The ambivalent state : police-criminal collusion at the urban margins /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:Auyero, Javier, author.
Imprint:New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2019]
Description:xi, 226 pages : 22 cm.
Language:English
Series:Global and comparative ethnography
Global and comparative ethnography.
Subject:
Format: Print Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/11969405
Hidden Bibliographic Details
Other authors / contributors:Sobering, Katherine, author.
ISBN:9780190915537
0190915536
9780190915544
0190915544
9780190915575
9780190915568
9780190915551
Notes:Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary:"Over the last few decades, debates about policing in poor urban areas have shifted analysing the state's neglect and abandonment to documenting its harsh interventions and punishing presence. Most of this research has focused on the overt actions and inactions. Yet we know very little about the covert world of state action that is hidden from public view. The Ambivalent State offers an unprecedented look into the clandestine relationships between cops and drug dealers in Argentina. Drawing on a unique combination of ethnographic research and documentary evidence, including hundreds of pages of wiretapped phone conversations, sociologists Javier Auyero and Katherine Sobering analyse the inner-workings of "police-criminal collusion" and its connections to drug markets and the depacification of daily life. Through rich descriptions of the actual clandestine interactions between drug dealers and police, they argue that an up-close examination of covert state action exposes the workings of an "ambivalent state": one that enforces the rule of law while at the same time and in the same place functions as a partner to what it defines as criminal behaviour. The Ambivalent State develops a political sociology of violence that focuses not only on takes place in police stations, criminal courts, and poor neighbourhoods, but also the clandestine actions and interactions of police agents, judges, and politicians that structure daily life at the urban margins. By way of empirical demonstration, the book makes an urgent call for scholars to incorporate clandestine action into explanations of the state. Collusion, policing, the state, crime, violence, urban marginality, legal cynicism, Argentina, ethnography"--
Description
Summary:Over the last few decades, debates about policing in poor urban areas have turned from analyzing the state's neglect and abandonment into documenting its harsh interventions and punishing presence. Yet, we know very little about the covert world of state action that is hidden from public view. In The Ambivalent State, Javier Auyero and Katherine Sobering offer an unprecedented look into the clandestine relationships between police agents and drug dealers in Argentina. Drawing on a unique combination of ethnographic fieldwork and documentary evidence, including hundreds of pages of wiretapped phone conversations, they analyze the inner-workings of police-criminal collusion, its connections to drug markets, and how it promotes cynicism and powerlessness in daily life. They argue that an up-close examination of covert state action exposes the workings of an ambivalent state: one that both enforces the rule of law and functions as a partner in criminal behavior. The Ambivalent State develops a political sociology of violence that focuses not only on what takes place in police stations, courts, and poor neighborhoods, but also the clandestine actions and interactions of police, judges, and politicians that structure daily life at the urban margins.
Physical Description:xi, 226 pages : 22 cm.
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:9780190915537
0190915536
9780190915544
0190915544
9780190915575
9780190915568
9780190915551