Skip to main content

LUP Student Papers

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Policing Swedishness: Analysing discourses of suspicion in police narratives on internal controls of foreigners

Philipson, Sarah LU (2016) STVM25 20161
Department of Political Science
Abstract
Based on a discourse analysis of police narratives on internal controls of foreigners, this thesis examines how discourses of suspicion are produced within policing. Methodologically and empirically engaging with interviews with police officers operating throughout Sweden, and theoretically drawing on the diffused practices of mobility management, the analysis shows that the police officers practice of internal controls of foreigners are guided by an insufficient frame of regulation. The legal framework has left grey zones for the individual police officer to fill in with their own interpretations of suspicious bodies, which are often built upon a ’gut feeling’ or ’police gaze’. For their interpretation, the police officers draw on a... (More)
Based on a discourse analysis of police narratives on internal controls of foreigners, this thesis examines how discourses of suspicion are produced within policing. Methodologically and empirically engaging with interviews with police officers operating throughout Sweden, and theoretically drawing on the diffused practices of mobility management, the analysis shows that the police officers practice of internal controls of foreigners are guided by an insufficient frame of regulation. The legal framework has left grey zones for the individual police officer to fill in with their own interpretations of suspicious bodies, which are often built upon a ’gut feeling’ or ’police gaze’. For their interpretation, the police officers draw on a narrow understanding on citizenship, constructing Swedishness as synonymous with whiteness as the frame of belonging towards which the ’foreigner’ is measured. The ’foreigner’ is further represented as a non-white man from the suburbs, hence, the police (re)produce discourses of suspicion through an ethnified, classed and gendered typology that constructs certain non-white bodies as pre-determined suspicious subjects. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Philipson, Sarah LU
supervisor
organization
course
STVM25 20161
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Internal controls of foreigners, Sweden, border control, mobility, ethnic profiling
language
English
id
8888283
date added to LUP
2016-11-02 17:25:51
date last changed
2016-11-02 17:25:51
@misc{8888283,
  abstract     = {{Based on a discourse analysis of police narratives on internal controls of foreigners, this thesis examines how discourses of suspicion are produced within policing. Methodologically and empirically engaging with interviews with police officers operating throughout Sweden, and theoretically drawing on the diffused practices of mobility management, the analysis shows that the police officers practice of internal controls of foreigners are guided by an insufficient frame of regulation. The legal framework has left grey zones for the individual police officer to fill in with their own interpretations of suspicious bodies, which are often built upon a ’gut feeling’ or ’police gaze’. For their interpretation, the police officers draw on a narrow understanding on citizenship, constructing Swedishness as synonymous with whiteness as the frame of belonging towards which the ’foreigner’ is measured. The ’foreigner’ is further represented as a non-white man from the suburbs, hence, the police (re)produce discourses of suspicion through an ethnified, classed and gendered typology that constructs certain non-white bodies as pre-determined suspicious subjects.}},
  author       = {{Philipson, Sarah}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Policing Swedishness: Analysing discourses of suspicion in police narratives on internal controls of foreigners}},
  year         = {{2016}},
}