Communal Intimacy and the Violence of Politics
Understanding the War on Drugs in Bagong Silang, Philippines

Steffen Bo Jensen (Author), Karl Hapal (Author), Vicente L. Rafael (Foreword by)

9781501762765

Hardback, published 15 May 2022

216 pages, 11 b&w halftones, 4 maps - 4 Maps - 11 Halftones, black and white
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm, 0.907 kg

Communal Intimacy and the Violence of Politics explores the notoriously brutal Philippine war on drugs from below. Steffen Bo Jensen and Karl Hapal examine how the war on drugs folded itself into communal and intimate spheres in one Manila neighborhood, Bagong Silang. Police killings have been regular occurrences since the birth of Bagong Silang. Communal Intimacy and the Violence of Politics shows that although the drug war was introduced from the outside, it fit into and perpetuated already existing gendered and generational structures. In Bagong Silang, the war on drugs implicated local structures of authority, including a justice system that had always been deeply integrated into communal relations. The ways in which the war on drugs transformed these intimate relations between the state and its citizens, and between neighbors, may turn out to be the most lasting impact of Duterte's infamously violent policies.

1. Communal Intimacy and the Violence of Politics in Manila
2. Intimacy, Policing, and Violent Politics in Bagong Silang
3. Police Violence and Corruption in the War on Drugsand Before
4. The Violent Production of Urban Divides
5. Community Activism: From New Birth to the War on Drugs
6. Fraternity Denied
7. The War on Drugs and Beyond: Leaving Bagong Silang