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Citizens under Suspicion: Responsive Research with Community under Surveillance
Author(s) -
Ali Arshad Imitaz
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
anthropology and education quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.531
H-Index - 46
eISSN - 1548-1492
pISSN - 0161-7761
DOI - 10.1111/aeq.12136
Subject(s) - panopticon , sociology , ethnography , solidarity , governmentality , citizen journalism , participatory action research , media studies , gaze , participant observation , qualitative research , power (physics) , public relations , gender studies , criminology , social science , political science , politics , psychology , law , anthropology , physics , quantum mechanics , brother , psychoanalysis
In the 14 years since the 9/11 events, this nation as a whole, and N ew Y ork C ity in particular, has escalated its state‐sanctioned surveillance in the lives and activities of Muslims in the U nited S tates. This qualitative study examines the ramifications of police infiltration and monitoring of M uslim student and community‐based organizations. Drawing upon 24 months of ethnographic fieldwork among multiple research sites with M uslim secondary and college students in N ew Y ork C ity, I examine how surveillance affected the relationships within communities utilizing notions of power, panoptic gaze, and governmentality. From the participatory action ethnographic study, which included this researcher's observations and field notes of meetings, forums, and workshops, and 25 semistructured interviews, key findings show that an insidious result of the N ew Y ork P olice Department's Demographics Unit has been an alarming rise in self‐discipline behaviors amid a culture of fear and panoptic gaze as well as diminished intercommunity trust and sense of solidarity among these youth themselves.