Police interactions in post-colonial India: how particularistic accountability, legitimacy and tolerated illegality condition everyday policing in Delhi and Kerala

IF 0.9 Q4 MANAGEMENT

Journal of Organizational Ethnography Pub Date : 2022-01-31 DOI:10.1108/joe-12-2020-0057

Ashwin Varghese

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Abstract

PurposeThe paper aims to relocate discussions on police stops and police interactions from the Anglophone world to the particularistic context of the post-colonial state of India. The paper further frames the everyday policing practices in a theoretical dialog between questions of legitimacy, accountability and tolerated illegalities. For that purpose, the author contextualizes the discussion in the post-colonial state of India, in the jurisdictions of two police stations (PSs), in the National Capital Territory of Delhi and the State of Kerala.Design/methodology/approachThe author conducted ethnographic studies in one station each in Kerala and Delhi, India, from February to July 2019 and July 2019 to January 2020, respectively. The study mapped everyday power relations as the relations manifested within the site and jurisdiction of the PSs.FindingsThrough the research, the author found that to fully understand everyday practices of policing, especially police interactions and police stops, one must contextualize the police force within the administrative power-sharing relations, police force's accountability structures, legal procedures and class dynamics, which mark the terrain in which personnel function. In that terrain, the author found that the dialog between particularistic legitimacy, accountability and tolerated illegalities offered an important framework to interpret the everyday policing practices.Originality/valueThrough the paper, the author seeks to expand the analysis of ethnographic descriptions of policing by contextualizing them in the political economy of the state. In doing so, the author aims to provide a framework through which police interactions in post-colonial India could be understood

查看原文本刊更多论文

后殖民印度的警察互动:特殊问责制、合法性和容忍的非法行为如何影响德里和喀拉拉邦的日常警务

本文旨在将关于警察拦截和警察互动的讨论从英语世界转移到后殖民国家印度的特殊背景下。在合法性、问责制和可容忍的非法行为问题之间的理论对话中，论文进一步构建了日常警务实践。为此目的，作者将讨论的背景置于后殖民时期的印度，在德里国家首都地区和喀拉拉邦的两个警察局的管辖范围内。作者于2019年2月至7月和2019年7月至2020年1月分别在印度喀拉拉邦和德里的一个站点进行了民族志研究。该研究将日常权力关系映射为在PSs的场地和管辖范围内表现出来的关系。通过研究，作者发现，要充分理解日常警务实践，特别是警察互动和警察拦截，必须将警察力量置于行政权力分享关系、警察力量问责结构、法律程序和阶级动态的背景中，这些都标志着人员职能的地形。在这一领域，作者发现，特殊合法性、问责制和容忍的非法行为之间的对话为解释日常警务实践提供了一个重要的框架。原创性/价值通过本文，作者试图通过将其置于国家政治经济学的背景中来扩大对警务的民族志描述的分析。在此过程中，作者旨在提供一个框架，通过该框架可以理解后殖民印度的警察互动

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来源期刊

Journal of Organizational Ethnography MANAGEMENT-

CiteScore

1.90

自引率

37.50%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Journal of Organizational Ethnography (JOE) has been launched to provide an opportunity for scholars, from all social and management science disciplines, to publish over two issues: -high-quality articles from original ethnographic research that contribute to the current and future development of qualitative intellectual knowledge and understanding of the nature of public and private sector work, organization and management -review articles examining the history and development of the contribution of ethnography to qualitative research in social, organization and management studies -articles examining the intellectual, pedagogical and practical use-value of ethnography in organization and management research, management education and management practice, or which extend, critique or challenge past and current theoretical and empirical knowledge claims within one or more of these areas of interest -articles on ethnographically informed research relating to the concepts of organization and organizing in any other wider social and cultural contexts.