
Producing Stateness
Police Work in Ghana
Jan Beek(Author)
Brill (Publisher)
Published on 10. November 2016
Book
Paperback/Softback
246 pages
978-90-04-33217-1 (ISBN)
Description
Jan Beek's book explores everyday police work in an African country and analyses how police officers, despite prevailing stereotypes about failed states and African police, produce stateness. Drawing on highly readable ethnographic descriptions, the book shows that Ghanaian police practices often involve the exchange of money (bribes), the use of violence and the influence of politicians. However, such informal practices allow police officers to deal with the inconsistent necessities and the social context of their work. Ultimately, Ghanaian police officers are also inspired by a bureaucratic ethos and their practices are guided by it. Stateness, the book argues, is a quality of organizations, gradually emerging out of such everyday encounters. Producing Stateness allows a close look at the realities of police work in Africa and provides surprising insights into the rationalities of policing and state bureaucracies everywhere.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Leiden
Netherlands
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 233 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
369 gr
ISBN-13
978-90-04-33217-1 (9789004332171)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Jan Beek finished his Dr. phil. at Mainz University in 2014 and is a postdoctoral research fellow at the AFRASO research programme, Goethe University, Frankfurt. Based on extensive fieldwork in Ghana, India, Niger and Germany, he has published several articles on police work, state bureaucracies, cybercrime, transregional connections and collaborative research methods.
Content
Acknowledgments
List of Tables
Introduction
1 The History of Police Work: Travelling Models
2 The Internal Organisation of the Police: Movements and Moral Orders
3 Dockets, Police Community, and Politics: Bureaucratic Order in the Police
4 Money, Morals, and Law at Traffic Checks: Registers in Police Interactions
5 Patrolling Public Spaces: Relational Stateness
6 Criminal Investigations: Boundary Work and Boundary Shifting
7 Private Security, Vigilantes, and Neighbours: Relating to Other Policing Actors
8 Three Police Officers: Living Bureaucratically
Conclusion: Stateness as Aura
Bibliography
Index
List of Tables
Introduction
1 The History of Police Work: Travelling Models
2 The Internal Organisation of the Police: Movements and Moral Orders
3 Dockets, Police Community, and Politics: Bureaucratic Order in the Police
4 Money, Morals, and Law at Traffic Checks: Registers in Police Interactions
5 Patrolling Public Spaces: Relational Stateness
6 Criminal Investigations: Boundary Work and Boundary Shifting
7 Private Security, Vigilantes, and Neighbours: Relating to Other Policing Actors
8 Three Police Officers: Living Bureaucratically
Conclusion: Stateness as Aura
Bibliography
Index