Death and Security: Memory and Mortality at the Bombsite

210 Pages·2016·17.8 MB·English

by  Charlotte Heath-Kelly

DEATH AND SECURITY
New Approaches to Conflict Analysis

Series editors: Peter Lawler and Emmanuel-Pierre Guittet,
School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester
Until recently, the study of conflict and conflict resolution remained comparatively immune to broad
developments in social and political theory. When the changing nature and locus of large-s cale conflict
in the post- Cold War era is also taken into account, the case for a reconsideration of the fundamentals of
conflict analysis and conflict resolution becomes all the more stark.
New Approaches to Conflict Analysis promotes the development of new theoretical insights and their
application to concrete cases of large- scale conflict, broadly defined. The series intends not to ignore
established approaches to conflict analysis and conflict resolution, but to contribute to the reconstruction
of the field through a dialogue between orthodoxy and its contemporary critics. Equally, the series reflects
the contemporary porosity of intellectual borderlines rather than simply perpetuating rigid boundaries
around the study of conflict and peace. New Approaches to Conflict Analysis seeks to uphold the normative
commitment of the field’s founders yet also recognises that the moral impulse to research is properly part
of its subject matter. To these ends, the series is comprised of the highest quality work of scholars drawn
from throughout the international academic community, and from a wide range of disciplines within the
social sciences.
PUBLISHED
Christine Agius Richard Jackson
Neutrality, sovereignty and identity: the social Writing the war on terrorism: language,
construction of Swedish neutrality politics and counter- terrorism
Tim Aistrope Tami Amanda Jacoby and Brent
Conspiracy theory and American foreign Sasley (eds)
policy: American foreign policy and the politics Redefining security in the Middle East
of legitimacy
Matt Killingsworth, Matthew Sussex and
Eşref Aksu Jan Pakulski (eds)
The United Nations, intra- state peacekeeping Violence and the state
and normative change
Jan Koehler and Christoph Zürcher (eds)
M. Anne Brown Potentials of disorder
Human rights and the borders of suffering: the David Bruce MacDonald
promotion of human rights in international Balkan holocausts? Serbian and
politics Croatian victim- centred propaganda and the
war in Yugoslavia
Anthony Burke and Matt McDonald (eds)
Critical security in the Asia- Pacific Adrian Millar
Socio- ideological fantasy and the Northern
Ilan Danjoux
Ireland conflict: the other side
Political cartoons and the Israeli– Palestinian
conflict Jennifer Milliken
The social construction of the Korean War
Lorraine Elliott and Graeme
Cheeseman (eds) Ami Pedahzur
Forces for good: cosmopolitan militaries in the The Israeli response to Jewish extremism and
twenty- first century violence: defending democracy
Greg Fry and Tarcisius Kabutaulaka (eds) Maria Stern
Intervention and state- building in the Naming insecurity – constructing
Pacific: the legitimacy of ‘cooperative identity: ‘Mayan- women’ in Guatemala on the
intervention’ eve of ‘peace’
Naomi Head Virginia Tilley
Justifying violence: communicative ethics and The one state solution: a breakthrough for peace
the use of force in Kosovo in the Israeli– Palestinian deadlock
Death and security

Memory and mortality at the bombsite
CHARLOTTE HEATH- KELLY
Manchester University Press
Copyright © Charlotte Heath- Kelly 2017
The right of Charlotte Heath- Kelly to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted
by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Published by Manchester University Press
Altrincham Street, Manchester M1 7JA
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data applied for
ISBN 978 1 7849 9313 9 hardback
First published 2017
The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for any external or
third- party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content
on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
Typeset by Out of House Publishing
CONTENTS

List of figures—vi
Acknowledgements—viii
Introduction: death and security – the only two certainties—1
1 The problem of dying while resilient 22
2 Containing the spectacle: disaster management 36
3 Reflecting absence? Disaster recovery and the World Trade Center 57
4 Reclaiming place and self- harming architecture: Norwegian
experiences of death and security 93
5 Mutating disaster space: itinerant death at the Ground Zero Mosque
and Bali bombsite 122
6 Bombs without bombsites: memory and security without visibility 153
Conclusion: pathologising security through Lacanian desire—170
Bibliography—183
Index—198
v
FIGURES

3.1 Coventry War Memorial. Photo by Amanda Slater,
reproduced under CC- BY- SA 2.0. page 75
3.2 Reflecting Absence 02. Photo by Bosc d’Anjou, reproduced
under CC- BY 2.0. 76
3.3 Reflecting Absence, World Trade Center Memorial Plaza,
29 July 2014. Photo by Charlotte Heath- Kelly. 85
3.4 The Survivor Tree, World Trade Center Memorial Plaza,
29 July 2014. Photo by Charlotte Heath- Kelly. 86
3.5 The Slurry Wall, 29 July 2014. Photo by Charlotte Heath- Kelly. 90
4.1 Memorial to the Sinti and Roma of Europe murdered under the
National Socialist Regime, Berlin, 20 August 2013. Photo by
Charlotte Heath- Kelly. 98
4.2 Memorial to the Sinti and Roma of Europe murdered under the
National Socialist Regime, Berlin, 20 August 2013. Photo by
Charlotte Heath- Kelly. 99
4.3 The Oslo Government Quarter adorned in protective covering,
post- bombing, 13 August 2013. Photo by Charlotte Heath- Kelly. 105
4.4 The Oslo Government Quarter adorned in protective covering,
post- bombing, 13 August 2013. Photo by Charlotte Heath- Kelly. 105
4.5 Early promotional image of the New Utøya project, used with the
permission of Erlend Blakstad Haffner of Fantastic Norway. 108
4.6 Early promotional image of the New Utøya project, used with the
permission of Erlend Blakstad Haffner of Fantastic Norway. 109
4.7 The Love Trail Fence at Utøya Island, 13 August 2013. Photo by
Charlotte Heath- Kelly. 110
4.8 Høyblokka towering above Y- Block, 13 August 2013. Photo by
Charlotte Heath- Kelly. 113
4.9 Picasso’s The Fisherman in concrete, Y- Block, 13 August 2013.
Photo by Charlotte Heath- Kelly. 114
5.1 Park 51, 21 August 2010. Photo by Paul Stein, reproduced under
CC- BY- SA 2.0. 130
5.2 Interment of unidentified remains at the 9/ 11 Museum,
24 May 2014. Photo by John Hill, reproduced with written
permission of the photographer. 138
vi
Figures
5.3 The remains of a crushed fire engine at the 9/ 11 Museum,
29 July 2014. Photo by Charlotte Heath- Kelly. 138
6.1 7 July Memorial, Hyde Park. Photo by G Travels, reproduced
under CC- BY- NC 2.0. 155
6.2 ‘America’s Response: De Oppresso Liber’, 1 August 2014.
Photo by Charlotte Heath- Kelly. 162
vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Some parts of the Introduction and Chapter 1 have previously appeared in early
draft form as ‘The Foundational Masquerade: Security as Sociology of Death’, in
Masquerades of War, edited by Christine Sylvester (Abingdon: Routledge, 2015),
pp. 58– 76.
An alternative version of Chapter 4 has appeared as ‘Building a New
Utøya:  Re- Placing the Oslo Bombsite  – Counterfactual Resilience at Post-
Terrorist Sites’, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 39/ 4 (2016), pp. 308– 25.
Finally, the discussion of the Bali Peace Park Association’s activism in
part of Chapter 5 has previously appeared as ‘Securing through the Failure
to Secure: The Ambiguous Resilience of the Bombsite’, Security Dialogue 46/ 1
(2015), pp. 69–8 5. The author is grateful for permission to reproduce sections
of text in this monograph.
The author is also very grateful to the British Academy who provided the
funds for the project fieldwork: award number SG121055. The research would
not have been possible without this financial support. Also, I acknowledge the
invaluable support of the University of Warwick who provided a fellowship at the
Institute of Advanced Study, 2013–1 5, to enable the development of this pro-
ject. Finally, the Leverhulme Trust contributed to my ability to finish this book,
by awarding me an Early Career Fellowship that minimised my non- research
duties: ECF- 2015- 283. Thank you to all.
Finally, I would also like to acknowledge the steadfast dedication shown by
Bea Szabo and, of course, my two cats (Benny and Lily), during the completion
of this book. They have shown incredible patience and kindness. Thank you for
letting me moan about insurmountable chapters, massive lapses in coherence
and the general tedium of authorship that drags on, and on, and on. Thank you
for making me happy again. Unfortunately, I have promised to write another
book, so we will go through this all again soon!
viii