Speaking Truths to Power: Policy Ethnography and Police Reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Clarendon Studies in Criminology) - Hardcover

Blaustein, Jarrett

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198723296 ISBN 13: 9780198723295

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2015

Synopsis

Speaking Truths to Power: Policy Ethnography and Police Reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina presents a rigorous institutional-level analysis of the effects of globalisation on local policing, drawing on data generated from two ethnographic case studies conducted in 2011 in the transitional, post-conflict society of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Through a study of the structures, mentalities and practices, it situates the phenomenon of 'glocal policing' in relation to the converging development and security discourses following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and raises important questions about the purpose and value of criminological engagement with transitional policing.

The idea of 'speaking truths to power' (as opposed to a single 'truth') is illustrated by the author's 2011 fieldwork, covering active police capacity building projects implemented by international organisations. Both studies indicate that global inequalities affect police reform projects, but also that nodal opportunities do exist for seemingly disempowered stakeholders, specifically international development workers and rank-and-file police officers, to exercise reflexivity and use their available power resources to mitigate structural harms, thus rendering their work responsive to the needs of policy recipients. This mediatory role is then analysed through the conceptual lens of 'policy translation', providing an innovative framework for interpreting how policy meaning and content are altered as a result of their transmission between contexts.

Through detailed and persuasive investigation, Speaking Truths to Power argues that it is time for criminology to move beyond the established broad structural critiques of transnational policing power. As the author demonstrates, an institutional perspective employing ethnographic methods can ensure that the revealed criticisms adequately reflect the diverse interests, experiences and understandings of the research participants.

About this title

About the Author:

Dr Jarrett Blaustein is a Lecturer in the Department of Law and Criminology at Aberystwyth University. He holds a PhD in criminology from the University of Edinburgh. His research interests include comparative and transnational aspects of criminology and policing and he has spent the past few years researching the normative and sociological aspects of police capacity building projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Review:

"His research brings together northern and southern understandings through dialogue, practice, reflexion and theory to facilitate glocal meaningful conversations. The book will appeal to a wide international readership, as well as a cross-disciplinary array of scholars and students in anthropology, law, social-legal studies, policing, sociology, policy international relations, human rights and of course criminology. That it was based on original research undertaken for a PhD is evident in the denseness of prose reflected in some of the more theoretical passages of the book. This should not, however, deter would-be readers from the justice and human rights professions. On the contrary, Speaking Truths to Power is essential reading for all those involved in policy transfer from the centre to the peripheral worlds of post-conflict and mass-violence." - Kerry Carrington, Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology

"Jarrett Blaustein's book is a must-read for those interested in police development assistance in transition settings, and in particular police reform projects at the local level, such as community-based policing. He approaches his analysis through an ethnographic lens, with the specific aim to shed light on the relationship between global liberal governance, global-local influences on policing (i.e. glocal policing) and police capacity building projects."
--Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0198723296
• ISBN 13: 9780198723295
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288