Abstract
The disconcerting story narrated by Jeffrey Martin about his early interactions with a high-ranking law enforcement official in Taiwan reveals a method of intimidation used to inculcate a lesson: the ethnographer experiences fear at the same time as he learns how social control works. Policing, he is made to understand, operates not only through the use of physical force but also via the resort to immaterial power. The interaction between the official and the ethnographer can thus be assimilated to a literal incorporation of empirical knowledge: it is through his body that the researcher profoundly grasps the cultural meaning of this idiosyncratic form of policing.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Writing the World of Policing |
| Subtitle of host publication | The Difference Ethnography Makes |
| Editors | Didier Fassin |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press |
| Pages | 91-110 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9780226497785 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9780226497648, 9780226497501 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2017 |
Keywords
- ethnography
- policing
- Taiwan
- power
- intimidation