Home - Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Shifting Positionalities: The Local and International Geo-Politics of Surveillance and Policing
Editor: María Amelia Viteri and Aaron Tobler
Date Of Publication: Dec 2009
Isbn13: 978-1-4438-1441-6
Isbn: 1-4438-1441-5
The local-level and international contributions to Shifting Positionalities encompass particular common themes through in-depth social science research, in an effort to understand the meanings of the reformulation of state discourses and practices in this, post-9/11, era. Current conjunctions between sexual, racial and ethnic identities—and the surveillance practices of those identities—calls for a thorough examination of the multiple and usually unexpected meaning-making practices adapted by individuals. Far from being predictable, the latter speak to the possibility of individuals and communities utilizing techniques of actively resisting—as opposed to passively embracing—the policing of their daily lives. Shifting Positionalities: The Local and International Geo-Politics of Surveillance and Policing addresses surveillance and policing as practices and sites that speak to the various ways in which bio-power, displacement and resistance converge to constitute particular subjectivities across borders.

María-Amelia Viteri is a native of Ecuador with a PhD in Cultural Anthropology, currently working on a book that looks at the intersections of migration, citizenship, gender and sexuality in El Salvador, Ecuador and the US. Dr. Viteri speaks from a situated space as a transnational herself, teaching and researching between the geo-political spaces of the US (Catholic University, Washington D.C.) and FLACSO/Ecuador (Latin American School for the Study of Social Sciences). She has recently incorporated performance and cultural studies as additional tools for cultural activism.

Aaron Tobler is a doctoral candidate with the Department of Anthropology at American University, Washington, D.C. His dissertation research surrounds the Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit of the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C., and issues of sexuality, discourse and the state. Recent publications include: “‘We do General Policing’: Sexuality in the Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit of the Metropoltian Police Department, Washington, DC” in the Graduate Journal of Social Science and “‘A 20/20 Focus on Gaydar': Examinations of Sexuality in Television News Magazines” in the NeoAmericanist online journal.

"Thank you very much for the opportunity to read and comment on your terrific book. Below you will find my reactions. The book is a terrific achievement and a wonderful contribution to resisting the dangerous expansion of surveillance and policing in all our lives.

In the post-September 11, 2001 world, surveillance and policing have become pervasive, and yet mostly unexamined, parts of our lives—from ubiquitous security cameras and exhaustive airport searches to unprecedented levels of government wiretapping and surveillance of phone and web communications to the monitoring of library and financial records to the expansion of corporate surveillance of individual internet usage to the targeting of ethnic and religious minorities by police forces for observation, disappearance, and detention. Shifting Positionalities makes a critical contribution to documenting and understanding how these and other forms of surveillance and policing are shaping and damaging our lives and our society. Beyond the more obvious restriction of freedoms and rights, Viteri and Tobler’s diverse collection of essays insightfully shows how practices of surveillance and policing are subtly influencing our thoughts about ourselves and others, reshaping ethnic, racial, gender, sexual, and national identities, deepening state and corporate control over our bodies, and contributing to the further marginalization and demonization of Muslims, Arabs, and others deemed to be “terrorist” threats. Encouragingly, Shifting Positionalities also reveals how the expansion of surveillance and policing has led to the invention of surprising forms of resistance to these forms of dangerous social control. Given the threat that surveillance and policing pose to basic democratic and human rights, Shifting Positionalities strikes an important blow against a new and increasingly insidious Big Brother."

- David Vine, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, American University, Washington, DC

Author of the book "Island of Shame: The secret history of the US Military Base on Diego Garcia" by Princeton.

Price Uk Gbp: 19.99
Price Us Usd: 29.99

Sample pdf (including Table of Contents)

We recommend

Language and Literature
Middle-earth and Beyond: Essays on the World of J. R. R. Tolkien

History
Arctic Discourses

Education
The Supportive School: Wellbeing and the Young Adolescent

Interesting reviews

From Navigating Music and Sound Education

“We rarely have the opportunity and time to engage with the practicalities of music teaching through the lens of evidence-based practice. This book provides us with a wonderful exception that is accessible to beginning and established teachers. It contains a wide range of stimulating and thought-provoking material that draws on real-world experiences and events, which are contextualised, informed and structured by theory. This is a powerful combination that we can visit again and again for insight and inspiration. Congratulations to all involved, particularly the editors for shaping such a valuable contribution!”
—Professor Graham F. Welch, University of London; President, International Society of Music Education

“Navigating music and sound education draws together a range of issues increasingly acknowledged to be at the basis of reflective and effective music learning and teaching: social settings, cultural dimensions, gender, indigeneity, varying cognitive approaches, inter-disciplinary connections, technology, types of learning, and creativity. It opens up areas of pedagogy that go beyond classroom methodology to acknowledge student individuality and encourage music learning and teaching grounded in the reality of students’ musical and social lives. It will be invaluable for those training to become educators and for teachers already in the field.”
—Associate Professor Peter Dunbar-Hall, University of Sydney

“This book brings an important contribution to music teacher education as it challenges the readers to rethink their paradigms of music education. It highlights the importance of preparing a reflective teacher, autonomous, creative and conscious of the multifaceted and multicultural locus in which they will work. The book also draws on the importance for music teachers to consider the context in which they work, and establish a dialog between local musical traditions, informal music practices and global trends of music teaching and learning. Most importantly, all chapters are in one way or another derived from research carried out on specific areas, thus stressing the importance of the research informed practice in music education.”
—Professor Liane Hentschke, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil; International Society of Music Education Immediate Past President

Many readers will appreciate Steve Dillon and Kathy Hirche’s description of the future of education in their work with dynamic technological contexts.

Navigating Music and Sound Education is a wonderful guide and resource for pre-service music teachers, for teachers in the field, and for teacher educators.

It offers a range of fresh perspectives on the state of music education as it is and as it might be. Kari K Veblen

Navigating Music and Sound Education is an ambitious project which features current research from 20 individuals whose professional identities run the gamut from musician to songwriter to student to educator to music therapist to ethnomusicologist. The book’s scope is perhaps the most exciting aspect of Navigating Music and Sound Education.
Kari K Veblen
University of Western Ontario
British Journal of Music Education
October 2011