La Force de l'ordre

Often, in recent years, the suburbs of the western metropolis has been the scene of clashes between police and residents, mostly young people of foreign origin. In 2005 it was the turn of the major French cities.

Didier Fassin, with an ethnography dedicated to a "special" body of police of the urban Paris area​​, gives us an illuminating account of the phenomenon. He describes its daily life consisting of inactivity and boredom, but also shows the constant recurrence of humiliations, violences and discriminations against ethnic minorities and immigrants. The analysis reveals how, in a context of growing inequalities and racial tensions, the State tends to act to strengthen the existing social order rather than to defend the public order.

Anthropologist and sociologist, Dider Fassin is professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. He is interested in political and moral issues in contemporary society, helping to animate the international scientific debate around the issues of health, humanitarianism, immigration and social inequality.

 

 

Author
Didier Fassin
Year of Publication
2013
Translations
Translated in:
Italian
From:
La Linea (2013)
With the title:
La Forza dell'ordine
Editori associati (tassonomia)