Cultivating Suspicion: An Ethnography

Davina Junck

Description

At the heart of 21st century discourses are questions of whose lives may matter more than others. While the debates themselves are not new, the #hashtags they are linked to and the media through which concerns around moralities of living together are expressed allow for debates to reach large numbers of people in accelerated, individualised and accessible ways. The new media have been powerful in (re)igniting debates and (re)activating demands for social change. Yet, the focus of ubiquitous #hashtags on binary positions may render it easy to neglect their nuances and facets. In recognition of grey-zones, contradictions and ambiguities, this ethnography focuses on a suburb of Cape Town, Observatory, and its recently revived Neighbourhood Watch as an urban renewal project and attempt to decrease notions of vulnerability to crime and violence.
In Observatory – considered to be liberal and bohemian by its inhabitants – the framing of topics within the Neighbourhood Watch group often take on an abstract, intellectualised form. Nevertheless, the group with its rather clashing ideals is grounded in and fuelled by recycled crime stories as well as snapshots of suspected criminals that continue to reappear via various social media channels. Individual experiences, stories and inner conflicts of local Neighbourhood Watch members are at the centre of this exploratory engagement with how fear becomes embodied, everyday practice and the ways in which desires for relationality and spatial exclusivity become entangled in a place where every life matters only in principle.

Informations

• Publié par: Langaa RPCIG
• Date de parution: 11 février 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789956550081
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 8 Mo

Extrait

CULTIVATING SUSPICION An Ethnography Leah Davina Junck

Cultivating Suspicion An ethnography Leah Davina Junck

L a ng a a R esea rch & P u blishing CIG Mankon, Bamenda

Publisher: LangaaRPCIG Langaa Research & Publishing Common Initiative Group P.O. Box 902 Mankon Bamenda North West Region Cameroon [e-mail] www.langaa-rpcig.net Distributed in and outside N. America by African Books Collective [e-mail] www.africanbookscollective.com ISBN-10: 9956-550-19-1 ISBN-13: 978-9956-550-19-7 ©Leah Davina Junck 2019

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical or electronic, including photocopying and recording, or be stored in any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher

Table of Contents Acknowledgements ..................................................... vii Preface ......................................................................... ix Abbreviations............................................................... xi Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................... 1 1.1. The making of bodies, places and spaces in Observatory ........................................................... 1 1.2. Motivations ............................................................................... 6 1.3. Chapter outlines ....................................................................... 18 Chapter 2: Contextualising crime................................ 19 2.1. Theoretical framing ................................................................. 19 2.2. Background and contextualisation ........................................ 21 2.3. Reading crime and vulnerability in South Africa ................ 35 Chapter 3: Inserting the self in the field: How to ‘do’ research on vulnerability and ethnographic methods as ethics.................................. 39 3.1. Introduction.............................................................................. 39 3.2. Conclusion: Learning to know and to see ........................... 53 Chapter 4: The everyday texture and architecture of fear in the suburb: patrollers and their strategies and accessories of security ................................................. 55 4.1. Introduction.............................................................................. 55 4.2. The ONW patrollers ............................................................... 56 4.3. Negotiating fear and idealised notions of local realities .......................................................... 64 4.4. Strategies and accessories of safety and security.................................................................... 70 4.5. Conclusion ................................................................................ 75

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Chapter 5: The Phantom Suspect: Cultivating and embodying suspicion in Observatory ............................................................. 79 5.1. Introduction.............................................................................. 79 5.2. My first patrol........................................................................... 80 5.3. Who are we looking for? ........................................................ 84 5.4. Shades of being ‘suspicious’................................................... 87 5.5. On patrol with Christina......................................................... 89 5.6. Conflicting translations of trust and suspicion onto bodies and selves .......................................... 93 5.7. Conclusion ................................................................................ 96 Chapter 6: Dancing with the devil: patrolling as performance............................................ 99 6.1. Introduction.............................................................................. 99 6.2. ‘I’m no superman!’................................................................... 100 6.3. Patrolling with Richard ........................................................... 103 6.4. Playing cat-and-mouse ............................................................ 106 6.5. The performed patroller as technology of self.................... 110 6.6. Conclusion ................................................................................ 113 Chapter 7: ‘Couch patrolling’ and the virtual embodiment of the Observatory Neighbourhood Watch ................................................ 115 7.1. Introduction.............................................................................. 115 7.2. Simone, the troublemaker ...................................................... 118 7.3. Faces and spaces of crime ...................................................... 119 7.4. Signifying bodies ...................................................................... 120 7.5. Forums of ideological discrepancies..................................... 122 7.6. Couch patrolling as distant caring......................................... 124 7.7. Precarious and comforting qualities of couch-patrolling .................................................................. 127 7.8. Conclusion ................................................................................ 132

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Chapter 8: Conclusions: Masking vulnerability and other comforts of being a patroller........................................................... 135 Bibliography ................................................................ 145 Appendix...................................................................... 151

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Acknowledgments I am glad for the opportunity to express my gratitude to all those supportive of me and this research project. My informants have, of course, been the incentive sparks of the content and the stabilising pillars of this work. It was not only their interesting and intellectually stimulating views that I could learn from - but also their trust in my abilities as a researcher and as a person that meant a lot to me. My parents, Birgit and Paul Junck, have never been anything but encouraging and I am deeply thankful for their support in my endeavours in life. It feels insufficient to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Divine Fuh, in such brief words, as he managed to help me gain confidence in my abilities both as a human and as a researcher. His wonderful personality, wisdom and inspiring academic talent are much appreciated and have had a great impact on me. I would also like to thank my mentor Dr Francis Nyamnjoh, who continues inspiring and guiding me on my academic journey.

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