Policing the Frontier

Mirco Gopfert

Description

In Policing the Frontier, the second book in the Police/Worlds series Mirco Gopfert 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, Gopfert contends that bureaucracy and police work emerge in a sphere of constant and ambivalent connection and separation. Gopfert'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.

Sujets

• Histoire
• Níger
• Ethnic studies
• Niger

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 15 mars 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781501747236
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

POLICING THE FRONTIER

Avolumeintheseries Police/Worlds: Studies in Security, Crime, and Governance EditedbyKevinKarpiak,SameenaMulla,WilliamGarriott,andIlanaFeldman

Alistoftitlesinthisseriesisavailableat cornellpress.cornell.edu

POLICINGTHE FRONTIER AnEthnographyofTwo Worlds in Niger

CORNELLUNIVERSITYPRESS

MircoGöpfert

ITHACA AND LONDON

Copyright © 2020 by Cornell University

Allrightsreserved.Exceptforbriefquotationsinareview,thisbook,orparts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. Visit our website at cornellpress.cornell.edu.

First published 2020 by Cornell University Press

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data Names: Göpfert, Mirco, 1984– author. Title:Policingthefrontier:anethnographyoftwoworldsinNiger/ Mirco Göpfert. Description:Ithaca:CornellUniversityPress,2020.|Series: Police/worlds : studies in security, crime, and governance | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2019026056 (print) | LCCN 2019026057 (ebook) |  ISBN9781501747212 (cloth) | ISBN 9781501747229 (paperback) |  ISBN9781501747236 (pdf) | ISBN 9781501747243 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Police, Rural—Niger. | Ethnology—Niger. | Niger—Rural conditions. Classification:LCCHV8276.7.A2G662020(print)|LCCHV8276.7.A2(ebook) |  DDC 363.2/3096626091734—dc23 LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2019026056 LCebookrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2019026057

To Julia

Contents

IPar t

Par t II

Acknowledgments

INTRODUCTION 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

PRODUCING FORM, OR BUREAUCRATIC SENSES 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

Par t IIIPOLICING LIFE, OR BUREAUCRATIC DRAMA 7.  Drama Work 8.  Repair Work 9.  Tragic Work Postscript:OntheSignificanceoftheFrontier

Notes Bibliography Index

ix

3 19 41

49 61 76

93 109 125 139

145 153 171

Acknowledgments

Whatabeautifulmemory,thinkingofallthosefriendsandcolleagueswho helped me in one way or the other over the past ten years that eventually led to this book. What a terrible job, impossible task, trying to thank them all. I will mention just two by name.

CarolaLentz,myteacher. JanBeek,myfriendand“sergeant.”

Therest,Ithinkyouknowwhoyouareandhowmuchyoumeantome.Thankyou. ThenthereareallthegendarmeswhomIhavegivennamesthatarenottheirs and whom I have placed into a town that does not exist. I cannot mention your names but you too know who you are. I am immensely grateful to you and still humbled by the trust you put in me. IamalsogratefultoJimLance,KevinKarpiak,SameenaMulla,WilliamGar riott, Ilana Feldman, and two anonymous referees. You not only made this book real, you also helped me improve it. Lisa Schrimpf and Pauline Bugler were enor mously helpful in preparing the manuscript on its final stages. TheresearchthatledtothisbookwassupportedbytheGermanAcademic Scholarship Foundation (StudienstiftunganRGermrcheseahte),onunFotida (DFG), the Volkswagen Foundation, the Centre de recherches Sociologiques sur le Droit et les Institutions Pénales (Cesdip), the Institute for Advanced Study Konstanz and, importantly, the Laboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherche sur les Dynamiques Sociales et le Développement Local (Lasdel) in Niamey. Partsofchapter5were previously published in 2016 as “Surveillance in Niger: Gendarmes and the Problem of ‘Seeing Things,’”African Studies Review59 (2): 39–57. Parts of chapter 6were previously published in 2013 as “Bureaucratic Aesthetics: Report Writing in the Nigerien Gendarmerie,”American Ethnologist 40 (2): 324–34. Parts of chapter 8were previously published in 2016 as “Repair ing the Law: The Search for Justice in the Nigerien Gendarmerie,”Theoretical Criminology20 (4): 446–61.

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