The Right Way, the Wrong Way, and the Blueville Way: Policing, Standards, and Cultural Match

• In Event: 365 - Regular Session. Sociology of Culture

Abstract

This article examines how actors within an organization – a police department – use the social condition of their local setting in ways that ultimately hinder institutional efforts toward standardization. Using a case study which draws on the historical and socio-political features of a city in economic decline, the analysis develops a standards-as-culture lens to show how local conditions inform the cultural resources police officers deploy. It is argued that individuals connect features of their community with repertoires of uniqueness – what they call “the Blueville Way” – to perform, justify and sustain non-conformity with political measures meant to standardize the provision of policing services. Data for this study include 100 interviews and ethnographic field notes gathered over an 18 month period spent with a police department; in headquarters, patrol cars and the streets. This article contributes an account for the significance of “cultural match”: practices are driven by the social and cultural context in which an organization is embedded, thereby impeding full compliance with industry standards that are deemed locally incompatible.

Author

• Holly Campeau, University of Toronto