Please find below details of a panel discussion on 'Urban warfare,
national security and human rights in Jamaica', scheduled for
4.30-6.40pm, Thursday, 10 June at the School of Geography and the
Environment at the University of Oxford: 

Beyond Criminality, Urban Warfare, National Security and Human Rights in
Jamaica

4.30pm - 6.30pm, Thursday 10 June 2010

A J Herbertson Room
School of Geography and the Environment
South Parks Road
University of Oxford

Urban warfare erupted on the streets of Kingston on the 23rd of May
2010. At the last count, over 70 civilians were killed. Residents of
garrison communities claim that gangsters have taken on the role of the
state in terms of welfare provision. Social programmes seem to have
disappeared from the agenda and, by default, have slipped into the hands
of gangster NGOs; and urban space has been more severely fragmented and
securitized in different ways in neighbourhoods occupied by the up-town
haves, and the down-town have-nots.

In our panel discussion, Jamaican scholars and scholars of Jamaica seek
to address the following questions: how far does this war reflect the
outcome of three decades of neo-liberal policy or does it represent a
break in the historical alliance between politics and criminality in
Jamaican society? How has the intersection between poverty and violence
been shaped by the social geography of the city of the Kingston? To what
extent does the state's move against criminal elements represent a
turning point in Jamaica's political history? What are the mechanisms
for conceptualizing an alternative future for Jamaica?

Speakers and Panellists:

Impoverishment, violence and the post neo-liberal state.
Dr Patricia Daley, SoGE, University of Oxford

Politics, gang violence and drugs: the development of ghetto / garrison
communities in Kingston, Jamaica.
Prof. Colin Clarke, SoGE, University of Oxford.

Failure to transform, human rights issues since independence.
Seshauna Wheatle, Faculty of Law, University of Oxford.

Trust: currency of redemption and exploitation: the crisis of legitimate
authority in Jamaica.
Nadyia Figueroa, ODID, University of Oxford.

After God, Dudus comes next: affective bonds and charismatic leadership
in alternative governance.
Dr Rivke Jaffe, Leiden University.

In pursuit of transformation, state and community reform: the way
forward.
Yonique Campbell, SoGE, University of Oxford.

Online details can be found at
http://www.geog.ox.ac.uk/news/events/100610.html

For more information on this event please contact
[log in to unmask]


___________
David Howard

University Lecturer in Sustainable Urban Development, University of
Oxford

Fellow, Kellogg College, Oxford

Continuing Professional Development Centre,
University of Oxford, Littlegate House, OX1 1PT
Email: [log in to unmask] 
Tel: +44 1865 286 973