Unsettling forensics
Novel forms of necro-governmentality and alternative knowledge practices in Sri Lanka and Timor-Leste
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12095963 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Lia Kent (0000-0001-9516-4080, School of Regulation and Global Governance, The Australian National University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 50 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 359-372 |
| Publication date | 2024-11-04 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Death Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0748-1187 • E-ISSN: 1091-7683 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/07481187.2024.2424025 |
| PMID | 39495616 |
| OpenAlex | W4404024476 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 36 |
The integration of forensic knowledge and associated practices into a growing number of human rights and humanitarian investigations, as well as transitional justice processes has led some scholars to claim a "forensic turn." This turn is marked by the rise of forensic practices as "necro-governmental" technologies that seek to deliver certainty to the living and to the state so that a new political order can be created, a new future ushered in (Rojas-Perez, 2017, p. 19). Yet is the forensic turn truly globalized? Focusing on the cases of Timor-Leste and Sri Lanka, this article probes how states and citizens in these post-conflict settings are attempting to manage the unsettling indeterminacies of dead and missing bodies largely without recourse to forensic expertise. These cases shed light on the novel forms of necro-governmentality and alternative modes of local knowledge production that emerge in settings where there is a relative absence of forensic expertise. They also show how the necro-governmental project of fixing the meanings and identities of the dead (forensic or otherwise) is always ongoing, never fully or finally complete. This is because the unsettling indeterminacies of missing and dead bodies allow those bodies to be drawn into intimate practices of care and mourning and more public political projects that can resist attempts to close off their meanings
Computer security · Criminology · Ethnology · Governmentality · Political science · Politics · Socioeconomics · Sociology · South asia · Sri lanka · Timor leste · Computer Science · Gender, Security, and Conflict · Global Security and Public Health · Law · Psychology · Sex work and related issues
The political lives of dead bodies
Digging for the Disappeared
To Know Where He Lies
Mediating ‘absence-presence’ at Rwanda’s genocide memorials
The Office on Missing Persons in Sri Lanka
Narrative, Ontological Security, and Foreign Policy Change
Transforming funeral practices
(In)visible Bodies
Sri Lanka
Ritual and Recovery in Post-Conflict Sri Lanka
Interpreters of the Dead
Human Rights Half Measures
The things they carry
The vitality and efficacy of human substances
Capturing Los Migrantes Desaparecidos
Human rights, human remains
Deep Forensics for a More-than-Human Justice
Liminality and Missing Persons
Silent Stock
The substance of bones
Bones of contention
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |