14 research outputs found
Just Police Violence: Liberal ideology and the critique of violence from Walter Benjamin to Black Lives Matter
Policing is broadly legitimate â even while imperfect and in need of reform. This axiom of liberal political theory and practice is shaken by movements like Black Lives Matter, which confront and expose carceral violence as the routine, deadly edge of racial capitalism. Thinking with abolitionist currents within these movements, this paper engages critical theory to unpick the ideological discourses that legitimise police violence in âreal existing liberalismâ. I argue that justifications of policing replicate the âanalytic atomismâ and mythologisation of law that Neuâs Just Liberal Violence identifies in defences of sweatshops, torture, and war. I bring together Benjaminâs classic excavation of sovereign power in the policing function with the experiences of todayâs policed subjects to reveal the limitations of liberal appeals to âthe rule of lawâ. The standard figuration of oppressive violence as exceptional, deviant, and unlawful, I argue, serves to legitimise the institutions in and through which that violence is normalised
Review of 'The Political Is Political: Conformity and the Illusion of Dissent in Contemporary Political Philosophy' by Lorna Finlayson.
Feminism Against Crime Control: On Sexual Subordination and State Apologism
Its critics call it âfeminism-as-crime-controlâ, or âGovernance Feminismâ, diagnosing it as a pernicious form of identity politics. Its advocates call it taking sexual violence seriously â by which they mean wielding the power of the state to âpunish perpetratorsâ and âprotect vulnerable womenâ. Both sides agree that this approach follows from the radical feminist analysis of sexual violence most strikingly formulated by Catharine MacKinnon. The aim of this paper is to rethink the Governance Feminism debate by questioning this common presupposition. I ask whether taking MacKinnonâs analysis of sexual violence seriously might, in fact, itself give us reason to be critical of political strategies that embrace the punitive state. By raising this question, I hope to persuade radical feminists to listen to critics of carceral politics rather than dismissing them as rape apologists, and critics of carceral politics to listen to radical feminists rather than dismissing them as state apologists
Recommended from our members
The criminal is political: real existing liberalism and the construction of the criminal
The familiar irony of âreal existing socialismâ is that it never was. Socialist ideals were used to legitimise regimes that fell far short of realising those ideals â indeed, that violently repressed anyone who tried to realise them. This thesis investigates how the derogatory and depoliticizing concept of the criminal has historically allowed, and continues to allow, liberal ideals to operate in a worryingly similar manner. Across the political spectrum, âcriminalâ is used as a slur. That which is criminal is assumed to be bad, and what is more, to be bad in a way that is not politically interesting. I show how this serves to prevent deep dissent from the status quo, and particularly from the existing, unjust order of property, from registering as dissent at all. Feminists have long argued that the exclusion of what is deemed âpersonalâ from the sphere of the political is itself a (conservative) political move. I propose that the construction of âthe criminalâ as a category opposed to the political constitutes a similar barrier to emancipatory social transformation. I suggest, further, that under conditions of âreal existing liberalismâ, some kinds of conflict with the law have the potential not only to manifest but also to forge âresistant subjectivitiesâ. I conclude that political philosophy, insofar as its purpose is emancipatory, should be more interested in the perspectives of criminals than it hitherto has been
Author Q and A with editor Phil Crockett Thomas and contributors on abolition science fiction
In this author Q&A, RĂ©my-Paulin Twahirwa speaks to editor Phil Crockett Thomas and contributors about their recent collection, Abolition Science Fiction, a collection of short science fiction stories written by activists and scholars involved in prison abolition and transformative justice in the UK
Abolishing The Police
âThis is the first time we are seeing⊠a conversation about defunding, and some people having a conversation about abolishing the police and prison state. This must be what it felt like when people were talking about abolishing slavery.â â Patrisse Cullors, Black Lives Matter. Abolishing the Police (An Illustrated Introduction) is both a contribution to this conversation and an invitation to join it. It provides rigorous and accessible analyses of why we might want to abolish the police, what abolishing them would involve, and how it might be achieved, introducing readers to the rich existing traditions of anti-police theory and practice. Its authors draw on their diverse on-the-ground experiences of political organising, protest, and resistance to policing in the UK, France, Germany, and the United States, as well as their original research in academic fields ranging from law to security studies, political theory to sociology to public health
The Criminal Is Political: Policing Politics in Real Existing Liberalism
The familiar irony of âreal existing socialismâ is that it never was. Socialist ideals were used to legitimize regimes that fell far short of realizing those idealsâindeed, that violently repressed anyone who tried to realize them. This paper suggests that the derogatory concept of âthe criminalâ may be allowing liberal ideals to operate in contemporary political philosophy and real politics in a worryingly similar manner. By depoliticizing deep dissent from the prevailing order of property, this concept can obscure what I call the âlegitimation gapâ. This is the gulf between (a) liberal accounts of state legitimacy, and (b) the actual functioning of liberal states. Feminists have long pointed out that the exclusion of what is deemed âpersonalâ from political consideration is itself a political move. I propose that the construction of the criminal as a category opposed to the political works similarly to perpetuate unjust forms of social power
Resisting Liberal Self-Deception
Review of Political Self-Deception by Anna Elisabetta Galeotti & A Duty to Resist: When Disobedience Should Be Uncivil by Candice Delmas
Feminism Against Crime Control: On Sexual Subordination and State Apologism
Its critics call it âfeminism-as-crime-controlâ, or âGovernance Feminismâ, diagnosing it as a pernicious form of identity politics. Its advocates call it taking sexual violence seriously â by which they mean wielding the power of the state to âpunish perpetratorsâ and âprotect vulnerable womenâ. Both sides agree that this approach follows from the radical feminist analysis of sexual violence most strikingly formulated by Catharine MacKinnon. The aim of this paper is to rethink the Governance Feminism debate by questioning this common presupposition. I ask whether taking MacKinnonâs analysis of sexual violence seriously might, in fact, itself give us reason to be critical of political strategies that embrace the punitive state. By raising this question, I hope to persuade radical feminists to listen to critics of carceral politics rather than dismissing them as rape apologists, and critics of carceral politics to listen to radical feminists rather than dismissing them as state apologists