Etnifierade polispraktiker : Hur etnicitet görs i polisers vardag
(2015) In Lund Dissertations in Sociology 111.- Abstract
- This thesis analyzes how ethnicity is accomplished in the work of Swedish police officers. It draws on ethnographic data from participant observations and field interviews in Malmö and its theoretical framework is primarily based on ethnomethodology.
Police officers – and others in their environment – are found to employ ethnicity and invoke it into interactions in a variety of ways: 1) redefining police-citizen interactions in friendly directions, 2) ethnic profiling, 3) strengthening police control over citizens, 4) questioning police legitimacy, 5) offering accounts for deviant behavior, 6) creating in-group solidarity among police officers by way of distancing oneself from norms of “anti-racist political correctness”. These... (More) - This thesis analyzes how ethnicity is accomplished in the work of Swedish police officers. It draws on ethnographic data from participant observations and field interviews in Malmö and its theoretical framework is primarily based on ethnomethodology.
Police officers – and others in their environment – are found to employ ethnicity and invoke it into interactions in a variety of ways: 1) redefining police-citizen interactions in friendly directions, 2) ethnic profiling, 3) strengthening police control over citizens, 4) questioning police legitimacy, 5) offering accounts for deviant behavior, 6) creating in-group solidarity among police officers by way of distancing oneself from norms of “anti-racist political correctness”. These and other uses of ethnicity vary between the ‘frontstage’, where police officers encounter other people, and the ‘backstage’, where police officers interact with their peers. Police officers treat ethnicity with a great deal of sensitivity in the frontstage region, but they speak more freely about it, and adopt an ironic attitude towards “political correctness”, in the back stage region. Ethnicity is found to hold a certain form of social tension that requires the participants of a police interaction to manage and respond to it, sometimes in a postponed fashion where events are discussed at a later time.
The study also highlights ethnicity’s place within police culture and police organization in a more general sense. The police adopt a social code that the study calls “ironic knighthood”, where they maintain various heraldic, authoritative and militaristic aspects of their culture and organization but add a humorous and ironic twist.
Actively using ethnicity is integral to the interests and incentives of this code. It is argued that ethnicity cannot be removed from the everyday practices of the police, and that a more viable goal of a critical sociology is to seek to carefully describe ethnified police practices so that they can be reflected upon, problematized and developed. (Less) - Abstract (Swedish)
- Popular Abstract in Swedish
Hur många betydelser har etnicitet i polisens arbete? Diskriminering och främlingsfientlighet är kanske det första många tänker på. Men kan etnicitet innebära mer än så i polisens arbete? Och är det alltid poliserna som för in den etniska dimensionen i mötet med medborgaren?
Denna etnografiska studie beskriver dussintals betydelser av etnicitet i polisens vardag. Vi möter poliser som är i färd med att ”göra” etnicitet – genom att använda den för olika praktiska syften i möten med människor.
Här följer vi poliser på nära håll, genom ingående fältstudier och samtal i polisbilen. Vi får ta del av polisens jargong, arbetspraktiker, föreställningar och fördomar –... (More) - Popular Abstract in Swedish
Hur många betydelser har etnicitet i polisens arbete? Diskriminering och främlingsfientlighet är kanske det första många tänker på. Men kan etnicitet innebära mer än så i polisens arbete? Och är det alltid poliserna som för in den etniska dimensionen i mötet med medborgaren?
Denna etnografiska studie beskriver dussintals betydelser av etnicitet i polisens vardag. Vi möter poliser som är i färd med att ”göra” etnicitet – genom att använda den för olika praktiska syften i möten med människor.
Här följer vi poliser på nära håll, genom ingående fältstudier och samtal i polisbilen. Vi får ta del av polisens jargong, arbetspraktiker, föreställningar och fördomar – och deras försvar eller ursäkter av dessa. Vi får även insikt i polisers särskilda belägenhet i samhället.
Daniel Görtz är sociolog och har tidigare skrivit om polisarbete i Malmö. Det här är hans avhandling i sociologi. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/7857823
- author
- Görtz, Daniel LU
- supervisor
- opponent
-
- Professor Finstad, Liv, Oslo University
- organization
- alternative title
- Ethnified police practices : How ethnicity is done in police work
- publishing date
- 2015
- type
- Thesis
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- police, policing, ethncity, ethnomethodology, ethnography
- in
- Lund Dissertations in Sociology
- volume
- 111
- pages
- 337 pages
- publisher
- Lund University
- defense location
- Edens hörsal, Paradisgatan 5 H, Lund
- defense date
- 2015-09-29 10:15:00
- ISSN
- 1102-4712
- ISBN
- 978-91-7267-380-9
- language
- Swedish
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 9635b28f-8e9d-4d52-9301-e62029eb0648 (old id 7857823)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-04 09:07:31
- date last changed
- 2021-03-08 09:07:15
@phdthesis{9635b28f-8e9d-4d52-9301-e62029eb0648,
abstract = {{This thesis analyzes how ethnicity is accomplished in the work of Swedish police officers. It draws on ethnographic data from participant observations and field interviews in Malmö and its theoretical framework is primarily based on ethnomethodology.<br/><br>
Police officers – and others in their environment – are found to employ ethnicity and invoke it into interactions in a variety of ways: 1) redefining police-citizen interactions in friendly directions, 2) ethnic profiling, 3) strengthening police control over citizens, 4) questioning police legitimacy, 5) offering accounts for deviant behavior, 6) creating in-group solidarity among police officers by way of distancing oneself from norms of “anti-racist political correctness”. These and other uses of ethnicity vary between the ‘frontstage’, where police officers encounter other people, and the ‘backstage’, where police officers interact with their peers. Police officers treat ethnicity with a great deal of sensitivity in the frontstage region, but they speak more freely about it, and adopt an ironic attitude towards “political correctness”, in the back stage region. Ethnicity is found to hold a certain form of social tension that requires the participants of a police interaction to manage and respond to it, sometimes in a postponed fashion where events are discussed at a later time. <br/><br>
The study also highlights ethnicity’s place within police culture and police organization in a more general sense. The police adopt a social code that the study calls “ironic knighthood”, where they maintain various heraldic, authoritative and militaristic aspects of their culture and organization but add a humorous and ironic twist. <br/><br>
Actively using ethnicity is integral to the interests and incentives of this code. It is argued that ethnicity cannot be removed from the everyday practices of the police, and that a more viable goal of a critical sociology is to seek to carefully describe ethnified police practices so that they can be reflected upon, problematized and developed.}},
author = {{Görtz, Daniel}},
isbn = {{978-91-7267-380-9}},
issn = {{1102-4712}},
keywords = {{police; policing; ethncity; ethnomethodology; ethnography}},
language = {{swe}},
publisher = {{Lund University}},
school = {{Lund University}},
series = {{Lund Dissertations in Sociology}},
title = {{Etnifierade polispraktiker : Hur etnicitet görs i polisers vardag}},
url = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/5238247/7857824.pdf}},
volume = {{111}},
year = {{2015}},
}