Overview

Focusing on the moment when social unrest takes hold of a populace, Law and Disorder offers a new account of sovereignty with an affective theory of public order and protest. In a state of unrest, the affective architecture of the sovereign order begins to crumble. The everyday peace and calm of public space is shattered as sovereign peace is challenged. In response, the state unleashes the full force of its exceptionality, and the violence of public order policing is deployed to restore the affects and atmospheres of habitual social relations. This book is a work of contemporary critical legal theory. It develops an affective theory of sovereign orders by focusing on the government of affective life and popular encounters with sovereignty. The chapters explore public order as a key articulation between sovereignty and government. In particular, policing of public order is exposed as a contemporary mode of exceptionality cast in the fires of colonial subjection. The state of unrest helps us see the ordinary affects of the sovereign order, but it also points to crowds as the essential component in the production of unrest. The atmospheres produced by crowds seep out from the squares and parks of occupation, settling on cities and states. In these new atmospheres, new possibilities of political and social organisation begin to appear. In short, crowds create the affective condition in which the settlement at the heart of the sovereign order can be revisited. This text thus develops a theory of sovereignty which places protest at its heart, and a theory of protest which starts from the affective valence of crowds. This book’s examination of the relationship between sovereignty and protest is of considerable interest to readers in law, politics and cultural studies, as well as to more general readers interested in contemporary forms of political resistance.

Full Product Details

Author:   Illan rua Wall
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
Weight:   0.453kg
ISBN:  

9780367333706

ISBN 10:   0367333708
Pages:   210
Publication Date:   21 December 2020
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Undergraduate
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Prologue: Sovereign Aesthetics. Introduction. Part I: Affective Sovereignty (1) Atmospheres of Sovereignty (2) Switching Sovereign Genres (3) Playing for Hearts and Minds (4) The Government of Temper (5) Excursus 1: Affective Life Part II: The Apparatus of Public Order (6) The Sovereign Peace (7) Signs Taken for Sovereignty (8) The State of Unrest (9) Psycho-Affective Public Order (10) The Coloniality that Remains (11) Excursus 2: An Affective Theory of Public Order Part III: The Crowd and the People (12) Affective Patterning (13) A Somnambulist or Turbulent People (14) The Crowd as Political Technology (15) Securing the People (16) Excursus 3: Crowds and Populace Part IV: The Enmity of Unrest (17) The Surprise of Unrest (18) What Violence Might Assemble (19) Enmity and the Atmosphere of Violence (20) Excursus 4: The State of Unrest. Conclusion: Notes from the Tumult

Reviews

For those readers who have not yet had the pleasure of reading Illan rua Wall's highly original brand of critical legal theory: you are in for a real treat. Paradoxically, this jostling theoretical maelstrom of a book, makes you sit still in wonder. By turns funny, erudite, playful and intensely creative on every single page, this is a masterful account of atmosphere, of the politics of the crowd, and of sovereignty. - Ben Golder, University of New South Wales, Australia Law and Disorder is many books. It is a theory of protest, an exploration of the shifting affects of crowds, a methodological weapon and a moving manual for resistance. It explores the subversion of sovereignty as well as the ways that it makes itself present. It is best read with an openness to the political quality of Wall's writing and its destabilizing reimagining of possibilities. - Carolina Olarte, University of the Andes, Bogota, Colombia This is a rare feat of a book, managing to be both politically rousing and affectively engaging, both revolutionary and quietly eavesdropping on the world's goings-on. Illan rua Wall has produced a text of deep sensitivity, enabling us to rethink of the atmospheric affects of public order as an integral part of the sovereign mechanism; placing crowds and protest in the core of the affective life of the populace. - Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos, University of Westminster, UK

Author Information

Illan rua Wall is Reader at the University of Warwick Law School, UK.

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