Exploring Complicity: Concept, Cases and Critique

by Michael Neu (Editor), Robin Dunford (Editor), Afxentis Afxentiou Graduate Student in Political Philosophy, University of Brighton (Editor)

Overview

This book explores the concept of and cases of complicity in an interdisciplinary context. It in part covers cases of direct complicity, where an agent or set of agents facilitates an identifiable act of wrongdoing. The book also draws attention to the manner in which agents become complicit in the reproduction of wider practices of wrongdoing. It goes on to explore the notion of complicity through a series of cases emerging from a variety of academic disciplines and professional practice, including the complicity of politicians, medical practitioners, and the wider public in forms of state violence, protest movements and secret‐keeping.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781786600622
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	12/15/2016
Pages:	242
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Afxentis Afxentiou is a graduate student specialising in critical political thought at the University of Brighton.

Robin Dunford is a senior lecturer in globalisation and war at the University of Brighton.

Michael Neu is a senior lecturer in philosophy, politics and ethics at the University of Brighton.

Table of Contents

1. Introducing Complicity, Afxentis Afxentiou, Robin Dunford and Michael Neu / Part I: Concepts / 2. Complicity and Responsibility, Thomas Docherty / 3. What is Complicity, and Who is Complicit in Democratic Societies?, Paul Reynolds / 4. 'Washed in the Blood': Unclean Hands and the Question of Complicity, Marika Rose / 5. Complicity: What is it, and how can it be avoided?, Pam Laidman / Part II: Cases / 6. Loyalty or Complicity?: The Moral Assessment of Silence in Jackie Kay's Trumpet, Cornelia Wächter / 7. Navigating Complicity in Contemporary Feminist Discourse, Giuliana Monteverde/ 8. Shades of White Complicity, The End Conscription Campaign and the Politics of White Liberal Ignorance in South Africa, Daniel Conway / 9. Intellectual Complicity in Torture, Bob Brecher and Michael Neu / 10. How Complicity is Understood in the Findings of UK Public Inquiries into Wrongdoing: The Hidden Role of Methods, Owen Thomas / 11. Grey Areas and Self-Licking Lollipops: Iraq War Detention Operations, Impunity and Complicity, Peter Finn / 12. To Look, to Comply, to Be Complicit: 21st Century Conflict, Nicolette Barsdorf-Liebchen / Index

Editorial Reviews

Practices of complicity are as prevalent as they are under-theorised. This book seeks to redress this situation, and is highly recommended for its innovative and wide-ranging approach to the subject.

Scott Veitch

A philosophically rich volume that commands reflection on explicit forms and implicit reaffirmations of individual and structural complicity. Comprehensive and nuanced, it posits a masterful account of the complexities associated with understanding and assigning blame, suggesting that being complicit in wrongdoing often cannot be helped. Thus, it provides an important challenge to current thinking about complicity - sharpening the debate.

Garrett Wallace Brown

'Complicity in wrongdoing is complex, rife and too often overlooked. For all three reasons, a critical understanding of it is vital. This rich, engaging collection is just the place to start: shining searching light at diverse dimensions of a phenomenon the moral, political and cultural significance of which has arguably never been greater.'

Gideon Calder