Event overview
In colonial spaces, what was the territorial function of ‘turning’ fighters during counter-insurgency campaigns? How did practices of rehabilitation in British counterinsurgency ‘pipelines’ in the 1950s model this practice of turning and reorienting individuals? This paper will explore a colonial genealogy of rehabilitation as a set of coercive practices that aimed to produce individuated, moral subjects who would become loyal to the state.
It will explore how this ‘turning’ was crucial not only for specific military operations, but also for producing the legitimacy of the British colonial state and reintegrating territory into the Imperial space. The paper speculates on links to contemporary practices of turning, from its use in the UK government’s Prevent programme which continues to use a medical rehabilitation framework in practices of racist political profiling and coercion, to the use of positive psychology and behaviourism in online influence operations. It examines these colonial relationships between space, subjectivity and notions of loyalty to show how they persist in the present and how they might be un-made.
Bio: Susan Kelly is a writer, organiser, artist and educator who works in the Art Department at Goldsmiths, University of London. She researches the relationships between art and micropolitics.
This event is also accessible online via Zoom, https://gold-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/93908473775
Meeting ID: 939 0847 3775
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 26 Jan 2023 | 5:00pm - 7:00pm |
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