to host Dr. Matthew Clair on October 1 for the second lecture in our 2024-25 Distinguished Speaker Series.
Dr. Clair, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Stanford University, will present a lecture titled “Culture, space, and the indignity of inequality: Evidence from two court ethnographies and a public defender experiment.”
ABSTRACT
Dr. Matthew Clair
State institutions, from public schools to welfare agencies, regularly reproduce unequal material outcomes. Over the last fifty years, punitive state institutions, such as police and prisons, have expanded their reach and their contribution to broader patterns of social inequality. How do people experience inequality in state institutions?
This talk examines the case of criminal courts. Court-involved people in the United States come from all races and economic walks of life, but they experience the court system in vastly unequal ways. Evidence from two court ethnographies—one in Boston, Massachusetts, and the other in Silicon Valley, California—reveals how criminal courts reproduce unequal experiences through cultural (court rules and norms) and spatial (court geographies and built forms) processes that disadvantage marginalized groups.
Studying the cultural and spatial dynamics of punitive state institutions, such as courts, has important implications for clarifying dominant sociological theories about the reproduction of institutional inequality and for designing effective social policy that both reduces material inequalities and affords dignity.
Building on these insights, I share early findings from an experiment in a public defender’s office that sought to mitigate inequalities rooted in cultural and spatial dynamics among felony defendants through the implementation of an innovative “systems navigator” program.
Matthew Clair is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and (by courtesy) the Law School. His scholarship broadly examines how cultural meanings and interactions reflect, reproduce, and challenge various dimensions of social inequality and state violence. His research to date has focused on courts and the legal profession.
Find out more about Dr. Clair here.
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ACCESSIBILITY
We strive to host inclusive, accessible events that enable all individuals to engage fully. To be respectful of those with allergies and environmental sensitivities, we ask that you please refrain from wearing strong fragrances. To request an accommodation or for inquiries about accessibility, please contact us through the RSVP form or email us at soci.communications@ubc.ca.
