J B Scott
Biographic Data
| ID | 41158 |
|---|---|
| NAME | J B Scott |
| GIVEN NAMES | J B |
| FAMILY NAME | Scott |
| SIGNATURE | SCOTT J B |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Colorado Boulder |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7924-8479 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 20 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1993 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Images of ruin
Atafona is one of countless communities across the globe that is disappearing into the sea due to coastal erosion. The community's ruins symbolize anxieties about the end of Brazil's Anthropocene. Over the course of a week, a group of youth from Brazil's periphery joined with senior scholars in Atafona to explore the social anxieties created by 60 years of degrading coastlines and wave‐like dunes that have buried homes. Participants experimented …
Entre ruínas e histórias, histórias de ruínas
The district of Atafona is located in the delta of the Paraíba do Sul River, in the northern region of the state of Rio de Janeiro. During the 20th century, it became the main resort for the residents of the city of Campos dos Goytacazes, who built their summer homes in Atafona and traveled there with their families on a seasonal basis. About 60 years ago, with the intensification of the ecological disturbances suffered by the Paraíba do Sul Rive…
Ethnography at its edges
Summer. Autumn. Winter. Spring
In the first section of Summer. Autumn. Winter. Spring: Staging Life and Death, a large photo of a performance of Summer.—the first in a quartet of shows by UK-based ensemble Quarantine—spreads across two pages. Supertitles on the upstage wall read: “Third instruction: Lose yourself in the chaos.” A few dozen people of all ages—from toddlers to seniors—are in motion on a wide, warm-grey stage. A few are blowing up balloons or pulling objects out …
Digital Failures in Abolitionist Ethnography
In an era when grassroots activism is defined by the use of social media, the democratic potentials of the Internet are constantly confronted by a shifting set of practical and political obstacles. Organizations seeking to abolish violent policing, for example, use social media to mobilize widespread support, but can fail to solidify lasting influence within government institutions. Similarly, twenty-first-century ethnographers have gained the ab…
“Whoever Dies, Dies”
A year into the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly half of the United States prison population, or five times the rate found in the general population, had been infected. Limited social distancing and difficult to implement preventative measures helped to spread COVID-19 in prisons, while many incarcerated individuals felt that government policy prevented their ability to self-care. These feelings of alienation reflect a history of policy that links disea…
Digital Failures in Abolitionist Ethnography
In an era when grassroots activism is defined by the use of social media, the democratic potentials of the Internet are constantly confronted by a shifting set of practical and political obstacles. Organizations seeking to abolish violent policing, for example, use social media to mobilize widespread support, but can fail to solidify lasting influence within government institutions. Similarly, twenty-first-century ethnographers have gained the ab…
Peace Profile
Favela Studies
Brazilian favelas have been referred to as the most studied urban margins in the world. Noteworthy "favela studies" describe a porous urban entity that contests official definitions and popular prejudice. However, research about the favela consistently omits the work of local scholars and reflects an academic model akin to intellectual extraction. This article explores the potentials to center the favela through a critical reflection on the autho…
A pandemic in prisons
Window Washers on a Windowless Prison
This photograph examines the erasure of prisons from the urban landscape. The false or blind windows symbolize an important point of reflection for understanding the process of community making that surrounds incarceration
Microsoft's drug dealer
Over the last three decades, technology companies have promoted the “disruptive” potentials of the information age. Brazilian favelas (shantytowns) provide one of the most popular examples used to describe how digital disruption applies to informal urban communities. Favelas have been mapped by Google and surveilled by an IBM Smart City while hundreds of well-branded digital inclusion programs present themselves as alternatives to an informal eco…
Utopia Digital
This article examines how class, consumerism, and employment influence beliefs of an idealized digital world in marginalized communities. I recount 24 months of ethnographic and institutional observation in a non-governmental organization that promoted the concept of “ utopia digital” (digital utopia in Portuguese) in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas (shantytowns). This corporate-funded non-governmental organization employed members of Brazil’s tradition…
Death on repeat
In the past decade, images of fatal police shootings shared on social media have inspired protests against militarised policing policies and re-defined the ways marginalised communities seek justice. This article theorises the repetition of violent images and discusses how social media has become an important tool for localising popular critiques of the law. I provide an ethnographic account of a police shooting in a Brazilian favela (shantytown)…
Yours 'Til the War of Classes is Ended
Death on repeat
In the past decade, images of fatal police shootings shared on social media have inspired protests against militarised policing policies and re-defined the ways marginalised communities seek justice. This article theorises the repetition of violent images and discusses how social media has become an important tool for localising popular critiques of the law. I provide an ethnographic account of a police shooting in a Brazilian favela (shantytown)…
Utopia Digital
This article examines how class, consumerism, and employment influence beliefs of an idealized digital world in marginalized communities. I recount 24 months of ethnographic and institutional observation in a non-governmental organization that promoted the concept of “ utopia digital” (digital utopia in Portuguese) in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas (shantytowns). This corporate-funded non-governmental organization employed members of Brazil’s tradition…
Ethnography at its edges
Yours 'Til the War of Classes is Ended
Utopia Digital
This article examines how class, consumerism, and employment influence beliefs of an idealized digital world in marginalized communities. I recount 24 months of ethnographic and institutional observation in a non-governmental organization that promoted the concept of “ utopia digital” (digital utopia in Portuguese) in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas (shantytowns). This corporate-funded non-governmental organization employed members of Brazil’s tradition…
Death on repeat
In the past decade, images of fatal police shootings shared on social media have inspired protests against militarised policing policies and re-defined the ways marginalised communities seek justice. This article theorises the repetition of violent images and discusses how social media has become an important tool for localising popular critiques of the law. I provide an ethnographic account of a police shooting in a Brazilian favela (shantytown)…
A pandemic in prisons
Window Washers on a Windowless Prison
This photograph examines the erasure of prisons from the urban landscape. The false or blind windows symbolize an important point of reflection for understanding the process of community making that surrounds incarceration
Microsoft's drug dealer
Over the last three decades, technology companies have promoted the “disruptive” potentials of the information age. Brazilian favelas (shantytowns) provide one of the most popular examples used to describe how digital disruption applies to informal urban communities. Favelas have been mapped by Google and surveilled by an IBM Smart City while hundreds of well-branded digital inclusion programs present themselves as alternatives to an informal eco…
Summer. Autumn. Winter. Spring
In the first section of Summer. Autumn. Winter. Spring: Staging Life and Death, a large photo of a performance of Summer.—the first in a quartet of shows by UK-based ensemble Quarantine—spreads across two pages. Supertitles on the upstage wall read: “Third instruction: Lose yourself in the chaos.” A few dozen people of all ages—from toddlers to seniors—are in motion on a wide, warm-grey stage. A few are blowing up balloons or pulling objects out …
Digital Failures in Abolitionist Ethnography
In an era when grassroots activism is defined by the use of social media, the democratic potentials of the Internet are constantly confronted by a shifting set of practical and political obstacles. Organizations seeking to abolish violent policing, for example, use social media to mobilize widespread support, but can fail to solidify lasting influence within government institutions. Similarly, twenty-first-century ethnographers have gained the ab…
“Whoever Dies, Dies”
A year into the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly half of the United States prison population, or five times the rate found in the general population, had been infected. Limited social distancing and difficult to implement preventative measures helped to spread COVID-19 in prisons, while many incarcerated individuals felt that government policy prevented their ability to self-care. These feelings of alienation reflect a history of policy that links disea…
Digital Failures in Abolitionist Ethnography
In an era when grassroots activism is defined by the use of social media, the democratic potentials of the Internet are constantly confronted by a shifting set of practical and political obstacles. Organizations seeking to abolish violent policing, for example, use social media to mobilize widespread support, but can fail to solidify lasting influence within government institutions. Similarly, twenty-first-century ethnographers have gained the ab…
Peace Profile
Favela Studies
Brazilian favelas have been referred to as the most studied urban margins in the world. Noteworthy "favela studies" describe a porous urban entity that contests official definitions and popular prejudice. However, research about the favela consistently omits the work of local scholars and reflects an academic model akin to intellectual extraction. This article explores the potentials to center the favela through a critical reflection on the autho…
Ethnography at its edges
Images of ruin
Atafona is one of countless communities across the globe that is disappearing into the sea due to coastal erosion. The community's ruins symbolize anxieties about the end of Brazil's Anthropocene. Over the course of a week, a group of youth from Brazil's periphery joined with senior scholars in Atafona to explore the social anxieties created by 60 years of degrading coastlines and wave‐like dunes that have buried homes. Participants experimented …
Entre ruínas e histórias, histórias de ruínas
The district of Atafona is located in the delta of the Paraíba do Sul River, in the northern region of the state of Rio de Janeiro. During the 20th century, it became the main resort for the residents of the city of Campos dos Goytacazes, who built their summer homes in Atafona and traveled there with their families on a seasonal basis. About 60 years ago, with the intensification of the ecological disturbances suffered by the Paraíba do Sul Rive…
Political science (11 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Ethnography (8 works) · Law (8 works) · Media studies (6 works) · Anthropology (5 works) · History (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis (3 works) · Criminology (3 works)