At the Heart of the State: The Moral World of Institutions (Anthropology, Culture & Society) - Softcover

Fassin, Didier

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0745335594 ISBN 13: 9780745335599

Publisher: Pluto Press, 2015

Synopsis

The state is often regarded as an abstract and neutral bureaucratic entity. Against this common sense idea, At the Heart of the State argues that it is also a concrete and situated reality, embodied in the work of its agents and inscribed in the issues of its time. 

The result of a five-year investigation conducted by ten scholars, this book describes and analyses the police, the court system, the prison apparatus, the social services, and mental health facilities in France. Combining genealogy and ethnography, its authors show that these state institutions do not simply implement laws, rules and procedures: they mobilise values and affects, judgements and emotions. In other words, they reflect the morality of the state. 

Of immense interest to both social scientists and political theorists, this work will make an important contribution to the ever expanding literature on the contemporary state.

About this title

About the Author:

Didier Fassin is the James D. Wolfensohn Professor of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton.

Review:

“Didier Fassin is one of the most imaginative social scientists of our time. As a sociologist and an anthropologist, he has profoundly renewed our understanding of the state, analyzed through the practices of its agents. At the Heart of the State should be considered not only as required reading for all scholars in the field, but also for all active citizens.”
(Pierre Rosanvallon, Collège de France)

“This is an important collection of finely wrought case studies of various institutions through which the state interacts with its most precarious populations. Uniquely, it focuses not simply on the bureaucratic logic of governance, but also on the role of effects, values, and moral judgment in shaping these interactions. This makes the book a major contribution at the too rarely visited crossroads of political and moral anthropology.” (Joel Robbins, University of Cambridge)

“This extraordinary collection delivers novel ethnographic questions and insights with regard to the literal and figurative dilemmas of alienation and incorporation within the contemporary state. The book will be informative to scholars, advocates, and anyone interested in the future of states.” (Carol J. Greenhouse, Princeton University)

About this edition

• Publisher: Pluto Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0745335594
• ISBN 13: 9780745335599
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 312