Following our discussion on 21/12/20 - which will feed into Oracle - to be published on 5th May 2021
Zemiology
'Zemiology is the study of social harms, from the Greek zemia, or harm. It’s a relatively new academic discipline, which grew out of critical criminology and it seeks to generate real world action in pursuit of justice.'
'That’s where I come in, as justice is the theme of Oracle. I found out more when I had a chat with Sharon Hartles, of the Open University’s Harm & Evidence Research Collaborative (HERC). She is also a member of the British Society of Criminology (BSC) and a researcher and postgraduate with the University of Strathclyde. A published critical criminologist, Sharon is currently conducting research on Primodos.'
'I’m very pleased to have the help of a number of ‘experts’ with Oracle, as I had on Plague. These include Maro Nicolopolou, Head of Conferences and Artistic Programmes at the European Cultural Centre at Delphi, below (and a lover of detective fiction) and Sharon Hartles, zemiologist, of Strathclyde University and the Open University. Maro has already been of inestimable help in directing me to all the changes at the Centre since I visited it back at the turn of the millenium and to the changes in the town. This is so important given that the trip to Delphi I had planned for last year had to be abandoned because of COVID. I’ll be writing about the amazing Centre and its conferences and performances later. Sharon has introduced me to the new discipline of zemiology and Oracleis probably the first time it has featured in a novel (see earlier post here).'