School of Social and Political Science

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Professor Toby Kelly has received funding from the European Research Council for a project exploring the social, cultural and ethical dimensions of private detective work.

The research project - Private Detectives: An Anthropology of Investigation and Evidence (PRIDET) – will explore questions of privacy, secrets and access to information in the context of changing technology and social norms.

Using the work of private detectives as a lens, Professor Kelly – of the University of Edinburgh’s School of Social and Political Science (SPS) - and colleagues will examine the meanings and significance of investigation across a wide range of social and cultural relations.

Private detectives work on areas usually kept separate in research - from infidelity to corporate misbehaviour – and employ multiple techniques, from digital forensics to-face-to-face connections. By looking at these together, the team will be able to explore investigation as a broad and uneven process.

The research will include case studies of private detective work in three cities – Berlin, Delhi and London – combining archival research, oral history and ethnography.

PRIDET aims to transform the study of investigation. Its empirical and comparative account of private detectives will lead to new conceptual tools for the analysis of the social, cultural and ethical tensions of investigation.

Professor Kelly, a Professor of Political and Legal Anthropology, will work with a research team including Dr Moyukh Chatterjee of SPS and Dr Grit Wesser of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.

PRIDET will start in January 2027 and run for five years.