Description
The paper argues that silence needs to be conceptualised through what I call a global ‘economy of not listening’. This means that the communicative function of silence is predicated on ways of (not) listening that are linked to global relations of power. I conceptualise silence through a continuum that is not binary to speech but functions with text through layers of redactions, lack of reactions, absences, delays and omissions. For silence to be noted and gain a communicative role, the assumptions and expectations of speech by the listeners are crucial. Based on the case study of drone warfare and similar counterinsurgency practices by the Global North, the paper shows how the political work of silence is embedded within a field of expectations stemming from colonial relations of not listening that have been underlying violent counterinsurgency practices for more than a century.
