Filming and Adjudicating Policing: A Genealogy of the Fabrication of Proof in Contemporary France

Over the summer I will be investigating how videos of policing made by law enforcement and ordinary people are being introduced into French judicial proceedings. Through fieldwork in Paris and surrounding banlieues, I will be seeking to better understand: 1) How video recordings of policing may be affecting what counts as a legitimate claim for people who are differently positioned in relation to law enforcement, and accordingly; 2) How mobile recording technologies, and the practices connected to them, may be affecting the possibility of certain populations to have their claims adjudicated or accorded legal status. This dissertation project is concerned with a fundamental global challenge: how do people and institutions make cultural assumptions about what is true and just.