Terms such as "crazy," " criminal," "insane," "deviant," etc. are used as abundantly as they are improperly by common sense . Criminals exist and are such insofar as they are prejudiced by appropriate legal, notably judicial, procedures. The insane/insane exist and are such insofar as they are recognized as such by appropriate scientific, notably psychiatric, procedures. Insane and criminals are however a derisory number compared to those stigmatized as such by common sense . Obviously, neither psychiatry nor criminal law are exact sciences and need to be improved but to delegitimize them because they are imperfect would be to open the Pandora's Box of envy, hatred, resentment and whatever else lies behind the common sense constructions that say more about those who construct and use such stigmas rather than those who are targeted by them. "Deviance" is the main construction through which common sense tries to pretend to be a validation procedure ( like psychiatry or law ) without, however, exposing itself to the risk of being accused of being neither psychiatry nor law: deviance is a semi-mobile inclined plane that can be lowered or raised at one's convenience with double morality dynamics: deviance is a signifier so elusive that it soon turns out to be a flimsy empty box that can
however, become a tool of manipulation in electoral campaigns, in the justification or condemnation of military operations, etc. There is distress on a subjective and intersubjective scale, there is crime in the institutional and systemic form. Deviance is a vacuous perspective deception that this course , including through visual social science research (VSSSR) will teach how to (de)construct. Perspective deception begins to be grasped through the complexity , or lack thereof, demographics.
Global and cosmopolitan Metropolitan areas vs. small local territorial units. Metaphorically airports ( hubs)the former, entrenched fortresses the latter. The normal distinction begins with this upstream distinction: the more density and heterogeneous variety the more flexible cosmopolitan , open society , the more demographic scarcity and the more homogeneity of lifestyles and the more localism and stiffening in drawing the normal deviant boundary to the point of stigmatization and compartmentalization that very frequently leads to extermination and genocide. How do we construct a normal/deviant model as viable as possible with respect to the 17 UN Sustainability Goals ? This course focuses on this using the tools of visual social science research (VSSR). Specifically, by observing urban and provincial contexts through photography, documentaries, and other tools of VSSSR, you will model and construct a research-based policy that projects the normality/deviance distinction in the direction of inclusive, cosmopolitan, global sustainability