ABSTRACT

Interactionist police sociology is in need of revision and extension in the face of profound change in policing, society, and in the very nature of ‘interaction’. The argument draws upon interaction ritual theory, a micro-sociological perspective that explores social life, and feelings of belonging and solidarity, as outcomes of encounters between people. Two tenets of the theory – that successful encounters produce emotional energy that creates bonds of solidarity, and that they require physical co-presence of human participants to work in this way – are being revised in the light of new empirical work exploring interaction with ‘others’ in a variety of new forms. The effect of this work is to provoke reassessment of what ‘counts’ as an encounter and to question the nature and sources of solidarity in an age when face-to-face physical co-presence is in decline. These features of interaction ritual theory are developed through three purposively-selected, illustrative applications of it to policing: police as reproducers of order; policing as information brokering; and, the changing landscape of security encounters. The article opens up new questions and objects of study for interactionist police research that are fit for the empirical realities of contemporary policing.

摘要

面对警务、社会和“互动”本质的深刻变化，互动主义警察社会学需要修订和扩展。该论点借鉴了互动仪式理论，这是一种探索社会生活的微观社会学视角，以及作为人与人之间相遇结果的归属感和团结感。该理论的两个原则——成功的相遇会产生情感能量，创造团结的纽带，并且它们需要人类参与者的身体共同存在才能以这种方式工作——正在根据探索与“他人”互动的新实证工作进行修订'以各种新形式。这项工作的效果是引发重新评估什么是“重要的”相遇，并质疑在面对面的身体共同存在正在下降的时代中团结的性质和来源。互动仪式理论的这些特征是通过三个有目的地选择的、说明性的将其应用于警务而发展起来的：警察作为秩序的复制者；作为信息中介的警务；以及不断变化的安全遭遇格局。这篇文章为互动主义警察研究开辟了新的问题和研究对象，这些问题和研究对象适合当代警务的经验现实。安全遭遇的不断变化的格局。这篇文章为互动主义警察研究开辟了新的问题和研究对象，这些问题和研究对象适合当代警务的经验现实。安全遭遇的不断变化的格局。这篇文章为互动主义警察研究开辟了新的问题和研究对象，这些问题和研究对象适合当代警务的经验现实。