2004
Droit et société
Chronique bibliographique
Using Pierre Bourdieu’s Framework for Understanding Police Culture
Janet Chan
L’usage des concepts de Pierre Bourdieu dans la compréhension de la culture policière
This paper describes how Bourdieu’s theory of practice can be used for understanding organizational culture and socialization. In particular, Bourdieu’s concepts of field, capital, and habitus have provided new ways of interpreting the occupational culture and socialisation process of police officers. The paper draws on empirical data from a longitudinal study of police recruits in Australia in order to illustrate the utility of this framework and to discuss the ways in which Bourdieu’s theory might be extended to understand social change.