Aspirational and Strategic

Abstract

The act of “running a case,” shifted how women perceived both the law and themselves. Chapter 9 details transformations in legal consciousness, mapping the rise of a dual and seemingly contradictory subjectivity. First, by “running a case” women started aspiring to the life the law promised, a life free of violence where they could exercise a modicum of control over their bodies and material possessions. Second, they began thinking of the law as a strategic field they could engage and manipulate. This “aspirational-strategic” subjectivity arose through their routine encounters with brokers and law enforcement personnel and departed significantly from their initial commitments for family life and fear of the state.