| Ethnographic, historical and textual analysis of interactions between governments and citizens in three contexts—Brazil, urban America, and post-colonial South Asia—yielded new insights on the use of state power to maintain social control. |
The relationship between governments and the citizens they seek to rule is central to understanding politics and society in the contemporary world. This collaborative research project was a departure from macro-historical studies of state power, relying instead on ethnography, archival research, interviews, historical narratives, and textual analysis to develop a local understanding of “the state” that reveals how authorities (from prime ministers to police officers) evaluate political threats, create social structures, and construct categories of legality and criminality. By studying interactions between states and criminal organizations in Latin America, policing and social control in urban America, and violence and state building in post-colonial South Asia, the project bridged regions, methodologies, and disciplines. Ultimately, through a series of collaborative workshops and a culminating conference, the project aimed to create a new ‘Chicago School’ on the state, violence, and social control.
Associate Professor, Department of Political Science and the College
University of Chicago
Associate Professor of Political Science; faculty chair of the Committee on International Relations
University of Chicago
Associate Professor of Sociology
Stanford University
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