Nesta,
Spinning off from your closing comments about normalizing, does the
practice (in general) of zero-tolerance policing function as a technique of
governmentality?
I raise this question for two reasons:
1. Stuart's comments about focusing on Foucault's work on police as an
excellent way of working with Foucault's notion of governmentality seems
directly related to this issue.
2. (getting more specific) Here in Chattanooga, Tennessee USA the county
public school system practices a zero-tolerance policy regarding violence at
school. This is a way to ease the fears of parents who vote (Thousands
flocked to a seminar/businiess show in town this weekend that focused on home
schooling-- because public schools are not safe enough for the good kids).
What happens in this zero-tolerance model is that those who are
involved in serious acts of violence on campus are removed from the public
school system without any chance of returning. They then have no where to go
to become educated (unless they attend elite private schools or get home
schooling). However, the number of prisons being built in this country are
growing each year. Are those excluded via the zero-tolerance model simply
fuel for the prison indudtrial complex? That is a large leap, and a bit
dramatic. Still my point is that this practice of zero-tolerance in schools is
working to indiviualize these children as criminals while it is generating a
"population" to be monitored and managed. So, the policing of the zero-
tolerance model seems to function as more than the means of reducing violence
that it represents itself as being.
chad
Spinning off from your closing comments about normalizing, does the
practice (in general) of zero-tolerance policing function as a technique of
governmentality?
I raise this question for two reasons:
1. Stuart's comments about focusing on Foucault's work on police as an
excellent way of working with Foucault's notion of governmentality seems
directly related to this issue.
2. (getting more specific) Here in Chattanooga, Tennessee USA the county
public school system practices a zero-tolerance policy regarding violence at
school. This is a way to ease the fears of parents who vote (Thousands
flocked to a seminar/businiess show in town this weekend that focused on home
schooling-- because public schools are not safe enough for the good kids).
What happens in this zero-tolerance model is that those who are
involved in serious acts of violence on campus are removed from the public
school system without any chance of returning. They then have no where to go
to become educated (unless they attend elite private schools or get home
schooling). However, the number of prisons being built in this country are
growing each year. Are those excluded via the zero-tolerance model simply
fuel for the prison indudtrial complex? That is a large leap, and a bit
dramatic. Still my point is that this practice of zero-tolerance in schools is
working to indiviualize these children as criminals while it is generating a
"population" to be monitored and managed. So, the policing of the zero-
tolerance model seems to function as more than the means of reducing violence
that it represents itself as being.
chad