Infrastructures of Impunity

Elizabeth F. Drexler

ISBN 10: 1501773097 / ISBN 13: 9781501773099

Published by Cornell University Press, US, 2023

About this Item

In Infrastructures of Impunity Elizabeth F. Drexler argues that the creation and persistence of impunity for the perpetrators of the Cold War Indonesian genocide (1965-66) is not only a legal status but also a cultural and social process. Impunity for the initial killings and for subsequent acts of political violence has many elements: bureaucratic, military, legal, political, educational, and affective. Although these elements do not always work at once-at times some are dormant while others are ascendant-together they can be described as a unified entity, a dynamic infrastructure, whose existence explains the persistence of impunity. For instance, truth telling, a first step in many responses to state violence, did not undermine the infrastructure but instead bent to it. Creative and artistic responses to revelations about the past, however, have begun to undermine the infrastructure by countering its temporality, affect, and social stigmatization and demonstrating its contingency and specific actions, policies, and processes that would begin to dismantle it. Drexler contends that an infrastructure of impunity could take hold in an established democracy.

Seller Inventory # LU-9781501773099

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Infrastructures of Impunity
• Publisher: Cornell University Press, US
• Publication Date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1501773097
• ISBN 13: 9781501773099
• Binding: Hardback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 907 grams

About this title

Synopsis

In Infrastructures of Impunity Elizabeth F. Drexler argues that the creation and persistence of impunity for the perpetrators of the Cold War Indonesian genocide (1965–66) is not only a legal status but also a cultural and social process. Impunity for the initial killings and for subsequent acts of political violence has many elements: bureaucratic, military, legal, political, educational, and affective. Although these elements do not always work at once―at times some are dormant while others are ascendant―together they can be described as a unified entity, a dynamic infrastructure, whose existence explains the persistence of impunity. For instance, truth telling, a first step in many responses to state violence, did not undermine the infrastructure but instead bent to it. Creative and artistic responses to revelations about the past, however, have begun to undermine the infrastructure by countering its temporality, affect, and social stigmatization and demonstrating its contingency and specific actions, policies, and processes that would begin to dismantle it. Drexler contends that an infrastructure of impunity could take hold in an established democracy.

About the Author

Elizabeth F. Drexler is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Director of Peace and Justice Studies at Michigan State University. She is the author of Aceh, Indonesia.