APOLOGIES FOR CROSSPOSTING
CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
Commissioned by AG Kids Control (Engagierte Wissenschaft e.V. / Scholarship
with Commitment, Leipzig, Germany)
Web: www.engagiertewissenschaft.de
Contact: [log in to unmask]
ARE THE KIDS ALRIGHT?
»Everyone can change
– if people who need help will not take it, we will make them.«
(Tony Blair, Respect Action Plan, 2006)
Introduction
Regulating and transforming behaviour has been at the centre of New Labour’s
mission for a “better” social order. “Troublesome youths” have been
identified as the main obstacle to creating a cohesive and responsible
society: Yobs, hoodies, “kids from hell” are common attributions in the
mainstream media to kids who “just hang around” and appear as a “nuisance”
to their community. According to this perception, anti-social behaviour,
harassment and disorder are all around us and make a “normal life”
impossible. A “moral panic” has been created in a society afraid of its own
offspring. Interventions at national and municipal levels target the issue,
asserting that the kids can only be alright if they are kept under permanent
control.
Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) appear to be one of the most popular
and convenient tools of regulation in the UK. ASBOs aim at streamlining
conduct into “acceptable” behaviour by banning people from doing certain
things or from entering defined places. This has not only resulted in
bizarre discussions about what kinds of behaviour are perceived as
anti-social but also in a revival of the time-honoured and ever-popular
practices of anonymous denunciation, public shaming and banning of youths
from entering designated areas of their towns. The massive use of ASBOs by
British authorities in order to “get rid of the problem” has been
complemented by diverse techniques of correction, surveillance and dispersal.
The exhibition
Our exhibition’s aims are to document rationalities and practices of
regulating youth behaviour in urban spaces as well as to explore creative
forms of appropriation of and resistance to surveillance and control.
Experiences from the UK and Germany will be displayed and discussed.
The British “Anti-Social Behaviour Order” (ASBO) serves as an example for
the transforming practices of “disciplining and punishing” (Michel
Foucault). The exhibition documents positions and practices, effects of
power and struggles over meaning of anti-social behaviour. In doing so, the
ASBO is not exclusively conceptualised as an instrument of regulation and
punishment but also as a cultural symbol which is appropriated, devalued or
reinforced by a variety of people. The ASBO phenomenon has inspired artists,
“targeted youths”, entrepreneurs and dedicated people to deal with everyday
surveillance, control and the permanent production of fear in a creative,
political or profit-oriented way.
We would like to invite both artists and non-artists – any people who feel
provoked and inspired by these new forms of control of urban youth and the
nuisance of everyday surveillance – to participate in this exhibition
(through documentaries, music, illustrations, videos, performances,
installations, etc.) The exhibition expressly looks for alternatives to the
“necessities” of intervention.
The exhibition is proposed to take place in summer 2008 in Leipzig, Germany,
and will be complemented by a workshop/seminar, exploring critical
approaches towards regulation of behaviour in a comparative perspective.
Please send your contribution proposal by 31 January 2008 to:
[log in to unmask]
The exhibition will be supported by:
BILDUNGSWERK WEITERDENKEN IN DER HEINRICH-BÖLL-STIFTUNG e.V. (Heinrich Boell
Foundation)
Schützengasse 18
01067 Dresden
Germany
Fon ++49-351 / 4943-311
Contact : [log in to unmask]
web : www.weiterdenken.de
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