The Quiet State

Micro-Surveillance and Normalisation in Tibet
Erscheinungsjahr 2026
ISBN: 978-981-9222-69-8
Verlag: Springer Nature Singapore

Buch, Englisch, 302 Seiten, Format (B × H): 148 mm x 210 mm

This open access book is both a meticulously researched account of newly emerging forms of rule in the Chinese borderlands and a broader theoretical intervention into the study of authoritarian governance.

Taking the current situation in Tibet as its case study, shows how local officials in Tibet have developed previously unknown methods to micromanage and surveil certain social groups. The book examines one such scheme, involving some ten thousand Tibetan Buddhist nuns who have been singled out for having travelled beyond their home areas to receive religious teachings, resettled in fixed locations, monitored by local officials and residents, and given repeated political education, all under the rubric of state tolerance and care. This exercise in “coercive benevolence” lies at the heart of what the author calls the “quiet mode” of authoritarianism: a post-carceral form of social control, found particularly in ethnic or minority areas, that constrains movement and thought while avoiding the overt use of violence. Presented as routine or “normal” instruments of social management and barely visible even to locals, let alone outsiders, these micro-surveillance schemes are linked to the mass expansion of grassroots governance in Tibet, where for the first time officials are now stationed in almost every monastery and village.

Based entirely on the analysis of official Chinese media reports, shows how the study of a few available fragments of information can point to new ways of understanding the contemporary functioning of the state, even in a region where direct research is rarely feasible, and demonstrates the power of open-source analysis as a rigorous form of remote ethnography. It is an essential guide for researchers in Chinese and Tibetan politics, comparative authoritarianism, surveillance studies, political anthropology and human rights.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Barnett, Robert

Weitere Mitwirkende

Nathan, Andrew J.

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kolonialgeschichte, Geschichte des Imperialismus
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Kultur- und Sozialethnologie: Allgemeines
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Asiatische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Chapter 1: Introduction: Research from Afar.- Chapter 2: Beyond the Kaleidoscope: Modes of Power in the Periphery.- Chapter 3: Anecdotal Fragments.- Chapter 4: The Expulsion of the Nuns.- Chapter 5: Extralegal Group Detention in Tibet.- Chapter 6: Open-source Studies and Their Risks.- Chapter 7: Returnee Nuns in the Eastern Tibetan Areas: Centralised Settlement.- Chapter 8: Returnee Nuns in the TAR: Home-based Confinement.- Chapter 9: Logics of Mobility, Benevolence, and Erratic Violence.

Über Autor(innen)

Robert Barnett is a Professorial Research Associate with the China and Inner Asia Unit at SOAS University of London, UK and an Affiliate Lecturer at the Lau China Institute, King's College, London, UK. He works on nationality issues in China, focusing on modern Tibetan history, politics, and culture. His most recent books are , co-edited with Benno Weiner and Françoise Robin (2020), and by Tsering Woeser (2020), which he edited and co-translated.