As policing has recently become a major topic of public debate, it is also a growing area of ethnographic research. Writing the World of Policing brings together an international roster of scholars who have conducted fieldwork studies of law enforcement in disadvantaged urban neighborhoods on five continents. How, they ask, can ethnography illuminate the work and role of the police in society? Are there important aspects of policing that are not captured through its usual approach through interviews and statistics? And how does the study of law enforcement enlighten the practice of ethnography in general? Can such inquiry into policing enrich our understanding of the epistemological and ethical challenges of this method? Beyond these questions of crucial interest for both criminology and the social sciences, Writing the World of Policing provides a timely discussion of one of the most problematic institutions in contemporary societies.

About the Author
Didier Fassin is the James D. Wolfensohn Professor of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and Director of Studies at theecole des Hautesetudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris.


Book Information
ISBN 9780226497648
Author Didier Fassin
Format Paperback
Page Count 320
Imprint University of Chicago Press
Publisher The University of Chicago Press
Weight(grams) 425g
Dimensions(mm) 23mm * 16mm * 2mm