“We protect you from yourselves. The Politics of Policing” is an attempt to understand the police character of the social order and to find out what is at stake in today’s political situation. The starting point of all contributions is to challenge our conception of the police, not taking its existence and rationality for granted.
While the relationship between police and order remains an integral part of modern democratic politics, the controversial role of the police remains unresolved. What prevents us from even thinking of a society emancipated from the police with its inherent violence and repression?
The role of the police, in both democratic and authoritarian state policies, has shown that the police force is never just about protecting our lives and avoiding dangers. It enters the public sphere. Sometimes with the sole intention of cleaning up the streets. The scope of police power is only expanding, due to new technologies, practical means and the fact that it intervenes in new ways in the private sphere.
Authors: Felix Trautmann, Democracia, Luis Navarro, Alf Lüdtke, Kendra Briken, Didier Fassin, Vanessa E. Thompson, Francesca Raimondi, Fabien Jobard, Daniel Loick, Anja Lemke, Daniel Villegas.