The Quiet State

Beschreibung

'A brilliant analysis of the evolving modes of operation of China’s system of control in Tibet.'
—Minxin Pei, Claremont McKenna College, USA, and author of The Sentinel State: Surveillance and the Survival of Dictatorship

'A major contribution to our understanding of Chinese rule at the margins and a methodological model for scholarship when the field is closed.'
—Uradyn E. Bulag, University of Cambridge, UK, and author of Collaborative Nationalism

'This groundbreaking work sheds light on the resilience of Tibetan culture while offering critical insights into the broader implications of the carceral regime that governs Tibet today.'
—Tsering Shakya, University of British Columbia, Canada, and author of Dragon in the Land of Snows

This open access book examines how authoritarian rule evolves in a minority or “ethnic” context. Taking the current situation in Tibet as its case study, The Quiet State shows how, since 2016, Chinese officials have developed previously unknown methods to monitor and re-educate certain social groups, and describes in detail the methods now used to manage a particular group of some ten thousand Tibetan Buddhist nuns. Avoiding overt violence, these “micro‑surveillance” schemes remain largely invisible, are presented as benevolent, and are likely to be perceived by others as routine or “normal”.

Drawing entirely on the analysis of official Chinese media reports, the author shows how these “quiet” forms of confinement and control are linked to the mass expansion of village-level governance in Tibetan areas. At the same time, the book demonstrates the power of open‑source analysis as a rigorous form of remote ethnography in situations where research access is not feasible. It is an essential guide for researchers in Chinese and Tibetan politics, comparative authoritarianism, surveillance studies and political anthropology.

Robert Barnett is Professorial Research Associate at SOAS University of London, UK. He works on nationality issues in China, focusing on modern Tibetan history, politics, and culture.

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, The Quiet State 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, The Quiet State 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.

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Robert Barnett

Themen in »The Quiet State«

Open Access surveillance nationality policies borderlands nuns gender Tibet ethnography open source research methods post-ethnography Buddhist nuns remote ethnography

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