Oscar Rantatalo

Competence in professional practice: A practice theory analysis of police and doctors:

This article outlines a theoretical understanding of competence as the inferred potential for desirable activity within a professional practice. By employing the concept of ‘teleoaffective structure’ as developed in Schatzki’s practice theory, our study investigates how notions of competent and excellent professionals are defined in two separate practices in which highly qualified professionals share formal qualifications. The study is comparative and based on a total of 39 interviews carried out in the Swedish National Police Counter-Terrorist Unit (police) and with recruiters of medical interns (doctors) in Swedish healthcare. Results indicate that, despite obvious differences between the professional groups in the study, some remarkable similarities are apparent in what are regarded as high levels of competence. Surprisingly, technical expertise was downplayed as an indicator of high levels of competence in both practices. The professional groups emphasized flexibility, drive/ambition and social competence, as well as the ability to balance between being highly capable and being humble before others, including other groups of professionals as characteristics of excellence. Based on the results, the authors discuss a ‘logic of excellence’ that can be used to describe mechanisms of competence differentiation in professional practices from a practice theory perspective.

Police leaders make poor change agents: leadership practice in the face of a major organisational reform

ABSTRACT The present article examines expectations on police leaders during major organisational change pressures. Based on policy analysis and interviews with 28 police leaders, the paper seeks to answer the following question: How do police leaders’ accounts of leadership practice relate to expectations from higher ranks (above), subordinates (below) and police policies concerning leadership? The results of the paper indicate that police leaders are squeezed into a position between demands from above (top management) and demands from below (lower organisational tiers). Some of the perceived expectations and practiced leadership actions are also gendered. For example, women feel the need to prove their credibility as leaders and to act in both a caring and daring manner, something that is not evident for male police leaders. Furthermore, the material indicates a considerable mismatch between the different sets of demands expressed in interviews and expectations regarding leadership expressed in police policy discourse, wherein core values and leadership criteria are articulated. In conclusion, the findings indicate a discrepancy between official rhetoric and practice, where the leadership constructed at a policy level deviates from leadership constructed in practice. This discrepancy is argued to represent an effective barrier for change initiatives, and hence the idea that police leaders will be able to function as agents of change promoting organisational reform is highly uncertain.

The miscellany of militaristic policing : a literature review

This article reviews how the subject of paramilitary policing and paramilitary police units (PPUs) has been addressed during the last ten years of criminal justice, criminological and policing research. In this paper, the term ‘paramilitary policing’ is discussed in relation to previous debates concerning militaristic policing and police militarisation. Drawing on these debates, articles from a number of journals addressing the phenomena are reviewed with the aim of answering how paramilitary policing has been studied, defined, and contextualised in recent research. The results show that no consensus or universal definition of what paramilitary policing is seems to exist, as studies denote the subject differently depending on applied theoretical and empirical perspectives. This article discusses the apparent differences and offers a conceptual scheme explaining the main intersections and different dimensions encompassed in the subject.

Collective reflection in practice : an ethnographic study of Swedish police training

Abstract Although reflection has been viewed as an individual process, increased attention has been given to how reflective processes are socially anchored. The present article contributes to this knowledge through an examination of how collective reflection is enacted in the context of police education. The article is based on a one-year ethnographic study of police recruits undergoing training, and the main sources of data collection were participant observations and field interviews. The data were inductively analysed, and a model that differentiates amongst ‘specular’, ‘dialogic’ and ‘polyphonic’ reflection processes is presented. The findings suggest that collective reflection involving multiple individuals adds complexity to reflective processes and that these processes may take on more diverse forms than has been acknowledged, as previous research has mainly focused on dialogic collective reflection. The implications of these findings, such as how increased complexity may counteract the benefits of collective reflection, are also discussed.

Media representations and police officers' identity work in a specialised police tactical unit

A growing body of research has highlighted how media representations of policing and contemporary police work are interconnected and influence each other. An underexplored dimension of this relation is how mediated representations of policing transfer meaning to police officers’ sensemaking of their occupational identities. With the aim of advancing knowledge on this issue, the following article reports a case study of a tactical police unit and explores what roles media representations of the unit play in serving police officers’ narrative ‘identity work’ relative to their work and their organisation. Methodologically, the article draws on an analysis of newspaper articles about the studied police unit and interviews with police officers working within the unit. The findings indicate that positively biased representations depicting the unit as heroic and elite had self-enhancing effects on police officers’ identifications, whilst critically oriented media narratives spurred reframing and projection of local counter-images of occupational work identity. These findings add to the present understanding of how the media affect real-life policing, by highlighting how these representations convey meanings to police practice and occupational identification.

Using police bicycle patrols to manage social order in bicycle and pedestrian traffic networks : a Swedish case study

This article examines how bicycle police units perceive their impact on social norms of rule compliance and risk behaviours in bicycle and pedestrian traffic networks. Using qualitative methods, a police bicycle patrol was analysed. Findings indicate that bicycle patrols are promising as an innovative measure to target bicycle and pedestrian traffic enforcement. Police reported that the bicycle patrol allowed increased accessibility and that police presence on bicycles had a positive normative impact on the behaviours of bike riders and pedestrians. The discussion encompasses the way in which bicycle patrol units hold important tacit knowledge of street life that could play a key role in policy making.

Police Leadership Practice in Times of Uncertainty and Organisational Turmoil

Resonating on the themes of globalisation, change and uncertainty, the following chapter offers a critical discussion regarding the role of leadership in occupational and organisational ambitions of renewal. An often espoused image of leaders in times of change is that of a guide showing the way for a work-group or organisation on a journey towards the desired future state of being (cf. Gill, 2002).

A framework for team–level reliability through a lens of collaboration

The aim of this paper is to develop a behavioural framework for team-level reliability assessment in which different forms of collaboration are used as measures. The paper draws on current theorisi ...

Supporting roles in live simulations : how observers and confederates can facilitate learning

ABSTRACT Live simulations in which students perform the roles of future professionals or act as confederates (i.e. student actors) are important training activities in different types of vocational education. While previous research has focused on the learning of students who enact a professional, secondary roles in scenario training, such as student observers and confederates, have received inadequate attention. The present study focuses on student observers and confederates in order to examine how these roles can support the learning of other participants in live simulations and to determine how the experience of performing these roles can become a learning experience for the performers. A total of 15 individual interviews and 1 group interview of students attending Swedish police training were conducted. The study findings indicated that the observer role is characterised by distance and detachment, and the confederate role by directness and sensory involvement. Both roles can support as well as inhibit intentional learning for primary participants and offer learning experiences for those playing the roles. The study theorises these roles and lists practical implications for planning live simulations in vocational education and training.

Police bodies and police minds: professional learning through bodily practices of sport participation*

ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the literature concerned with bodily perspectives on professional learning by reporting on a study of Swedish police officers’ sport participation as a form of occupational learning. The study seeks to answer how ideals of work practice and sport participation intersect, how professional learning is channelled through sport participation, and how such bodily practices might have excluding effects on professional participation. Using a practice theory framework, the Schatzkian concept of teleoaffective structure guides the analysis. Sixteen interviews were conducted with police officers who practice police sports. The analysis targeted symbolic manifestations of teleoaffectivity, and the findings indicate five overlapping ideals between sport and police practice. In addition, one police specific ideal was constructed. Based on these findings, we discuss how professionals learn by participation in practices not directly related to the work in question, and how such learning includes and excludes from participation.