Didier Fassin is a French anthropologist and sociologist whose work bridges the boundaries between ethnography, political sociology, and the anthropology of institutions. As Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, Fassin has conducted groundbreaking fieldwork on policing, immigration enforcement, and humanitarianism. His critical ethnographies examine how state power, law enforcement, and social inequalities intersect in everyday life, particularly in marginalized urban areas.
Fassin is internationally recognized for redefining the anthropology of the state and policing through immersive ethnographic research. His influential book Enforcing Order (2013) offers a rare inside view of the French police’s operations in the banlieues, revealing how policing practices perpetuate social exclusion and reinforce racial and class boundaries. Fassin’s work situates policing within broader frameworks of moral economies, inequality, and state violence, contributing both to critical criminology and political anthropology.
