Elementary Secondary Higher Ed Common Reads
0 0
Download high-resolution image Look inside

Policing the City

An Ethno-graphic

Author Didier Fassin, Frédéric Debomy
Illustrated by Jake Raynal
Translated by Rachel Gomme
Look inside
Hardcover
$25.99 US
Other Press
On sale Mar 15, 2022 | 112 Pages | 9781635422504
Add to cart Add to list Exam Copies

See Additional Formats
Adapted from the landmark essay Enforcing Order, this striking graphic novel offers an accessible inside look at policing and how it leads to discrimination and violence.

What we know about the forces of law and order often comes from tragic episodes that make the headlines, or from sensationalized versions for film and television. These gripping accounts obscure two crucial aspects of police work: the tedium of everyday patrols under constant pressure to meet quotas, and the banality of racial discrimination and ordinary violence.
        Around the time of the 2005 French riots, anthropologist and sociologist Didier Fassin spent fifteen months observing up close the daily life of an anticrime squad in one of the largest precincts in the Paris region. His unprecedented study, which sparked intense discussion about policing in the largely working-class, immigrant suburbs, remains acutely relevant in light of all-too-common incidents of police brutality against minorities.
        This new, powerfully illustrated adaptation clearly presents the insights of Fassin’s investigation, and draws connections to the challenges we face today in the United States as in France.
© Mario Llorca
Didier Fassin is a French anthropologist and sociologist. He is the James D. Wolfensohn Professor of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and in 2019 was appointed to the Annual Chair in Public Health at the Collège de France, where he delivered the lecture “The Inequality of Lives.” He has conducted research in Ecuador, Senegal, South Africa, and France, particularly on moral and political issues around health and humanitarianism as well as immigration and asylum as part of a program of the European Research Council. His previous books include Prison Worlds, The Will to Punish, and Death of a Traveller. View titles by Didier Fassin
© Nicolas Guérin
Frédéric Debomy is a graphic-novel writer born in Fontenay-aux-Roses, France, in 1975. He has written book-length essays and nearly a dozen graphic novels, including several works on Myanmar. He is the former president of Info Birmanie, an organization dedicated to raising public awareness about the lack of democracy in Myanmar. View titles by Frédéric Debomy
© Jake Raynal
Jake Raynal studied applied arts at Paris’s printing academy, the École Estienne, and has been making comics since 1994. He is the creator of a series of fantastical chronicles that was first published by the French-Belgian comics magazine Fluide Glacial and later turned into three books: Combustion Spontanée, Esprit Frappeur, and Les Nouveaux Mystères. He also collaborated with Claire Bouilhac on the Melody Bondage series and the Francis series. Cambrioleurs, his first foray into adventure comics, came out in 2013, followed in 2017 by a volume of the Little Comics Library of Knowledge devoted to Les Situationnistes. View titles by Jake Raynal

About

Adapted from the landmark essay Enforcing Order, this striking graphic novel offers an accessible inside look at policing and how it leads to discrimination and violence.

What we know about the forces of law and order often comes from tragic episodes that make the headlines, or from sensationalized versions for film and television. These gripping accounts obscure two crucial aspects of police work: the tedium of everyday patrols under constant pressure to meet quotas, and the banality of racial discrimination and ordinary violence.
        Around the time of the 2005 French riots, anthropologist and sociologist Didier Fassin spent fifteen months observing up close the daily life of an anticrime squad in one of the largest precincts in the Paris region. His unprecedented study, which sparked intense discussion about policing in the largely working-class, immigrant suburbs, remains acutely relevant in light of all-too-common incidents of police brutality against minorities.
        This new, powerfully illustrated adaptation clearly presents the insights of Fassin’s investigation, and draws connections to the challenges we face today in the United States as in France.

Author

© Mario Llorca
Didier Fassin is a French anthropologist and sociologist. He is the James D. Wolfensohn Professor of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and in 2019 was appointed to the Annual Chair in Public Health at the Collège de France, where he delivered the lecture “The Inequality of Lives.” He has conducted research in Ecuador, Senegal, South Africa, and France, particularly on moral and political issues around health and humanitarianism as well as immigration and asylum as part of a program of the European Research Council. His previous books include Prison Worlds, The Will to Punish, and Death of a Traveller. View titles by Didier Fassin
© Nicolas Guérin
Frédéric Debomy is a graphic-novel writer born in Fontenay-aux-Roses, France, in 1975. He has written book-length essays and nearly a dozen graphic novels, including several works on Myanmar. He is the former president of Info Birmanie, an organization dedicated to raising public awareness about the lack of democracy in Myanmar. View titles by Frédéric Debomy
© Jake Raynal
Jake Raynal studied applied arts at Paris’s printing academy, the École Estienne, and has been making comics since 1994. He is the creator of a series of fantastical chronicles that was first published by the French-Belgian comics magazine Fluide Glacial and later turned into three books: Combustion Spontanée, Esprit Frappeur, and Les Nouveaux Mystères. He also collaborated with Claire Bouilhac on the Melody Bondage series and the Francis series. Cambrioleurs, his first foray into adventure comics, came out in 2013, followed in 2017 by a volume of the Little Comics Library of Knowledge devoted to Les Situationnistes. View titles by Jake Raynal

Additional formats

Related Articles

Books for National Depression Education and Awareness Month
Psychology

Books for National Depression Education and Awareness Month

For National Depression Education and Awareness Month in October, we are sharing a collection of titles that educates and informs on depression, including personal stories from those who have experienced depression and topics that range from causes and symptoms of depression to how to develop coping mechanisms to battle depression.

Read more

Books for National Depression Education and Awareness Month

Psychology
Literature

Horror Titles for the Halloween Season

In celebration of the Halloween season, we are sharing horror books that are aligned with the themes of the holiday: the sometimes unknown and scary creatures and witches. From classic ghost stories and popular novels that are celebrated today, in literature courses and beyond, to contemporary stories about the monsters that hide in the dark, our list

Read more

Horror Titles for the Halloween Season

Literature
History Gender and Sexuality Studies

Books for LGBTQIA+ History Month

For LGBTQIA+ History Month in October, we’re celebrating the shared history of individuals within the community and the importance of the activists who have fought for their rights and the rights of others. We acknowledge the varying and diverse experiences within the LGBTQIA+ community that have shaped history and have led the way for those

Read more

Books for LGBTQIA+ History Month

History Gender and Sexuality Studies
Subscribe

Penguin Random House Higher Education

© 2025 Penguin Random House

Back to Top
0
    • 0
    Wish List (0)