
Policing the Frontier
An Ethnography of Two Worlds in Niger
Mirco Goepfert(Author)
Cornell University Press
Published on 15. March 2020
Book
Paperback/Softback
192 pages
978-1-5017-4722-9 (ISBN)
Description
In Policing the Frontier, the second book in the Police/Worlds series Mirco Goepfert explores what it means to be a gendarme investigating cases, writing reports, and settling disputes in rural Niger. At the same time, he looks at the larger bureaucracy and the irresolvable tension between bureaucratic structures and procedures and peoples' lives. The world of facts and files exists on one side, and the chaotic and messy human world exists on the other.
Throughout Policing the Frontier, Goepfert contends that bureaucracy and police work emerge in a sphere of constant and ambivalent connection and separation. Goepfert's frontier in Niger (and beyond) is seen through ideas of space, condition, and project, packed with constraints and possibilities, riddled with ambiguities, and brutally destructive yet profoundly empowering. As he demonstrates, the tragedy of the frontier becomes as palpable as the true impossibility of police work and bureaucracy.
Throughout Policing the Frontier, Goepfert contends that bureaucracy and police work emerge in a sphere of constant and ambivalent connection and separation. Goepfert's frontier in Niger (and beyond) is seen through ideas of space, condition, and project, packed with constraints and possibilities, riddled with ambiguities, and brutally destructive yet profoundly empowering. As he demonstrates, the tragedy of the frontier becomes as palpable as the true impossibility of police work and bureaucracy.
Reviews / Votes
Goepfert... has produced an insightful work investigating policing in Niger, where the relationship between the state and its citizens is often tenuous.(Choice)
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Ithaca
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
1 map - 1 Maps
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 14 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5017-4722-9 (9781501747229)
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
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
03/2020
Cornell University Press
€22.49
Available for download
Person
Mirco Goepfert is Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at Goethe University, Frankfurt. He has published numerous articles and is co-editor of Police in Africa. Follow him on X @mirco_goepfert.
Content
1. A Handful of Gendarmes, Two Worlds, and the Frontier Between
2. A History of the Gendarmerie in Niger
3. A Story of a Murder, No Traces, and Nothing to Report
4. The Ear: Listening to Noise, Hearing Cases
5. The Eye: Surveillance and the Problem of "Seeing Things"
6. The Pen: Report Writing and Bureaucratic Aesthetics
7. Drama Work
8. Repair Work
9. Tragic Work
Postscript: On the Significance of the Frontier
2. A History of the Gendarmerie in Niger
3. A Story of a Murder, No Traces, and Nothing to Report
4. The Ear: Listening to Noise, Hearing Cases
5. The Eye: Surveillance and the Problem of "Seeing Things"
6. The Pen: Report Writing and Bureaucratic Aesthetics
7. Drama Work
8. Repair Work
9. Tragic Work
Postscript: On the Significance of the Frontier