PhD defence Antonio Frank: Policing the Periphery: Party-anchored hybrid policing in Luanda, Angola

On Tuesday 28 April 2026 from 4 to 5 pm, Antonio Frank will defend his dissertation Policing the Periphery: Party-anchored hybrid policing in Luanda, Angola.

 

 

His PhD thesis investigates how hybrid policing networks function in the peri-urban neighbourhoods of 11 de Novembro and Cariango (Cazenga municipality), Luanda, Angola, by analysing interactions between the police and non-state forms of local authority. Using social network analysis, it contributes to debates on nodal and hybrid security governance in post-colonial African countries.

 

Findings show that hybrid policing networks in the peri-urban areas of Luanda are MPLA-anchored. Although composition varies across sites, the underlying mechanism remains the same: a strong affinity and overlap between party structures and state-linked institutions, which connects the police with party-state-affiliated non-state forms of local authorities into tightly interconnected clusters. Functionally, the policing networks operate more as a surveillance and monitoring system, sharing intelligence and information and overseeing residents, rather than conducting policing activities such as patrolling and crime investigation. 

 

The factors shaping the structure and dynamics of the policing networks are produced within, and reproduce, Angola’s centralised party–state model of governance at the neighbourhood level. These findings show that hybrid policing networks in Luanda are neither spontaneous nor self-created; they are intentionally developed within the party–state framework to establish and maintain authority. This thesis characterises these arrangements as MPLA-anchored hybrid networks, a typology that captures their party–state anchoring as well as their fit with Angola’s centralised governance model. 

 

Overall, this thesis offers a nuanced understanding of how policing networks function within Luanda’s informal neighbourhoods. It highlights the importance of historical and socio-political factors in shaping local security governance. By characterising the policing networks in peri-urban areas as MPLA-anchored hybrid networks, this study provides a contextually grounded account of how authority is organised and exercised at the neighbourhood level. 

 

The defence ceremony can be livestreamed here.