State of Fear: Policing a Postcolonial City (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781478026525)

In State of Fear, Joshua Barker reckons with how fear and violence are produced and reproduced through everyday practices of rule and control. Examining the ethnographic and historical genealogies of Indonesian policing, Barker focuses on the city of Bandung, which is permeated by anxieties about security, in spite of the fact that it's a relatively safe city according to the data. Drawing from his fieldwork there during the latter years of the authoritarian New Order regime, Barker traces the complex relationship between the state and vigilante groups like neighborhood watch patrols and street gangs. Through interviews with police officers, vigilantes, and street-level toughs, he uncovers a struggle between two visions of social control that continues to animate policing in Indonesia: the modern, bureaucratic approach favored by the state, and a territorial approach that divides the city into fiefdoms overseen by charismatic individuals of authority. Synthesizing insights from in-depth ethnographic, historical, and theoretical work, Barker reveals how authoritarianism can take root not just from the top down but also from the bottom up.

Author: Joshua Barker
ISBN-10: 1478026529
ISBN-13: 9781478026525
Publisher: Duke University Press
Language: English
Published: 09/06/2024
Pages: 328
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.42lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.88d