ABSTRACT
In an interview, Professor Dame Ann Johnson commented that for all the massive effort and inventiveness currently devoted to the search for vaccines, in her view the greatest practical import and the largest intellectual challenges of the pandemic arose in relation to its social dimensions. For Patrick Geddes was also a sociologist and a key player in the early years of the institutionalization of sociology in Britain through the Sociological Society and other activities. Later in his career, he taught sociology in India as Professor of Civics and Sociology at the University of Bombay. Problems of legitimation are never far to seek in relation to criminal justice institutions, as in all power relations. The issue arises most evidently and acutely when people’s disposition to accept the requirements of particular rules and institutional orders come into play. Albert Hirschmann once said that the aim of his work was ‘to widen the limits of what is or is perceived to be possible’.
