Book review: Law and disorder in the postcolony, Jean Comaroff and John L. Comaroff (eds). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2006. 357 pp. $28.00. ISBN 0—226—11409—0
| Published date | 01 October 2007 |
| Author | Ezra Tessler |
| DOI | 10.1177/14624745070090040404 |
| Date | 01 October 2007 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
facile screed about the ‘free-play of signifiers’, rather this book is profoundly concrete
in its focus upon quite specific forms – the word ‘form’ is meant here with the greatest
literalness. Aas reproduces in her appendices a number of very specific criminal justice
decision-making instruments (‘forms’ or ‘formats’ – different ‘pages’ that exist either on
paper or as screen-images of computer software programs).
As she restates her ‘purpose of this book’ in concluding her final chapter, she argues:
that, as a tool for judicial thinking and communication, sentencing guidelines and sentencing
information systems are far from unique. They are a product of contemporary computer-
mediated culture. The use of new technologies in sentencing redefines authority and changes
the legitimate ways of interpreting social life. The issue is not only about using information
in more rational ways. It is also about creating information. It is about creating new lenses
and ways of knowing and seeing. It is about giving preference to new skills and types of knowl-
edge – such as the ability to see similarity where before there was none, and the ability to use
models and rules when before there were individual narratives. (p. 158)
This book would be an excellent choice for any advanced course in penal theory. The
Glasshouse Press deserves our praise for having produced another well-designed edition
in this series.
References
Cover, Robert (1986) ‘Violence and the word’, Yale Law Journal 95(July): 1601.
Heidegger, Martin (1977) The question concerning technology and other essays. New York:
Harper Torchbooks.
Horwitz, Morton J. (1992) The transformation of American law, 1870–1960: The crisis
of legal orthodoxy. New York: Oxford University Press.
Lakoff, G. and Mark Johnson (1980) Metaphors we live by. Chicago, IL: University of
Chicago Press.
Richard Perry
San Jose State University, USA
Law and disorder in the postcolony, Jean Comaroff and John L. Comaroff (eds). Chicago,
IL: University of Chicago Press, 2006. 357 pp. $28.00. ISBN 0–226–11409–0.
Inspired by a 2003 conference at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, this impres-
sive volume brings together a diverse group of international scholars trying to make
sense of the forms of violence and disorder commonly said to pervade postcolonial
spaces. In their extensive introduction to the collection, Jean and John Comaroff,
anthropologists at the University of Chicago, probe the following questions: what
should we make of the high levels of corruption, violence and criminality often found
in postcolonial countries where – paradoxically – high levels of litigious action and the
rhetoric of the law abound? To what extent are these features unique to the postcolony?
The subsequent eight contributions from anthropologists, sociologists and political
scientists draw upon remarkable bodies of research to explore these characteristics in
Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa and other places. The result is a patchwork collection
PUNISHMENT & SOCIETY 9(4)
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