Glocal authority

I was surprised to see Tara Brabazon argue that “the word ‘glocal’ should be avoided in academic writing on pain of death and/or watching looped episodes of Keeping Up with the Kardashians” (“Updating to Remain the Same: Habitual New Media, by Wendy Hui Kyong Chun”, Books, 4 August) since this term is perfectly respectable within criminology. See, for example, Dick Hobbs’ now seminal 1998 essay on the subject of the local context of organised crime, “Going down the glocal”.

Perhaps, then, it is only in the context of culture studies that this concept is not yet acceptable?

Kenneth Smith
Reader in criminology and sociology
Bucks New University

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