Number 21: June 2016: Counter-Conduct
Cover photo © Fergus Murray, 2011. (https://www.flickr.com/photos/0olong/6309157519/in/pool-protestpuppets/).
Barbara Cruikshank writes about the cover photo:
The cover photograph evokes the ubiquitous presence of giant puppets at protests. David Graeber explains why police hate giant puppets so much that they not only confiscate or destroy them at protests, but also subject giant puppets to ritualistic defilements. Giant puppets transform the scene of protest from a security threat justifying police action and violence into a circus of direct-action. Giant puppets lampoon police presence. Direct action and giant puppets exemplify counter-conducts of protest. Graeber’s essay, “On the Phenomenology of Giant Puppets: Broken Windows, Imaginary Jars of Urine, and the Cosmological Role of Police in American Culture,” is published in Possibilities: Essays on Hierarchy, Rebellion, and Desire (AK Press 2007).