Statactivism against the penal machinery in the aftermath of “1968”: The Case of the French Groupe d’Information Sur les Prisons

<span class="abs_content">The action of the French Groupe d’information sur les prisons (GIP) in the early 1970s has recently been characterized as “optical activism”. By analogy, this article considers the activist efforts of the GIP from the angle of statistical activism or “statac...

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Autor principal:	Grégory Salle
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Coordinamento SIBA 2014
Materias:	activism france prison protest statistics Political science (General) JA1-92
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/2f616d13d28f4b81ac6fbe8fb976ddac
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:2f616d13d28f4b81ac6fbe8fb976ddac2021-11-21T15:11:37ZStatactivism against the penal machinery in the aftermath of “1968”: The Case of the French Groupe d’Information Sur les Prisons1972-76232035-660910.1285/i20356609v7i2p221https://doaj.org/article/2f616d13d28f4b81ac6fbe8fb976ddac2014-07-01T00:00:00Zhttp://siba-ese.unisalento.it/index.php/paco/article/view/14151https://doaj.org/toc/1972-7623https://doaj.org/toc/2035-6609<span class="abs_content">The action of the French Groupe d’information sur les prisons (GIP) in the early 1970s has recently been characterized as “optical activism”. By analogy, this article considers the activist efforts of the GIP from the angle of statistical activism or “statactivism”. It assumes that there is something to be gained from re-examining the GIP’s activities from this perspective on the assumption that, because prison was —particularly at that time— a place of deprivation and scarcity, it was a world in which quantities, however low they may have been, did count. Quantification was not the most important of the GIP’s wide range of activities; yet it was crucial under certain circumstances, or for addressing certain issues: if information was "a weapon" (a watchword of the group), then statistical information was no exception to the rule. Emphasizing the issues of prison suicides and class justice, this article reviews different practices of statactivism, from challenging official figures to resorting to an original quantification operation. If the GIP paved the way for a critique that is now commonplace, it has also brought about a decisive and paradoxical shift, by which citing numbers no longer only answered the conventional quantitative question “how many?” (how many prisoners?), but also answered the qualitative and more disturbing question “who?”: who are the prisoners?</span><br />Grégory SalleCoordinamento SIBAarticleactivismfranceprisonproteststatisticsPolitical science (General)JA1-92ENPartecipazione e Conflitto, Vol 7, Iss 2, Pp 221-236 (2014)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	activism france prison protest statistics Political science (General) JA1-92
spellingShingle	activism france prison protest statistics Political science (General) JA1-92 Grégory Salle Statactivism against the penal machinery in the aftermath of “1968”: The Case of the French Groupe d’Information Sur les Prisons
description	<span class="abs_content">The action of the French Groupe d’information sur les prisons (GIP) in the early 1970s has recently been characterized as “optical activism”. By analogy, this article considers the activist efforts of the GIP from the angle of statistical activism or “statactivism”. It assumes that there is something to be gained from re-examining the GIP’s activities from this perspective on the assumption that, because prison was —particularly at that time— a place of deprivation and scarcity, it was a world in which quantities, however low they may have been, did count. Quantification was not the most important of the GIP’s wide range of activities; yet it was crucial under certain circumstances, or for addressing certain issues: if information was "a weapon" (a watchword of the group), then statistical information was no exception to the rule. Emphasizing the issues of prison suicides and class justice, this article reviews different practices of statactivism, from challenging official figures to resorting to an original quantification operation. If the GIP paved the way for a critique that is now commonplace, it has also brought about a decisive and paradoxical shift, by which citing numbers no longer only answered the conventional quantitative question “how many?” (how many prisoners?), but also answered the qualitative and more disturbing question “who?”: who are the prisoners?</span><br />
format	article
author	Grégory Salle
author_facet	Grégory Salle
author_sort	Grégory Salle
title	Statactivism against the penal machinery in the aftermath of “1968”: The Case of the French Groupe d’Information Sur les Prisons
title_short	Statactivism against the penal machinery in the aftermath of “1968”: The Case of the French Groupe d’Information Sur les Prisons
title_full	Statactivism against the penal machinery in the aftermath of “1968”: The Case of the French Groupe d’Information Sur les Prisons
title_fullStr	Statactivism against the penal machinery in the aftermath of “1968”: The Case of the French Groupe d’Information Sur les Prisons
title_full_unstemmed	Statactivism against the penal machinery in the aftermath of “1968”: The Case of the French Groupe d’Information Sur les Prisons
title_sort	statactivism against the penal machinery in the aftermath of “1968”: the case of the french groupe d’information sur les prisons
publisher	Coordinamento SIBA
publishDate	2014
url	https://doaj.org/article/2f616d13d28f4b81ac6fbe8fb976ddac
work_keys_str_mv	AT gregorysalle statactivismagainstthepenalmachineryintheaftermathof1968thecaseofthefrenchgroupedinformationsurlesprisons
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Statactivism against the penal machinery in the aftermath of “1968”: The Case of the French Groupe d’Information Sur les Prisons

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