Insecure Guardians

Enforcement, Encounters and Everyday Policing in Postcolonial Karachi

Insecure Guardians
Zoha Waseem
RRP:
NZ$ 129.99
Our Price:
NZ$ 116.99
Hardback
h216 x 138mm - 328pg
1 Sep 2022 UK
International import eta 10-19 days
9781787386884
Out Of Stock
Currently no stock in-store, stock is sourced to your order
The police force is one of the most distrusted institutions in Pakistan, notorious for its corruption and brutality. In both colonial and postcolonial contexts, directives to confront security threats have empowered law enforcement agents, while the lack of adequate reform has upheld institutional weaknesses. This exploration of policing in Karachi, Pakistan' s largest city and financial capital, reveals many colonial continuities. Both civilian and military regimes continue to ensure the suppression of the policed via this institution, itself established to militarily subjugate and exploit in the interests of the ruling class. However, contemporary policing practice is not a simple product of its colonial heritage: it has also evolved to confront new challenges and political realities. Based on extensive fieldwork and around 200 interviews, this ethnographic study reveals a distinctly ' postcolonial condition of policing' . Mutually reinforcing phenomena of militarisation and informality have been exacerbated by an insecure state that routinely conflates combatting crime, maintaining public order and ensuring national security. This is evident not only in spectacular displays of violence and malpractice, but also in police officers' routine work. Caught in the middle of the country' s armed conflicts, their encounters with both state and society are a story of insecurity and uncertainty.
' "Insecure Guardians" is an original and timely contribution to policy and critical security studies. Waseem writes cogently and compellingly, building on deep ethnographic analyses of policing in the Global South. A very exciting work. ' -- Beatrice Jauregui, Associate Professor, Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies, University of Toronto, and co-editor of ' The SAGE Handbook of Global Policing' ' A major contribution to the fast-expanding literature on the pluralisation of policing. Brimming with ethnographic insights and theoretical sophistication, "Insecure Guardians" takes the sociology of policing to new heights. A remarkable work. ' -- Laurent Gayer, Senior Researcher, Sciences Po, and author of ' Karachi: Ordered Disorder and the Struggle for the City' ' Waseem' s supreme book is a much-needed study of police violence and police culture in postcolonial Pakistan, contributing to the growing ethnographic literature on policing from outside of the OECD world, and laying the groundwork for the decolonisation of policing studies and criminology. ' -- Lars Ostermeier, Managing Director of the Berlin Graduate School of Muslim Cultures and Societies, Freie Universtitat Berlin, and co-editor of ' Police and Society: Transdisciplinary Perspectives on the Methods, Theory and Empiricism of Reflective Police Research'
Zoha Waseem is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick. Previously, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Global City Policing, University College London; a teaching fellow at SOAS University of London; and a doctoral researcher at King' s College London.
Status: No local stock, title imported to order
ISBN-13: 9781787386884
Published: 1 Sep 2022
Published In: United Kingdom
Imprint: C Hurst & Co Publishers
Publisher: C Hurst & Co Publishers
Format: Hardback
Height: 216mm
Width: 138mm
Pages: 328

In stock - for items in stock we aim to dispatch the next business day. For delivery in NZ allow 2-5 business days, with rural taking a wee bit longer.

Locally sourced in NZ - stock comes from a NZ supplier with an approximate delivery of 7-15 business days.

International Imports - stock is imported into NZ, depending on air or sea shipping option from the international supplier stock can take 10-30 working days to arrive into NZ. 

Pre-order Titles - delivery will vary depending on where the title is published, if local stock is available in NZ then 5-7 business days, for international imports it can be 10-30 business days. In all cases we will access the quickest supply option.

Delivery Packaging - we ship all items in cardboard sleeves or by box with either packing paper or corn starch chips. (We avoid using plastics bubble bags)

Tracking - Orders are delivered by track and trace courier and are fully insured, tracking information will be sent by email once dispatched.

View our full Order & Delivery information