Bystander Tactics

Life on Turf in Karachi

Bibliographic Data

ID2634720
AuthorsTania Ahmad (Franklin & Marshall College, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume5
Issue5
Publication date2011-12-30
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSouth Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1960-6060 • E-ISSN: 1960-6060
PublisherOpenEdition (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.4000/samaj.3537
OpenAlexW52048622
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited32

This article posits an analytic of the bystander, as a supplement to studies of perpetrators and victims, in relation to political affiliation, mobilization and violence in Karachi. In particular, I use ethnographic findings to elucidate the tactics of anticipation used by Karachi residents of neighborhoods widely considered the turf of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM). The examples of students’ and teachers’ reactions to a college rumble between rival groups, parents’ attempts to keep their sons from being recruited into party politics, and young people confident in their ability to navigate an economy of affiliation demonstrate a range of bystander tactics, in which subjection and subversion are aligned. Although metanarratives of democratization frequently elide the everyday activity of standing by, it constitutes a pervasive mode of participation in Karachi’s political landscape

Bystander effect · Criminology · Democracy · Democratization · Ethnography · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Socioeconomics · Sociology · Subversion · Gender Studies · Law · Political Conflict and Governance · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East · Psychology · Social Psychology · South Asian Studies and Conflicts

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