What happened when police forces in Latin America learned to write?
Final Report Abstract
The study explored the question as to what happened when Latin American police learned to write and read. Based on archival sources, the writing practices of Buenos Aires and Mexico City police forces were analyzed in the late nineteenth century, which marked a new phase of increasing bureaucratization in police work. The research shows that police forces during this transitional period functioned less as repressive institutions of the state. Instead, through the analysis of police writing practices it becomes clear that the police functioned as an interstitial actor that had to perform cultural translations and transfers. As a result, different writing spaces emerged, where policemen developed different ways of writing. The analysis of modern police writing reveals the self-understanding of policemen and their relationship to the idea of the bureaucratic order of the state.
Publications
- (2020). Schreibende Polizisten. Zur Verschriftlichung der Polizei in den Städten Lateinamerikas im späten 19. Jahrhundert, in: Making Modern Police in Latin America. Leipzig: Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 117-148
Riekenberg, M.
- 2020. Making Modern Police in Latin America. Beiträge zur Geschichte der Polizeien im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Leipzig: Leipziger Universitätsverlag
Carrizo de Reimann, A. (Hg.)
- 2020. Movimientos de Oficina. Un/Ordnungen des bürokratischen Schreibens der Polizei von Buenos Aires (1868 – 1910), in: Making Modern Police in Latin America. Leipzig: Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 85-116
Carrizo de Reimann, A.
