Siam's New Detectives: Visualizing Crime and Conspiracy in Modern Thailand
Visual evidence is the sine qua non of the modern criminal process-from photographs and video to ... more Visual evidence is the sine qua non of the modern criminal process-from photographs and video to fingerprints and maps. Siam's New Detectives offers an analytical history of these visual tools as employed by the Thai police when investigating crime. Covering the period between the late nineteenth century and the end of the Cold War, the book provides both an extended overview of the development and evolution of modern police practices in Thailand, and a window into the role of the Thai police within a larger cultural system of knowledge production about crime, violence, and history. Based on a diverse set of primary sources-police reports, detective training manuals, trial records, newspaper stories, memoirs, archival documents, and hard-to-find crime fiction-the book makes two related arguments. First, the factuality of the visual evidence used in the criminal justice system stems as much from formal conventions-proper lighting in a crime scene photo, standardized markings on maps-as from the reality of what is being represented. Second, some images, once created, function as tools, helping the police produce truths about the criminal past. This generative power makes images such as crime scene maps useful as investigative aids but also means that scholars cannot analyze them simply in terms of mimetic accuracy or interpret them in isolation for deeper meaning. Understanding how modern legal systems operate requires an examination of the visual culture of the law, particularly the aesthetic rules that govern the generation and use of documentary evidence. By examining modern policing in terms of visual culture, Siam's New Detectives makes important methodological contributions. The book shows how a historical analysis of form can supplement the way many scholars have traditionally approached visual sources, as symbols requiring a close reading. By acknowledging the productive nature of images in addition to their symbolic functions, the book makes clear that policing is fundamentally an interactive, creative endeavor as much as a disciplinary one.
Trais Pearson. Sovereign Necropolis: The Politics of Death in Semi-Colonial Siam. 252 pp., figs., app., notes, bibl., index. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2020. $24.99 (e-book); ISBN 9781501740152
Visitors to the city of Bangkok are often struck by the sight of exposed, dangling, and dangerous... more Visitors to the city of Bangkok are often struck by the sight of exposed, dangling, and dangerous electrical wires and a multitude of inconveniently placed utility posts that impede pedestrian circulation. This article argues that the city's seemingly dysfunctional electric power infrastructure is not a failure of modernisation but the outcome, or 'style', of a socio-technological system built by and operated for a narrow set of interests. To demonstrate this, the article presents a history of the electric power system that shows how its initial development in the early twentieth century produced new forms of privilege and disenfranchisement that are now the basis of social division in the city. By approaching the study of Bangkok's electric power system in terms of equity, the article offers a framework for evaluating how infrastructure shapes cultural practice, social relations, and political authority.
Visitors to the city of Bangkok are often struck by the sight of exposed, dangling, and dangerous... more Visitors to the city of Bangkok are often struck by the sight of exposed, dangling, and dangerous electrical wires and a multitude of inconveniently placed utility posts that impede pedestrian circulation. This article argues that the city's seemingly dysfunctional electric power infrastructure is not a failure of modernisation but the outcome, or 'style', of a socio-technological system built by and operated for a narrow set of interests. To demonstrate this, the article presents a history of the electric power system that shows how its initial development in the early twentieth century produced new forms of privilege and disenfranchisement that are now the basis of social division in the city. By approaching the study of Bangkok's electric power system in terms of equity, the article offers a framework for evaluating how infrastructure shapes cultural practice, social relations, and political authority.
Thailand. Power, protection and magic in Thailand: The cosmos of a southern policeman By Craig J. Reynolds Acton: ANU Press, 2019. Pp. 191. Maps, Plates, Appendix, Bibliography
This article examines the introduction of two technologies, photography and paper currency, in Si... more This article examines the introduction of two technologies, photography and paper currency, in Siam (Thailand after 1939) during the early twentieth century and their roles in shaping the development of the modern Thai political economy. It does so through a historical study of a counterfeit crisis that plagued the kingdom immediately after the introduction of paper money in 1902. By analyzing the crisis, it shows how the formation of class and development of capitalism both depended on technologically reproduced symbols of the state and social status. As such, policing the distinction between genuine and fake became critical to both the identity of the new bourgeoisie and the operation of the new economy. The resulting fixation on authenticity, in turn, reflects the underlying anxiety on the part of the new elite over the basis of their authority and wealth in a rapidly changing society.
Visual evidence is the sine qua non of the modern criminal process-from photographs and video to ... more Visual evidence is the sine qua non of the modern criminal process-from photographs and video to fingerprints and maps. Siam's New Detectives offers an analytical history of these visual tools as employed by the Thai police when investigating crime. Covering the period between the late nineteenth century and the end of the Cold War, the book provides both an extended overview of the development and evolution of modern police practices in Thailand, and a window into the role of the Thai police within a larger cultural system of knowledge production about crime, violence, and history. Based on a diverse set of primary sources-police reports, detective training manuals, trial records, newspaper stories, memoirs, archival documents, and hard-to-find crime fiction-the book makes two related arguments. First, the factuality of the visual evidence used in the criminal justice system stems as much from formal conventions-proper lighting in a crime scene photo, standardized markings on maps-as from the reality of what is being represented. Second, some images, once created, function as tools, helping the police produce truths about the criminal past. This generative power makes images such as crime scene maps useful as investigative aids but also means that scholars cannot analyze them simply in terms of mimetic accuracy or interpret them in isolation for deeper meaning. Understanding how modern legal systems operate requires an examination of the visual culture of the law, particularly the aesthetic rules that govern the generation and use of documentary evidence. By examining modern policing in terms of visual culture, Siam's New Detectives makes important methodological contributions. The book shows how a historical analysis of form can supplement the way many scholars have traditionally approached visual sources, as symbols requiring a close reading. By acknowledging the productive nature of images in addition to their symbolic functions, the book makes clear that policing is fundamentally an interactive, creative endeavor as much as a disciplinary one.
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