Journal article
Powermapping “Stop Cop City”: abolition ecology for possibilities beyond enclosure
The Quarterly journal of speech, Vol.110(4), pp.576-602
10/2024
DOI: 10.1080/00335630.2024.2397099
Abstract
This essay brings the analytic of abolition ecology into conversation with the critical rhetorical study of social movements, to emphasize the ecological dimensions of racialized violence, settler colonialism, and abolitionist liberation struggles. We do so by advancing the method of rhetorical powermapping, as one way to constellate the rhetorical labor of activists/protectors as they unearth the depth and textures of power temporally and spatially. Putting rhetorical powermapping into practice, we follow the contours of recent insurgent movements to “Stop Cop City” as they unsettle power from within the urban forests of Atlanta, Georgia to broader national and global regimes. Such a practice emphasizes the need for multi-scalar and multi-species systems thinking in any vision of an abolitionist future. Stop Cop City insists we contend more deeply with the ecological dimensions of violence and the indispensability of life amid climate chaos, global militarism, and racialized and gendered repression. It also demands, we argue, that rhetorical scholars adopt alternative methods and analytics to make sense of emerging, decentralized movements on their own terms, the histories and relations that ground them, and the human and more-than-human solidarities they require.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Powermapping “Stop Cop City”: abolition ecology for possibilities beyond enclosure
- Creators
- Constance Gordon - San Francisco State UniversityEmerson Cram - University of IowaTiara R. Na’puti - University of California, Irvine
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- The Quarterly journal of speech, Vol.110(4), pp.576-602
- Publisher
- ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
- DOI
- 10.1080/00335630.2024.2397099
- ISSN
- 0033-5630
- eISSN
- 1479-5779
- Grant note
We dedicate this essay to Tortuguita (1996-2023). We also must share our deep gratitude for Omedi Ochieng for welcoming us to write this essay and supporting our desire to do so collectively. Many thanks to you and Stacey Sowards for your editorial labor and care.
- Language
- English
- Electronic publication date
- 09/19/2024
- Date published
- 10/2024
- Academic Unit
- Communication Studies; Gender, Women's and Sexuality Studies
- Record Identifier
- 9984719267402771
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