Abolition in the Clutch: Shifting through the Gears with Anthropology

Abstract

Abstract Abolition is not a metaphor, and it is essential that our notion of “abolition” not get defanged and deracinated within the self‐evident boundaries of a discipline or even the academy. Amidst the tangle of complicity that is anthropology, there are also parts of the disciplinary toolkit that are useful for worldmaking: listening deeply, bearing witness, challenging the inevitability of the state, and building deep transnational and cross‐diasporic relation. In particular as surveillance, policing, and imprisonment become globalized as techniques of repression, anthropology can help disrupt US‐centrism while cultivating thicker solidarities. In this essay, I draw on Chela Sandoval's theory of differential political consciousness to roughly sketch five interlocking ideology‐praxes – five gears of abolition that at times are complementary, and at times contradictory. Within each gear, I lift up organizers and scholars whose work is shaping the theory and practice of abolition. Following the lead of activists, artists and movement builders, I invite academics to bring abolition home by contributing to ongoing campaigns happening on their campuses and in their neighborhoods.

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