Table of Contents
Week 5—Counterpublic discourse and political knowledge
Week 5—Counterpublic discourse and political knowledge
As discussed in class, we are substituting the work of Prowse, Weaver, and Meares from their Portals Policing Project as another example of counterpublic discourse. The paper by Soss and Weaver is recommended reading.
Prowse, Gwen, Vesla M. Weaver, and Tracey L. Meares. 2020. “The State from Below: Distorted Responsiveness in Policed Communities.” Urban Affairs Review 56 (5): 1423–71. https://doi.org/10.1177/1078087419844831.
Soss, Joe, and Vesla Weaver. 2017. “Police Are Our Government: Politics, Political Science, and the Policing of Race–Class Subjugated Communities.” Annual Review of Political Science 20 (1): 565–91. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-polisci-060415-093825.
Weaver, Vesla. 2021. “Policing Narratives in the Black Counterpublic.” In The Ethics of Policing: New Perspectives on Law Enforcement, edited by Ben Jones and Eduardo Mendieta, 1st ed., 149–78. New York: New York University Press. https://doi.org/10.18574/9781479803750.
Original notes
Main reading: Elyachar (2010)
Elyachar (2010) is writing an empirical description and analysis of a particular place and time, but her topic resonates with a number of ideas and general phenomena that students of development, human rights, and social change often discuss.
What are some other empirical examples that you think either compare or contrast with the situation that Elyachar describes? Where did you learn about them? (For each of the examples you recall from other classes, cite the sources and provide the references for the information.)
And, if you have never heard of anything that is similar to the work going on in the Cairo neighborhood described by Elyachar, can you find a scholarly work presenting similar empirical examples now? Where did you find it? What is the source for these examples?)
Original reference
Elyachar, Julia. 2010. “Phatic Labor, Infrastructure, and the Question of Empowerment in Cairo.” American Ethnologist 37 (3): 452–64. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1425.2010.01265.x.