Reflections on the Possibilities of Dark Sousveillance: Countering Anti-Black Surveillance through Black Abolitionist Feminist Epistemology and PAR

Background and purpose: Dark sousveillance, as conceptualized by Dr. Simone Browne, refers to the creation of modes and spaces of resistance through awareness and radical reimagination around the use of surveillance. It is a way to critique and counter hegemonic discourses and practices that fuel surveillance. Dark sousveillance indicates a flight from capture, strategies used in the flight to freedom. The current paper will begin to reflect on how Black Abolitionist Feminist Epistemology (BAFE) and Participatory Action Research praxis has influenced collaborative dark sousveillance work between myself and Stop LAPD Spying. This work begins to address the layers of racialized surveillance within the child welfare systems information-sharing environment, building off of several projects that have already been created by the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition.

Methods: In this paper I critically reflect upon how Stop LAPD Spying Coalition and I have engaged in a collaborative research process to interrogate the “child welfare” system in Los Angeles. To do this, I discuss how BAFE and PAR praxis intersect and influence our research design, research questions, data collection, data analysis, and dissemination. Additionally I discuss the various disruptions that occur between academia and community when completing the project, addressing how these barriers have been navigated. Lastly, I discuss how our collaborative work has created space through dark sousveillance to reimagine the archive and create tools for organizers and families who are impacted by the “child welfare system”.

Results: BAFE prioritizes collective knowledge of those with shared experiences, especially those who are impacted by the societal matrix of domination. Thus, working in partnership with the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition became a priority of the current study. By working with them for this research project, the tenants “ethics of care” and “accountability” of BAFE were both utilized and continuously reflected on.

Developing knowledge claims in partnership with the community allowed for spaces of dialogue, emotion, and empathy. Through this partnership and beyond, our research collaboration has included archival projects, collective Public Records Act Requests, and a general re-imagination of our systems of care that are not attached to policing and surveillance. Through dark sousveillance, the research partnership has allowed for a consideration of ideas from all individuals and a space for building community through shared lived experience. The research process included collaborative discussions around ideas for dissemination, discussions around navigating barriers through the Institutional Review Board, and various questions around research ethics. Furthermore, the research collaboration afforded us a space to create a tool that counters state surveillance, an organizing mechanism that can be used for families and abolitionist organizers.

Conclusions and Implications: This reflective piece on an ongoing research collaboration begins to chip away at an understanding of the role of partnerships between communities, grassroots organizations, and the university in enacting social change. It discusses the ways in which BAFE and PAR intersect to create new modes of creating research across space. In carving out spaces for dark sousveillance through collaboration, the current research project counters surveillance through community building and reimagination.