«Ulls per on la policia no hi veu». (Or, Imagining the «enemy»)

Punishment, exclusion, and new regimes of visibility from online vigilantism in Barcelona

Abstract

In this article I approach securitarian activism in Ciutat Vella in Barcelona through an online neighbourhood watch group. My research focuses on showing continuities and discontinuities between online vigilantism and classic forms of vigilantism (off-line), and how the former is effectively reproduced through particularities of digital space. These new online forms have also made it possible, in the ethnographic context where the research is placed, to convey pre-existing forms of: social exclusion and distinction; reaffirmation of a supposed moral superiority and strategies for preserving a moral order; and of social control and punishment. Furthermore, in the digital setting of the activities the disciplinary and punitive dimensions of vigilantism are executed through a concrete expression of the visual -or the visible- and the use of images, and at a time when a new visibility regime is being established. Sections one and two contextualize the case study; expose some methodological particularities of online ethnography; and problematize the concept vigilantism and argue why I frame the study in it. In section three, I delve into the specific case by presenting some data collected. In section four I turn to the work of Foucault to mark the two main dimensions of my analysis –the enunciable and the visible-. In parts five and six, I develop the central part of the analysis of ethnographic data; and part seven is the conclusion to the article.

KEY WORDS: online vigilantism; social control; visuality; punishment; security; civism; Barcelona.