Work

Making sense of clandestine graves: Material epistemology and the political geography of uncertain knowledge

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: How might we begin to establish meaning, understanding and justice out of something that is meant not to be found? In this article, we approach the growing problem of clandestine graves to ask what can be read from them, including why they matter, why they are found, and how they are becoming an intractable part of life for millions of citizens. Departing from the clandestine graves of São Paulo and Mexico, we argue that these material spaces are produced by ambiguous governance structures, and in turn reproduce them in ways that are unevenly knowable. The characteristics of these spaces that are otherwise shrouded in suspicion and deliberate efforts to make them unknowable reveal patterns and practices of political order while simultaneously creating certainty and fear about the governance they perpetuate. In taking the mass grave as an epistemology, we seek to establish identifiable tenents and patterns for further research and action while recognizing the challenges in asserting a knowledge claim about material spaces that are so intentionally, but unevenly, unknowable.

Source: Political Geography

DOI: 10.1016/j.polgeo.2024.103223

Authors: Graham Denyer Willis, Angélica Durán-Martínez

Institutions: University of Cambridge, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Language: English

Topic: Memory, violence, and history

Subfield: Social Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Peace, justice, and strong institutions

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,040