The Structural Sources of Ambiguity in the Modern State: Race, Empire, and Conflicts over Membership

King, Katrina Quisumbing

doi:10.1086/722813

Cited by 10 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 94 publications

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“…But, deportation also requires the receiving country to agree to accept deportees, which is determined by the United States' ability to strongarm countries like Cambodia with the threat of sanctions. This means that the ostensible role of the domestic criminal legal system as a measure of accountability, rehabilitation, and public safety is intimately connected to the global punishment system where migrants can quickly become “a problem” through the ambiguity of their RLS (Joseph and Golash‐Boza 2021; Quisumbing King 2022).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lifetimes of Punishment: The Imperial Feedback Loop of Anti‐Asian Violence

Nishimura

2023

Sociological Inquiry

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As opposed to limiting the scope of anti‐Asian violence to “hate,” this article frames anti‐Asian violence as inextricable from U.S. empire. Building on Go (2020) American Journal of Sociology 125(5):1193, I theorize what I call the “imperial feedback loop” to conceptualize anti‐Asian violence within a postcolonial and transnational context. Using a series of life history interviews, I chart the pathways of two Cambodian American refugees along the migration‐to‐school‐to‐prison‐to‐deportation pipeline. I find that cyclical and intergenerational trauma, the criminalization of Cambodian youth, and refugee deportability sustains the psychological and structural violence of the imperial feedback loop. I relate these findings to Du Boisian scholarship on criminality and imperialism and Asian Americanist scholarship on refugee subjectivity. I conclude by suggesting the interruption of the imperial feedback loop through anti‐PIC and anti‐border organizing and scholarship that critiques the roots of imperial violence and builds toward abolitionist democratic futures.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lifetimes of Punishment: The Imperial Feedback Loop of Anti‐Asian Violence

Nishimura

2023

Sociological Inquiry

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“…Hong Kong-born British Chinese were recategorized four times, “repositioned as belonging to, but not part of, Britain” (Benson 2021:2). During U.S. imperial rule in the Philippines, Filipinos were simultaneously classified as nationals, citizens, and aliens (Baldoz 2011; Quisumbing King forthcoming). 15 Today, residents of U.S. territories are categorized into a gradient of legal statuses with varying degrees of benefits.…”

Section: Three Aspects Of Categories and Classification Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

State Categories, Bureaucracies of Displacement, and Possibilities from the Margins

Menjívar

2023

Am Sociol Rev

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In this presidential address, I argue for the importance of state-created categories and classification systems that determine eligibility for tangible and intangible resources. Through classification systems based on rules and regulations that reflect powerful interests and ideologies, bureaucracies maintain entrenched inequality systems that include, exclude, and neglect. I propose adopting a critical perspective when using formalized categories in our work, which would acknowledge the constructed nature of those categories, their naturalization through everyday practices, and their misalignments with lived experiences. This lens can reveal the systemic structures that engender both enduring patterns of inequality and state classification systems, and reframe questions about the people the state sorts into the categories we use. I end with a brief discussion of the benefits that can accrue from expanding our theoretical repertoires by including knowledge produced in the Global South.

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“…This is not to say that states always classify in discrete, internally consistent ways or that these boundaries of membership are always clearly delineated. Quisumbing King (2022) shows how the United States's legislative and judicial arms historically strategically classified Filipinos ambiguously, making possible their flexible, situationally dependent treatment as citizens, nationals, and aliens.…”

Section: Recognition (Expansionary Top-down)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Theorizing Omission: State Strategies for Withholding Official Recognition of Personhood

Cheong

2023

Sociological Theory

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This article theorizes “omission,” which I define as the condition of being left out of administrative apparatuses, such as civil registers, censuses, and identity management systems. According to this theory, omission is not necessarily accidental but can constitute a political strategy. When even excluded statuses can be powerful grounds for claiming rights, resources, or membership, state actors can subvert such claims-making potential by depriving unwanted populations of the practical, material capacity to establish their legal personhood through documents and records. To situate omission, I develop a typology of documentary strategies additionally comprising “recognition,” “claims-making,” and “evasion.” Although my theorizing is informed by ethnographic research with unregistered families in Malaysia, scholars can apply this typology to multiperspectival, relational analyses of other empirical cases of documentary politics. Studying omissions has scholarly and ethical imperatives, not least to record the lives of populations denied, at times with existential consequences, the right to recognition.

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The Structural Sources of Ambiguity in the Modern State: Race, Empire, and Conflicts over Membership

Cited by 10 publications

References 94 publications

Lifetimes of Punishment: The Imperial Feedback Loop of Anti‐Asian Violence

Lifetimes of Punishment: The Imperial Feedback Loop of Anti‐Asian Violence

State Categories, Bureaucracies of Displacement, and Possibilities from the Margins

Theorizing Omission: State Strategies for Withholding Official Recognition of Personhood

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