Book Review: Governing Out of Order: Space, Law and the Politics of Belonging
| Author | Vikki Bell |
| Published date | 01 March 2000 |
| Date | 01 March 2000 |
| DOI | 10.1177/096466390000900115 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
amount of work to be done before the connection between the level of micro-dis-
course, i.e. the level of everyday interactions, for example, in courts and mediation
settings, and the level of macro-discourse, i.e. law as a broader site of power, can be
established. This is my principal concern about the book: although language runs as
a common thread through the rich collection of empirical research, the book juxta-
poses, rather than integrates, different perspectives. An important reason for this is
the lack of a theoretical framework which incorporates general findings from the field
of ethnography, semiotics and socio-legal studies. For example, one of the questions
that remain unanswered by the book is whether language merely reflects or repro-
duces power, or if there is scope for resistance as well. Are disempowered groups
simply being crushed by the legal system because of their exclusion from specific lin-
guistic practices? Are we not underestimating their resilience? Here, the limits of
micro-linguistic analysis become clear. Language is not the only way of realising the
power of law: non-linguistic elements also have to be taken into account to explain
the might of the law in everyday settings. Goodrich (1990: 188), for example, argues
that factors such as the architecture of court buildings and the spatial arrangement of
court rooms are important in embodying the law’s power. Other research suggests
that, despite the hegemonic force of legal discourse, people can resist, albeit in very
subtle ways.1This raises the question of whether linguistic analysis alone is sufficient
as a method to capture the complex links between the micro- and macro-levels of legal
discourse. After this book, it will be sufficiently clear that language fulfils a pivotal
role in maintaining and reproducing the power of law. For future research, a main pre-
occupation is to determine more precisely how language interacts with other elements
which contribute to the dynamics of power and resistance in law.
NOTES
1. See for example research in the ‘law in everyday life’ tradition, e.g. Sarat (1990)
and Ewick and Silbey (1992).
REFERENCES
Ewick, P. and Silbey, S. (1992) ‘Conformity, Contestation, and Resistance: An
Account of Legal Consciousness’, New England Law Review 26: 731–47.
Goodrich, P. (1990) Languages of Law. London: Georges Wiedenfeld & Nicholson.
Sarat, A. (1990) ‘The Law is All Over: Power, Resistance and the Legal Conscious-
ness of the Welfare Poor’, Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities 2: 343–79.
LIEVE GIES
Department of Law, Keele University, UK
DAVINA COOPER, Governing Out of Order: Space, Law and the Politics of Belonging.
London and New York: Rivers Oram Press, 1998, 256pp., $24.40.
Davina Cooper’s Governing Out of Order: Space, Law and the Politics of Belonging
accomplishes something rather rare: it manages to be a readable, provocative book
that incorporates sociological nous with an impressive clarity about legal praxis.
Guided by certain chosen sociological themes, Cooper develops her analysis through
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