Lawyers as infrastructures
Mediations, blockages, and new possibilities in grassroots movements
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11448492 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Heba M Khalil (0000-0001-9904-051X, Department of Sociology and Anthropology Nebraska Wesleyan University USA, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 50 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 231-250 |
| Publication date | 2023-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Law and Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0263-323X • E-ISSN: 1467-6478 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/jols.12422 |
| OpenAlex | W4377099203 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
What roles do lawyers play when their own subaltern communities are mobilizing for justice? Drawing on the case of anti‐eviction mobilization on the island of Al‐Warraq in Egypt, this article investigates the infrastructural roles of community lawyers in grassroots movements. As their profession transformed into an underpaid and undervalued occupation, masses of lawyers became precarious professionals living subaltern lives. Living among the poor with the elite knowledge of the law enabled community lawyers to forge new relations between the grassroots and the elites, the streets and the courtroom, and farmers and the national media. Drawing on an ethnography of the movement, I posit that community lawyers operate as social infrastructures: liminal subjects in uncertain times, capable of generating new possibilities and social relations. As social infrastructures within their communities, they shape the opportunities for action, facilitating new modes of resistance while blocking others
Community organizing · Criminology · Economic Justice · Elite · Grassroots · Liminality · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Social movement · Social movement theory · Sociology · Subaltern · Feminism, Gender, and Sexuality Studies · Islamic Studies and History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Law
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2026 (3) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |