This is a book about the men and women who police contemporary South Africa. Drawing on rich, original ethnographical data, it considers how officers make sense of their jobs and how they find meaning in their duties. It demonstrates how the dynamics that lead to breakdowns in everyday policing, public order policing and high policing in transitional and neo-liberalising regimes such as South Africa, have their origins in the day to day experiences and ambitions of the average police officer.
By focusing on police officers, this book positions the individual in primacy over the...