Continuity and change in policing the Global South

Continuity and change in policing the Global South
This chapter explores the multidimensionality of issues, questions, concerns, and uncertainties which underscores approaches to understandings of policing both within and beyond the Global South. It highlights the delicate balance between change and continuity – change being the necessary element to propel transformations and adaptations with continuity serving as a constant reminder of the foundational empirical element necessary to make sense of the parameters within which change is ‘allowed’ to materialise. Concurrent acknowledgements of history, contextual variables, and shifting world-views throughout the volume point to the importance of these themes when considering Southern criminological perspectives on policing and in this chapter we underscore why it is important to not just apply a different lens when looking at what takes place on the global margins but also to acknowledge the high likelihood of inapplicable knowledge transposition, miscategorisation, and force-to-fit adaptations where there is continued application of an imperial knowledge framework. The chapter points to both what this volume adds to efforts at decolonising policing research, and future directions indicated through this collection