The Politics of loitering in millennial Britain: Tiqqun’s ‘Rapport à la S.A.S.C...’
New Formations - ISSN 0950-2378
Volume 2018 Number 95
The Politics of loitering in millennial Britain: Tiqqun’s ‘Rapport à la S.A.S.C...’
Anne Mulhall pages -
DOI: 10.3898/NEWF:95.07.2018
Abstract
This article focuses on a piece written by Tiqqun, the French philosophical collective, in 2001. ‘Rapport à la S.A.S.C. concernant un dispositif impérial’, published in their second journal Tiqqun 2, is a psychogeographical ‘report’ submitted to the Society for the Advancement of Criminal Science, a fake authority invented by the authors. The report surveys the rise, through the late nineties and early two-thousands, of a particular kind of suburban mega-mall, as epitomised by the newly-opened ‘Bluewater’ shopping centre in Kent. Tiqqun characterise this emerging mall culture as presenting a new type of ‘apparatus,’ [dispositif], one they claim will produce a particular kind of consumerist subjectivity. Focusing on an incident that Tiqqun describe, my article takes a genealogical approach to reading the implications of what unfolds, homing in on three strands of enquiry. I analyse the figure of the loiterer in millennial Britain, using the concept of ‘spatial justice’ and the more recent but related idea of ‘spatio-legality’ and I consider the relationship between gender, surveillance and consumption in contemporary shopping malls. Drawing on Derrida’s work on ‘hospitality’, I try to uncover the contradictions in the way Bluewater welcomes and treats its ‘invited guests’, as it describes customers in its glossy brochure. Tying these enquiries together, I argue that Tiqqun’s article functions as a kind of ‘non-standard’ manifesto, one designed to force readers to recognise the highly constructed and regulated nature of the contemporary consumerist experience.
SORRY - you are not registered as being permitted online access to the full text of this article
You have the following options:
- If you are viewing this via an institution or academic library you can ask that your institution takes out a Subscription to this journal.
- If you already have a Personal Subscription please login below
Forgotten your username / password? Click here to locate
- Purchase an annual Personal Subscription
PRINT + DIGITAL personal subscription (£45 / year)
DIGITAL personal subscription (£30 / year)
A Personal Subscription provides immediate access not only to the single article you are seeking, but also to all past and future articles in this journal up to the expiry of your annual (calendar year) subscription. - Purchase immediate access to this single article (UK£7.00) - Buy article Coming Soon
To cite this article
Anne Mulhall (2018) The Politics of loitering in millennial Britain: Tiqqun’s ‘Rapport à la S.A.S.C...’, New Formations, 2018(95), -. https://doi.org/10.3898/NEWF:95.07.2018