Overview

State police forces in Africa are a curiously neglected subject of study, even within the study of security issues and African states. This book brings together important new work on the subject from a group of criminologists, anthropologists, sociologists, historians, political scientists and others, who have engaged with police forces across the continent and the publics with whom they interact to provide street-level perspectives from below and inside Africa's police forces. The collection is in three parts; first it considers historical trajectories and particular configurations of police power within wider political systems, then examines the 'inside view' of police forces as state institutions -the challenges, preoccupations, professional ethics and self-perceptions of police officers, and finally looks at how African police officers go about their work, in terms of everyday practices and engagements with the public, and the meanings that are construed in the course of doing so. The studies span the continent from South Africa to Sierra Leone, and illustrate similarities and differences in Anglo- phone, Francophone and Lusophone states, post- socialist, post-military and post-conflict contexts, and amid both centralisation and devolution of policing powers, democratic transitions and new illiberal regimes; keeping a strong ethnographic focus on ordinary police officers and police work at their core.

Full Product Details

9781849045773

Table of Contents

Reviews

This excellent collection resituates ethnography at the heart of policing studies through detailed and rigorous case studies into the everyday practice and contradictions of policing. In doing so it offers fresh and important insights into how we understand social conflicts and the state in Africa. -- Alexander Beresford, Associate Professor in African Politics, University of Leeds, author of South Africa's Political Crisis: Unfinished liberation and fractured class struggles Combining historical, anthropological and political approaches to the police, this remarkable collection of case studies offers a crucial addition to the analysis of an institution regrettably understudied in Africa. A thorough and scrupulous inquiry into the ordinary work of law enforcement, it is a unique contribution to the comprehension of the repressive arm of the African state -- Didier Fassin, Visiting Professor, Princeton University, author of Enforcing Order: An Ethnography of Urban Policing A remarkable ethnography, countering the dominant narrative on the corruption of law enforcement in particular and of the state in general. Not only does the book shed light on state formation in Africa, but it can also help us to reflect on the crisis of the police institution in Western countries. -- Jean-Francois Bayart, Honorary Research Fellow, Sciences Po CERI, author of The State in Africa The book offers deep theoretical and historical engagements as well as innovative methodological approaches in order to advance our understanding of the literature on policing. It is a major contribution not only to policing studies in Africa, but also to the ways in which policing is thought about in the rest of the world. -- Luke Sinwell, senior researcher with the South African Research Chair, University of Johannesburg, co-author of Marikana: A View from the Mountain and a Case to Answer These excellent studies of different police forces across Africa are greatly advantageous to the overall study of policing. Police in Africa provides detailed, nuanced analysis. The relevance of their findings extend far beyond their given context, and expands our understanding concepts such as the role of the state and bureaucracy, in Africa. -- Julia Eckert, Professor of Political Anthropology at the University of Bern, co-editor of Anthropological Theory

Author Information

Jan Beek is a researcher at AFRASO, Frankfurt. Mirco Gpfert is a lecturer in social and cultural anthropology at the University of Konstanz. Olly Owen is research fellow at Oxford University's Department of International Development and Jonny Steinberg is Associate Professor in African Criminology at Oxford University.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available