Matthew Wilkinson
Biographic Data
| ID | 3892355 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Matthew Wilkinson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Matthew |
| FAMILY NAME | Wilkinson |
| SIGNATURE | WILKINSON M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Birkbeck, University of London |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2095-1853 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 15 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 23 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Harassment of Women Martial Artists
While sports research has begun to focus on gendered violence in different disciplines, a need exists for deeper analysis of sexual harassment and abuse in sports. Based on responses to a large online survey, our study adds valuable insights to the examination of harassment in martial arts and to the development of solutions against it. Our investigation reveals a prevalence of gendered harassment in martial arts, a tendency to minimize the possi…
What else to do
Himalayan masculinities
A review of planting principles to identify the right place for the right tree for ‘net zero plus’ woodlands
We outline the principles of the natural capital approach to decision making and apply these to the contemporary challenge of very significantly expanding woodlands as contribution to attaining net zero emissions of greenhouse gases. Drawing on the case of the UK, we argue that a single focus upon carbon storage alone is likely to overlook the other ‘net zero plus’ benefits which woodlands can deliver. A review of the literature considers the wid…
Oh you’re on our side, you’re my brother’
Filling a significant gap in prisons research, this paper articulates the experiences and perspectives of a group of Muslim prison officers interviewed as part of an international study examining Islam in prison. These Muslim prison officers occupied a precarious occupational cultural space between Us (prison officers) and Them (Muslim prisoners) which presented both risks of exclusion, religious and racial prejudices and opportunities to build b…
Defining and Illustrating “Extremism” Using the Largest Investigation into Islam in Prison
In the context of a damaging absence of clarity, we define “Islamist Extremism” as: the absolutely divided and antagonistic Worldview of the “Us”-true-Muslim “in-group” who must strive to live in an “Islamic” State versus “Them”-non-Muslim’ and “wrong”-Muslim “out-groups” who are stripped of their human status due to their opposition to “true Islam.” We illustrate this definition of “Extremism” - including showing how Islamist Extremism is differ…
The primacy of ontology
This paper suggests philosophical foundations for mixed methods research based on the philosophy of critical realism. In particular, it suggests that the critical realist idea of the primacy of ontology helps bridge the apparent paradigmatic gap between qualitative and quantitative research. It illustrates this foundational idea by showing why and how a multi-disciplinary team used a mixed methods approach to understand the significance of religi…
Building on the shoulders of Bhaskar and Matthews
Building on the insights of the late Roy Bhaskar and the late Roger Matthews, as well as some recent developments in ultra-realist criminology, this article introduces and delineates some core intellectual contours of a Critical Realist Criminology (CRC) based on the principles of: \n \nThe ‘emergent,’ stratified ontology of crime and of the offender; \n \nthe full critical realist account of the dialectics of being and becoming, including the sp…
The intrapersonal and interpersonal consequences of a new experimental manipulation of co-rumination
Co-rumination is a form of interpersonal emotion regulation wherein dyads engage in extensive, cyclical conversations regarding the causes and consequences of problems and associated negative emotions. In the present investigation, we leveraged the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat to elucidate the intrapersonal costs and interpersonal benefits of co-rumination. To do so, we developed the first direct experimental manipulation of co-r…
La prison comme expérience liminale du changement religieux
Depuis une vingtaine d’années, les prisons européennes font face à une augmentation significative de personnes détenues de confession musulmane au point que dans certains établissements, celles-ci représentent parfois plus de la moitié des prisonniers. Si différentes études se sont penchées sur le rôle de la religion dans l’expérience carcérale et que nombre d’entre elles examinent l’islam et les personnes musulmanes en prison, on constate la pré…
Men, masculinity and anti-feminist violence at the post-conflict frontier, Nagaland, India
In the wake of ceasefires signed in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the state of Nagaland, India is undergoing a process of liberalisation involving closer economic ties to India, expanding consumer markets, new welfare services and infrastructure provided by the Government of India, and new settlers coming to the frontier state.Liberalisation in the wake of conflict has also been of immense benefit to Nagaland, encouraging economic growth, new l…
Doing ‘judgemental rationality’ in empirical research
Critical realist thought has theorised convincingly that epistemic relativism is constellationally embedded in ontological realism which in turn necessitates judgemental rationality. In social science, judgemental rationality involves acting upon plausible decisions about competing points of view. However, the tools for doing this are, as yet, under-articulated. This paper addresses this absence by articulating triangulation and depth-reflexivity…
Prison as a Site of Intense Religious Change
Based on the findings of mixed-methods research conducted with 279 Muslim prisoners in 10 prisons in England, Switzerland and France, this paper argues that contemporary European prisons are sites of intense religious change, in which many people born outside Islam and many born-Muslims believe in and practise Islam for the first time. In order to map this experience of intense religious change in prison, the paper articulates an original typolog…
Living Islam in Prison
Addressing a significant gap in the knowledge of female Muslim prisoners' religiosity, this paper describes and explains the gendered impact of incarceration on the religiosity of Muslim female and male offenders. Based on quantitative and qualitative data collected in ten prisons, including a male and female prison in England and a male and female prison in Switzerland, the authors show that prison tends to intensify the religiosity of Muslim me…
Godroads
Discussions of conversion in India generally focus on Christianity, most often imagining conversion to be an unambiguous transition from polytheistic Hindu or animist faiths to the British coloniser's monotheistic and 'superior' faith. This is a narrative that is rife with colonial and social Darwinist undertones, one that endorses a narrow and limiting understanding of conversion as a distinct event
The ontology of the Muslim male offender
This article proposes a theoretical framework for thinking systematically about Muslim males’ involvement in criminality, derived from the philosophy of critical realism. This theoretical framework is deployed to explore primary data from life story interviews with 17 Muslim male offenders in a way that explains the role of structural and cultural factors, as well as individual agency, in participants’ involvement in crime at a range of ‘emergent…
The sick and the citizen
Novel Coronavirus has spread quickly through India's major cities and smaller towns and villages. In efforts to contain the spread of the virus, the Indian government has enacted increasingly draconian measures, endorsing social distancing and a 'people's curfew' on 22 March, and then at 8pm on March 24, announcing a 21-day lockdown beginning at midnight. While the lockdown has been relaxed in terms of its enforcement, at the time of writing the …
Justice and the Slaughter Bench
In his book, ‘Justice and the Slaughter Bench’, Alan Norrie poses the Big Legal Questions with insight and erudition. Specifically, he challenges all those who care about the nature of justice to m
Religious Fundamentalism in the Middle East
Religious Fundamentalism in the Middle East offers rich second-order1 conceptual insight but is ultimately undermined by some fatal flaws. The book sets out to provide an explanatory sociological f
An assessment of the barriers to accessing the Basic Package of Health Services (BPHS) in Afghanistan
Afghanistan is one of the most fragile and conflict-affected countries in the world. It has experienced almost uninterrupted conflict for the last thirty years, with the present conflict now lasting over a decade. With no history of a functioning healthcare system, the creation of the Basic Package of Health Services (BPHS) in 2003 was a response to Afghanistan's dire health needs following decades of war. Its objective was to provide a bare mini…
The Metaphysics of a Contemporary Islamic Shari'a
The philosophy of metaReality and, in particular, ideas of transcendence can ‘underlabour’ for the re-enchantment of Islamic praxis, ethics and law by helping to uncover in a systematic, non-arbitrary way the spiritual objectives (maqāsid) inherent in the basic beliefs, practices and obligations of Islam. The commonly accepted elements of the Islamic legal pathway (Shari'a), such as the obligation of marriage, far from being inhibiting, can help …
Introducing Islamic Critical Realism
This article makes the case for a contemporary philosophy of Islam to help Muslims surmount the challenges of postmodernity and to transcend the hiatuses and obstacles that Muslims face in their interaction and relationships with non-Muslims. It argues that the philosophy of critical realism so fittingly underlabours for the contemporary interpretation, clarification and conceptual deepening of Islamic doctrine and practice as to suggest and nece…
Climate control of terrestrial carbon exchange across biomes and continents
Understanding the relationships between climate and carbon exchange by terrestrial ecosystems \nis critical to predict future levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide because of the potential \naccelerating effects of positive climate–carbon cycle feedbacks. However, directly observed \nrelationships between climate and terrestrial CO2 exchange with the atmosphere across biomes \nand continents are lacking. Here we present data describing the relatio…
Doing ‘judgemental rationality’ in empirical research
Critical realist thought has theorised convincingly that epistemic relativism is constellationally embedded in ontological realism which in turn necessitates judgemental rationality. In social science, judgemental rationality involves acting upon plausible decisions about competing points of view. However, the tools for doing this are, as yet, under-articulated. This paper addresses this absence by articulating triangulation and depth-reflexivity…
Prison as a Site of Intense Religious Change
Based on the findings of mixed-methods research conducted with 279 Muslim prisoners in 10 prisons in England, Switzerland and France, this paper argues that contemporary European prisons are sites of intense religious change, in which many people born outside Islam and many born-Muslims believe in and practise Islam for the first time. In order to map this experience of intense religious change in prison, the paper articulates an original typolog…
Living Islam in Prison
Addressing a significant gap in the knowledge of female Muslim prisoners' religiosity, this paper describes and explains the gendered impact of incarceration on the religiosity of Muslim female and male offenders. Based on quantitative and qualitative data collected in ten prisons, including a male and female prison in England and a male and female prison in Switzerland, the authors show that prison tends to intensify the religiosity of Muslim me…
Harassment of Women Martial Artists
While sports research has begun to focus on gendered violence in different disciplines, a need exists for deeper analysis of sexual harassment and abuse in sports. Based on responses to a large online survey, our study adds valuable insights to the examination of harassment in martial arts and to the development of solutions against it. Our investigation reveals a prevalence of gendered harassment in martial arts, a tendency to minimize the possi…
The sick and the citizen
Novel Coronavirus has spread quickly through India's major cities and smaller towns and villages. In efforts to contain the spread of the virus, the Indian government has enacted increasingly draconian measures, endorsing social distancing and a 'people's curfew' on 22 March, and then at 8pm on March 24, announcing a 21-day lockdown beginning at midnight. While the lockdown has been relaxed in terms of its enforcement, at the time of writing the …
Climate control of terrestrial carbon exchange across biomes and continents
Understanding the relationships between climate and carbon exchange by terrestrial ecosystems \nis critical to predict future levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide because of the potential \naccelerating effects of positive climate–carbon cycle feedbacks. However, directly observed \nrelationships between climate and terrestrial CO2 exchange with the atmosphere across biomes \nand continents are lacking. Here we present data describing the relatio…
Introducing Islamic Critical Realism
This article makes the case for a contemporary philosophy of Islam to help Muslims surmount the challenges of postmodernity and to transcend the hiatuses and obstacles that Muslims face in their interaction and relationships with non-Muslims. It argues that the philosophy of critical realism so fittingly underlabours for the contemporary interpretation, clarification and conceptual deepening of Islamic doctrine and practice as to suggest and nece…
The Metaphysics of a Contemporary Islamic Shari'a
The philosophy of metaReality and, in particular, ideas of transcendence can ‘underlabour’ for the re-enchantment of Islamic praxis, ethics and law by helping to uncover in a systematic, non-arbitrary way the spiritual objectives (maqāsid) inherent in the basic beliefs, practices and obligations of Islam. The commonly accepted elements of the Islamic legal pathway (Shari'a), such as the obligation of marriage, far from being inhibiting, can help …
An assessment of the barriers to accessing the Basic Package of Health Services (BPHS) in Afghanistan
Afghanistan is one of the most fragile and conflict-affected countries in the world. It has experienced almost uninterrupted conflict for the last thirty years, with the present conflict now lasting over a decade. With no history of a functioning healthcare system, the creation of the Basic Package of Health Services (BPHS) in 2003 was a response to Afghanistan's dire health needs following decades of war. Its objective was to provide a bare mini…
Religious Fundamentalism in the Middle East
Religious Fundamentalism in the Middle East offers rich second-order1 conceptual insight but is ultimately undermined by some fatal flaws. The book sets out to provide an explanatory sociological f
Justice and the Slaughter Bench
In his book, ‘Justice and the Slaughter Bench’, Alan Norrie poses the Big Legal Questions with insight and erudition. Specifically, he challenges all those who care about the nature of justice to m
Godroads
Discussions of conversion in India generally focus on Christianity, most often imagining conversion to be an unambiguous transition from polytheistic Hindu or animist faiths to the British coloniser's monotheistic and 'superior' faith. This is a narrative that is rife with colonial and social Darwinist undertones, one that endorses a narrow and limiting understanding of conversion as a distinct event
The ontology of the Muslim male offender
This article proposes a theoretical framework for thinking systematically about Muslim males’ involvement in criminality, derived from the philosophy of critical realism. This theoretical framework is deployed to explore primary data from life story interviews with 17 Muslim male offenders in a way that explains the role of structural and cultural factors, as well as individual agency, in participants’ involvement in crime at a range of ‘emergent…
The sick and the citizen
Novel Coronavirus has spread quickly through India's major cities and smaller towns and villages. In efforts to contain the spread of the virus, the Indian government has enacted increasingly draconian measures, endorsing social distancing and a 'people's curfew' on 22 March, and then at 8pm on March 24, announcing a 21-day lockdown beginning at midnight. While the lockdown has been relaxed in terms of its enforcement, at the time of writing the …
Men, masculinity and anti-feminist violence at the post-conflict frontier, Nagaland, India
In the wake of ceasefires signed in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the state of Nagaland, India is undergoing a process of liberalisation involving closer economic ties to India, expanding consumer markets, new welfare services and infrastructure provided by the Government of India, and new settlers coming to the frontier state.Liberalisation in the wake of conflict has also been of immense benefit to Nagaland, encouraging economic growth, new l…
Doing ‘judgemental rationality’ in empirical research
Critical realist thought has theorised convincingly that epistemic relativism is constellationally embedded in ontological realism which in turn necessitates judgemental rationality. In social science, judgemental rationality involves acting upon plausible decisions about competing points of view. However, the tools for doing this are, as yet, under-articulated. This paper addresses this absence by articulating triangulation and depth-reflexivity…
Prison as a Site of Intense Religious Change
Based on the findings of mixed-methods research conducted with 279 Muslim prisoners in 10 prisons in England, Switzerland and France, this paper argues that contemporary European prisons are sites of intense religious change, in which many people born outside Islam and many born-Muslims believe in and practise Islam for the first time. In order to map this experience of intense religious change in prison, the paper articulates an original typolog…
Living Islam in Prison
Addressing a significant gap in the knowledge of female Muslim prisoners' religiosity, this paper describes and explains the gendered impact of incarceration on the religiosity of Muslim female and male offenders. Based on quantitative and qualitative data collected in ten prisons, including a male and female prison in England and a male and female prison in Switzerland, the authors show that prison tends to intensify the religiosity of Muslim me…
The primacy of ontology
This paper suggests philosophical foundations for mixed methods research based on the philosophy of critical realism. In particular, it suggests that the critical realist idea of the primacy of ontology helps bridge the apparent paradigmatic gap between qualitative and quantitative research. It illustrates this foundational idea by showing why and how a multi-disciplinary team used a mixed methods approach to understand the significance of religi…
Building on the shoulders of Bhaskar and Matthews
Building on the insights of the late Roy Bhaskar and the late Roger Matthews, as well as some recent developments in ultra-realist criminology, this article introduces and delineates some core intellectual contours of a Critical Realist Criminology (CRC) based on the principles of: \n \nThe ‘emergent,’ stratified ontology of crime and of the offender; \n \nthe full critical realist account of the dialectics of being and becoming, including the sp…
The intrapersonal and interpersonal consequences of a new experimental manipulation of co-rumination
Co-rumination is a form of interpersonal emotion regulation wherein dyads engage in extensive, cyclical conversations regarding the causes and consequences of problems and associated negative emotions. In the present investigation, we leveraged the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat to elucidate the intrapersonal costs and interpersonal benefits of co-rumination. To do so, we developed the first direct experimental manipulation of co-r…
La prison comme expérience liminale du changement religieux
Depuis une vingtaine d’années, les prisons européennes font face à une augmentation significative de personnes détenues de confession musulmane au point que dans certains établissements, celles-ci représentent parfois plus de la moitié des prisonniers. Si différentes études se sont penchées sur le rôle de la religion dans l’expérience carcérale et que nombre d’entre elles examinent l’islam et les personnes musulmanes en prison, on constate la pré…
A review of planting principles to identify the right place for the right tree for ‘net zero plus’ woodlands
We outline the principles of the natural capital approach to decision making and apply these to the contemporary challenge of very significantly expanding woodlands as contribution to attaining net zero emissions of greenhouse gases. Drawing on the case of the UK, we argue that a single focus upon carbon storage alone is likely to overlook the other ‘net zero plus’ benefits which woodlands can deliver. A review of the literature considers the wid…
Oh you’re on our side, you’re my brother’
Filling a significant gap in prisons research, this paper articulates the experiences and perspectives of a group of Muslim prison officers interviewed as part of an international study examining Islam in prison. These Muslim prison officers occupied a precarious occupational cultural space between Us (prison officers) and Them (Muslim prisoners) which presented both risks of exclusion, religious and racial prejudices and opportunities to build b…
Defining and Illustrating “Extremism” Using the Largest Investigation into Islam in Prison
In the context of a damaging absence of clarity, we define “Islamist Extremism” as: the absolutely divided and antagonistic Worldview of the “Us”-true-Muslim “in-group” who must strive to live in an “Islamic” State versus “Them”-non-Muslim’ and “wrong”-Muslim “out-groups” who are stripped of their human status due to their opposition to “true Islam.” We illustrate this definition of “Extremism” - including showing how Islamist Extremism is differ…
Harassment of Women Martial Artists
While sports research has begun to focus on gendered violence in different disciplines, a need exists for deeper analysis of sexual harassment and abuse in sports. Based on responses to a large online survey, our study adds valuable insights to the examination of harassment in martial arts and to the development of solutions against it. Our investigation reveals a prevalence of gendered harassment in martial arts, a tendency to minimize the possi…
What else to do
Himalayan masculinities
Sociology (17 works) · Political science (15 works) · Law (12 works) · Criminology (8 works) · Epistemology (8 works) · Psychology (8 works) · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis (7 works) · Islam (7 works) · Philosophy (7 works) · Social Psychology (7 works)