Projects per year
Abstract
We expect the police to ‘be in control’. At the same time, control is essential to officers’ daily routines, for executing their job of maintaining public order, and ensuring safety for others and themselves. But what does it mean to ‘have’ or to ‘be’ in control? How do officers maintain it? In what ways do they attempt to gain control, and how do they make sure not to lose it; over situations, civilians or suspects, and over themselves?
While control is at the heart of many policing studies and analysed from fields of criminology, sociology, law, political science, social- and public policy and other behavioural sciences, control itself is rarely questioned.
In this book, I examine what control means in the context of police work. Based on a long-term ethnography of the Dutch police, I answer how control works from three analytical lenses: 1) violence and antagonism, 2) bodies and emotions, and 3) trajectories and anticipations. I develop a phenomenological-interactionist approach to analyse officers’ micro-level behaviours in antagonistic interactions, their embodied and emotional experiences, and meaning-making of control and violence.
I show that control is not a matter of ‘to have or to have not’. Rather, police officers enact control; they put it into being. I propose a non-essentialist understanding of control to elucidate in what ways it is enacted. More specifically, I illustrate that police officers enact realities of control on bodily, emotional, discursive and visual levels by constructing particular futures, using certain discourses and applying forms of emotion/body regulation. The feeling of ‘being in control’ is thus also enacted. In short, this book specifies the ways in which police officers ‘do control’.
While control is at the heart of many policing studies and analysed from fields of criminology, sociology, law, political science, social- and public policy and other behavioural sciences, control itself is rarely questioned.
In this book, I examine what control means in the context of police work. Based on a long-term ethnography of the Dutch police, I answer how control works from three analytical lenses: 1) violence and antagonism, 2) bodies and emotions, and 3) trajectories and anticipations. I develop a phenomenological-interactionist approach to analyse officers’ micro-level behaviours in antagonistic interactions, their embodied and emotional experiences, and meaning-making of control and violence.
I show that control is not a matter of ‘to have or to have not’. Rather, police officers enact control; they put it into being. I propose a non-essentialist understanding of control to elucidate in what ways it is enacted. More specifically, I illustrate that police officers enact realities of control on bodily, emotional, discursive and visual levels by constructing particular futures, using certain discourses and applying forms of emotion/body regulation. The feeling of ‘being in control’ is thus also enacted. In short, this book specifies the ways in which police officers ‘do control’.
Original language | English |
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Publisher | Universiteit van Amsterdam |
Number of pages | 294 |
ISBN (Print) | 9789464197112 |
Publication status | Published - 31 Mar 2023 |
Keywords
- Policing
- Violence
- Embodiment
- Culture
- Use-of-force
- Ethnomethodology
- Video elicitation
- Police-citizen interactions
Fingerprint
Dive into the research topics of 'Being in Control: Policing Bodies, Emotions and Violence'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
- 1 Finished
Research output
- 1 Article
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“It’s almost the 14th of February [Valentine’s Day] so I thought of you”: The Role of Positionality in Navigating Field Relations during a Police Ethnography
Keesman, L., 16 Sept 2024, (E-pub ahead of print) In: European Journal of Policing Studies. 22 p.Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review
Activities
- 1 Lecture / Presentation
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Invited talk Kennissessie Gemeente Amsterdam, Openbare Orde en Veiligheid. Thema: 'Omgaan met anti overheidssentiment'. Presentation on phd thesis regarding violent interactions in policing, and ongoing research on riots and violent disturbances in Europe.
Laura Keesman (Speaker)
21 Feb 2023 → 22 Feb 2023Activity: Lecture / Presentation › Academic
Press/Media
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Hoe houd je als politieagent controle in een geweldssituatie? (inclusief video fragment). Radio interview NPO radio 1. De Nieuws BV.
3/04/23
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Research
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Dr Kelder & Co. Rubriek ‘Jonge Doctor’. Toelichting promotieonderzoek ‘Being in Control. Policing Bodies, Emotions and Violence.’ Radio interview NPO Radio 1. (01-04-2023)
1/04/23
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Research
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Hoe houden agenten controle? Persbericht / Interview PhD thesis and defense University of Amsterdam
29/03/23
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Research