Understanding violence on British university campuses through the lens of the deviant leisure perspective

Abstract

This paper examines how the deviant leisure perspective plays a role in explaining encounters of violence across British University Campuses within which a university campus in the Midlands Region will be applied as case study. The deviant leisure framework will be broken down into its ultra-realist, cultural criminological, and zemiological underpinnings, through which violence will be contextualised under the backdrop of neoliberal capitalism. Through primary-based qualitative semi-structured interviews and surveys, two key arguments are made. Firstly, British university campuses are brand-driven spaces whereby under neoliberal capitalism, success is predicated upon excessive acts of consumption, that are capable of transcending into expressive and acquisitive modes of violence to achieve ‘success’. Secondly, consumer holidays are precipitators of violence rather than dark nights. It is argued that whilst dark nights serve as a catalyst for violence, it is instead the surge of consumer holidays including the Black Friday Sales and Christmas that drives violence. This research offers a fresh approach to understanding the correlation between violence and consumer culture. Forward-thinking, it is urged that the harmful subjectivities that are cultivated under liberal capitalism are considered when contesting violence within education settings for future practice.