UNIFORM MATTERS
A UNIFORM NOT UNIFORM
POLICE brings you excerpts of an in-depth study examining the practical and symbolic uses of officers’ uniform
Uniform is an integral and distinctive part of a police officer’s life. In 2016, Dr Camilla De Camargo submitted the findings of a study conducted by adopting focused ethnography to The School of Nursing, Midwifery, Social Work and Social Sciences of The University of Salford which revealed that “the strength of dominant policing discourses linked to the uniform, gender, identity and performance show the ways that these discourses are also infused and subverted by different sets of meanings and behaviours”.
• To explore the role the uniform plays and the social meanings it holds in the
RESEARCH AIMS:
• To explore the gendered identity performances of officers within
experiences and working practices of police officers.
• To address concepts of ‘dirty work’ and ‘contamination’ in relation to
the uniform.
ABOUT THE STUDY: The research involved approximately 17 days on patrol (equating to roughly 140 hours) over a period of four months across four research sites in a northern police force. The police constables (PCs) and police community support officers (PCSOs) involved in the study were seen to manoeuvre and navigate contested discourses and fragmented nature of policing culture through the lens of their uniforms. Using Erving Goffman as a theoretical framework, along with the complementary work of Judith Butler (1993; 1999) and Malcolm Young (1991; 1992), this thesis contributes to the theoretical debate on the influence of the police uniform on the wearer; provides
24 | POLICE | FEBRUARY | 2024
neighbourhood policing and how this is connected to the uniform
a gendered analysis of how equipment, vehicles and accoutrements are used to
“The study focuses on how identity is performed through the lens of the uniform within situated interactions and various contexts.”
feminise and masculinise ‘unisex’ police clothing; and it provides an account of how rituals of purification are used in an attempt to avoid the symbolic, moral and physical contamination of the police occupation. The thesis also presents a number of contributions in relation to contested binaries and polarities present through the use of occupational uniforms in neighbourhood policing.
This study focuses on how identity
is performed through the lens of the uniform within situated interactions and
various contexts. In order to assess the impact of neighbourhood policing on officer identity, this thesis will draw on theories of identity performance, as well as those that explore the processes of contamination and purification rituals that wearing a highly symbolic uniform provides. In order to develop an emphasis on
interactions and relationships between officers, and officers and their uniforms, the thesis draws on the work of Erving Goffman as the basis of its theoretical approach in attempting to understand how officers within NP construct and reconstruct the dominant discourses in the performance of gendered roles that still pervade policing culture. Many police ethnographers have utilised Goffman’s theoretical framework to discuss their findings from the field as Goffman usefully attempts to make sense of interactions
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48
