Quote Originally Posted by sgmgrumpy View Post
Hey Marct,

Can you help decode this Phd language?
Sure, although since Anne (the author) is a colleague of mine I'll have to be careful .

Now I think that the militarisation of everyday life is all about technology and security but it isn't Bentham's panopticon, Foucault's docile bodies or even the disciplinary power manifest in CCTV and consumer RFID that I'm talking about. It's the research, development and deployment of biopolitics and network technologies of terror, control and bare life that are actively re-shaping our very understandings of what it means to be together-in-the-world. It's how people with real power are constructing--in procedure, policy and law--what it means to be human, what it means to be social, and even what we should be able to expect from each other.
What she is saying here is that "the militarisation of everyday life" (used as a term for a process) is not about internalizing guilt or fear that someone is being watched (that's the panopticon reference) or monitored by technologies (RFID, CCTV, etc - think of it as a Big Brother, 1984 allusion). She appears to be saying that she views "the militarisation of everyday life" as an example of changing how we perceive society and social relations from a broadly "friendly" approach (assuming everyone isn't out to get you) to a broadly antagonistic approach (everyone IS out to get you).

One of my favourite anthropology students used to love winding me up by threatening to go work for the military. (Sociology students seeking the same threaten to work for Stats Can.) And although he tried to persuade me along the lines of "it's better me than someone else, right?" I never bought it, even when he reminded me that I teach students to always keep an open mind. I'll also admit that these discussions of ours most often ended with me blurting out something intellectually rich like "But, but, but... It's just WRONG to help them!" and him sitting back with a smug smile. (So much for rational argument or ethics, I was clearly signing up for a simpler moral judgment.)
And I know who that student is, too (or at least I'm pretty sure I do). If it's who I think it is, they are a frequent visitor, but not poster, here at the SWC.

Space and Culture is a cross-disciplinary journal of cultural studies that fosters the publication of reflections on a wide range of socio-spatial arenas.
Got time for a few beers ? Actually, the journal was started by a friend of mine and they do publish some really good work in the area. At it's simplest, it just means that the journal looks at issues about how spatial arrangements influence human action. As an example, think about the different type of "feel" (and culture) in an office where everyone has offices vs. everyone having desks in the open. Another example would be looking at how and why the Lincoln Memorial in DC affects so many people who see it. I've used some of the ideas they play with in some of my own research, and they do have a lot of explanatory power in some areas.

Marc