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Middle‐Class Criminals? The Romance of the Ether and the City in Zambia
Author(s) -
Roeber Carter A.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
city and society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.308
H-Index - 25
eISSN - 1548-744X
pISSN - 0893-0465
DOI - 10.1525/city.1999.11.1-2.99
Subject(s) - state (computer science) , newspaper , social control , criminology , class (philosophy) , middle class , romance , power (physics) , sociology , political science , public relations , law , psychology , computer science , artificial intelligence , physics , algorithm , quantum mechanics , psychoanalysis
The Analysis of Fraud provides new insights into the workings of Third World Cities. Fraud is a middle class crime because it requires knowledge of how the urban ether, that complex of abstract systems and disembodied social relations, operates. While fraud is commonly criticized for undermining the social order, it is also romanticized. Three different cases drawn from Zambian newspapers form the basis for a discussion about the endemic nature of fraud, and the necessity of balancing state and organizational power against issues of personal freedom in the attempts to control fraud. [Crime, state power, personal freedom, Zambia]