CULT 320:Globalization and Culture

Kara Heitz, 10/08/2014

Questions:• How can we reconcile our globalizing world, where we

perceive that people and things are becoming increasingly more mobile and borders more fluid, with a parallel rise in spaces of “closure, entrapment, and containment”?

• What is Graham’s main arguments about the rise of “securocratic wars”? What examples does his use to back up his argument?

• How have globalizing processes affected the militarization of the police?

• Can the events in Ferguson, Missouri be seen as part of larger global processes? Why or why not?

London Heathrow airport

Top left: US Immigration detention facility in TexasBottom left: US-Mexico border crossingRight: Integrated Fixed Towers at the US border

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/08/police_in_ferguson_military_weapons_threaten_protesters.html

Tel Aviv, Israel

Top left: Israeli soldiers patrolling in Hebron, West BankTop right: Israeli checkpoint in the West BankBottom left: Separation barrier around the West Bank

Caption: FERGUSON, UNITED STATES - AUGUST 16: A protester waves Palestinian flag in solidarity with Gaza as Americans shout slogans and hold banners during a demonstration against the death of eighteen-year-old unarmed teen Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri on August 16, 2014. Brown, allegedly stole some cigars, shot dead by police in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri on August 09, 2014. (Photo by Bilgin Sasmaz/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

Small Group Questions

• What are some of the examples Graham gives of the “architectures and controls” that help to “separate the spaces, zones, privileges and mobility”?

• Where are these located globally?

Graham, “Ubiquitous Borders”

• Shift in relationship between nation-states and borders– Separation between people, things & circulations that are

risky/unworthy vs. worthy of protection– Occurs inside and outside territorial boundaries

• “Securocratic” wars– What/what is “normal”/invisible and who/what is “risky”?

Who is the “other”?

• Ex. Militarization of the police

Case: Ferguson, Missouri

• Killing of Michael Brown (Aug. 9, 2014)

• History of militarization of US police– Transfer of surplus military equipment to local police

departments begins 1990s; “War on Drugs”– Older linkages?

• Techniques & training learned from imperial wars• U.S. racial context

• Should we link the events in Ferguson to larger global processes? Why or why not?– Historical/cultural specificity vs. influence of larger structures