Overview

Speaking Truths to Power: Policy Ethnography and Police Reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina presents a rigorous analysis of the effects of globalisation on local policing, drawing on data generated from two ethnographic case studies conduscted in 2011 in Bosnia and Herzegovina. By examining structures, mentalities, and practices, it situates the phenomenon of 'glocal policing' in relation to the convergence of development and security discourses, and raises important questions about the purpose and value of criminological engagements with transnational policing fields. The idea of 'speaking truths to power' (as opposed to a single 'truth') is illustrated by the author's fieldwork, covering active police capacity building projects implemented by international development agencies. Both studies illustrate that global power inequalities affect police reform projects, but also that nodal opportunities exist for seemingly disempowered stakeholders, specifically international development workers and rank-and-file police officers to mediate their effects. This mediatory role is analysed through the conceptual lens of 'policy translation', providing an innovative framework for interpreting how policy meaning and content are altered as a result of their transmission between contexts. Through detailed and persuasive investigation, Speaking Truths to Power argues that it is time for criminologists to look beyond the established structural critiques of transnational policing power in order to ensure that this growing body of research reflects the diverse interests, experiences, and understandings of the agents and institutions who collectively populate these fields of policy and practice. Conceptually sophisticated and thematically ambitious, the book will be of interest to scholars in the fields of criminology, sociaology, international relations and socio-legal studies as well as those who are researching and studying transnational policing, police reform, and the global governance of crime.

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9780198723295

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Reviews

With this important book on police reform efforts in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Jarrett Blaustein demonstrates the importance of a glocal perspective that acknowledges local agency and the relational and competing discourses and policies forwarded by donors and recipients. Blaustein wisely discusses how reflective ethnographic research, engagement, and collaboration have the capacity to improve the political dialogue so that local empowerment and democratically responsive policing practices can be more effectively promoted, created, and sustained. This book is a must-read for scholars studying and researching transnational policing, police reform, and global governance. Nathan W. Pino, Professor of Sociology, Texas State University

With this important book on police reform efforts in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Jarrett Blaustein demonstrates the importance of a glocal perspective that acknowledges local agency and the relational and competing discourses and policies forwarded by donors and recipients. Blaustein wisely discusses how reflective ethnographic research, engagement, and collaboration have the capacity to improve the political dialogue so that local empowerment and democratically responsive policing practices can be more effectively promoted, created, and sustained. This book is a must-read for scholars studying and researching transnational policing, police reform, and global governance. Nathan W. Pino, Professor of Sociology, Texas State University A really excellent book that should be of interest to all scholars engaged in debates about globalisation and policing, democratisation in post-conflict societies, and cross-national policy transfer. A rare example oftransnational 'policy ethnography', it provides a number of significant theoretical insights based on very detailedempirical research. Carefully argued, conceptually sophisticated and empirically rigorous, Blaustein has provided a compelling analysis of the interaction local and global influences in the development of policing and community safety initiatives in post-conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina. He charts a middle way between the overwhelmingly negative assessments of international policing interventions by radical scholars on the one hand,and the naive universalism of neo-liberal reform models on the other. In doing so, he sets out the way forward for more realistic and just pathways to reform. Prof. Trevor Jones, University of Cardiff

`His research brings together northern and southern understandings through dialogue, practice, reflexion and theory to facilitate glocal meaningful conversations. The book will appeal to a wide international readership, as well as a cross-disciplinary array of scholars and students in anthropology, law, social-legal studies, policing, sociology, policy international relations, human rights and of course criminology. That it was based on orginial research undertaken for a PhD is evident in the denseness of prose reflected in some of the more theoretical passages of the book. This should not, however, deter would-be readers from the justice and human rights professions. On the contrary, Speaking Truths to Power is essential reading for all those involved in policy transfer from the centre to the peripheral worlds of post-conflict and mass-violence.' Kerry Carrington, Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology

This study provides a sophisticated, meticulous analysis of an oft-neglected aspect of liberal state building: the role of individual agency in adopting and adjusting foreign security models. It is a careful and nuanced contribution to the policy transfer debate, skilfully integrating concepts from different academic disciplines into one coherent argument. It is written with a clear purpose in mind and remarkable insight into the tensions and challenges local actors in BosniaHerzegovina face when trying to improve public safety and policing. Dorian Schaap, Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice With this important book on police reform efforts in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Jarrett Blaustein demonstrates the importance of a glocal perspective that acknowledges local agency and the relational and competing discourses and policies forwarded by donors and recipients. Blaustein wisely discusses how reflective ethnographic research, engagement, and collaboration have the capacity to improve the political dialogue so that local empowerment and democratically responsive policing practices can be more effectively promoted, created, and sustained. This book is a must-read for scholars studying and researching transnational policing, police reform, and global governance. Nathan W. Pino, Professor of Sociology, Texas State University A really excellent book that should be of interest to all scholars engaged in debates about globalisation and policing, democratisation in post-conflict societies, and cross-national policy transfer. A rare example oftransnational 'policy ethnography', it provides a number of significant theoretical insights based on very detailedempirical research. Carefully argued, conceptually sophisticated and empirically rigorous, Blaustein has provided a compelling analysis of the interaction local and global influences in the development of policing and community safety initiatives in post-conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina. He charts a middle way between the overwhelmingly negative assessments of international policing interventions by radical scholars on the one hand,and the naive universalism of neo-liberal reform models on the other. In doing so, he sets out the way forward for more realistic and just pathways to reform. Prof. Trevor Jones, University of Cardiff

Author Information

Dr Jarrett Blaustein is a Lecturer in the School of Social Sciences, at Monash University. He holds a PhD in criminology from the University of Edinburgh. His research interests include comparative and transnational aspects of criminology and policing and he has spent the past few years researching the normative and sociological aspects of police capacity building projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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