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Starting with penal populism, this book examines a paradox: the illiberal turn that liberal democracy has taken. Based on ethnographic fieldwork on a housing estate, it moves from why liberal democracy has taken a punitive turn, to what democracy means to these residents and how they experience their daily engagements with the state.
List of contents
- Introduction: Questioning the Punitive Paradox
- 1: A Political History of Council Estates / Council Estates as State-Building Projects
- 2: The Good Person and the Bad Citizen / History, Class, and Sociality
- 3: Precarious Homes / Encounters with the Benefit System
- 4: Troubled Neighbourhoods / Encounters with Housing Authorities
- 5: Dangerous Streets / Encounters with the Police
- 6: Political Brokers / Active Citizenship
- 7: Democracy as Punishment /On Brexit and Austerity Politics
- Conclusion: A Different Kind of Paradox
About the author
Insa Lee Koch is Assistant Professor in Law at the London School of Economics and Director of the Anthropology and Law Programme. She has published on politics, austerity, social housing, the welfare state and criminal justice reforms. Her research combines an interest in political economy and anthropology with criminology, law and social theory.
Summary
Starting with penal populism, this book examines a paradox: the illiberal turn that liberal democracy has taken. Based on ethnographic fieldwork on a housing estate, it moves from why liberal democracy has taken a punitive turn, to what democracy means to these residents and how they experience their daily engagements with the state.
Foreword
Winner of the 2020 Hart Prize for Early Career Academics
Additional text
Personalizing the State is a crucial piece of work, which warrants wide readership. Despite Koch's introductory guidance that a reader can dip into chapters of interest, it is a book well worth reading in full. Personalizing the State is an exemplary piece of ethnographic criminology, and it has set a high standard for criminological work moving forwards.
