"Policing America" is an in-depth sociological analysis of the origins, composition, and effects of policing in contemporary U.S. society. Throughout the course, we will explore the social origins of the police as an institution we have come to take for granted in modern societies, and examine the various ways in which it shapes - and in turn is shaped by - social life.
Throughout the course, we will analyze policing in its everyday, real-life manifestations, and shed light on the various social forces that shape police-citizen interactions in a multitude of ways. We will focus on the role that social institutions - specifically, "the police", "the state" and "the law" - play in shaping police-citizen interactions, and - in turn - the role these interactions have in reproducing the above social institutions.
The study of policing is inseparable from the study of police violence and the fundamental role of racism in policing America. That being the case - and in light of the uprising that followed the murder of George Floyd here in Minneapolis - we will pay particular attention to the history of the Minneapolis Police Department, the present state of affairs here in the Twin Cities, and the movement to dismantle the police. We will conclude by using the knowledge acquired throughout the course in order to imagine alternative ways to traditional policing and, more broadly, to envision creative new ways of regulating and organizing social life.