This thesis explores the question, 'Who do South African police officers think they are and how does this shape police practice?' Based on eight months of ethnographic fieldwork in Cape Town and the Eastern Cape province of South Africa in 2012/13, it is an exploration of the deep-seated perceptions, stories and imaginings that South African Police Service (SAPS) officers have of themselves, their occupation and their country, in the early twenty-first century. It unpacks how officers’ individual narratives shape, and are shaped by organisational narratives and forces, and how this interplay influences police practice in an unequal and violent young democracy. The thesis suggests that a job in the SAPS is primarily just that, a job. It is a means to strive and survive in a country saturated in vulnerability and risk. Most officers join the organisation after other dreams have slipped out of reach. Once recruited they re-write their self-narratives to accommodate their new circumstances. Recruited from lineages long-oppressed, the meaning and income the job brings to their lives is usually more important to them than the work they carry out. As a result, they seek first to please their institutional overseers and ease the pressure of the job. This is achieved by enacting institutional performances that promote the idea that the SAPS is a rational, effective, evidence-based and rule-bound organisation made of up well trained officers performing common-sense crime prevention tasks, while hiding the darker side of police work. Using carefully choreographed performances, the SAPS and its officers present a strategically crafted façade behind which individual officers strive to secure their sense of self. When the façade is challenged, some resort to violence in an attempt to garner the respect they seek.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T13:32:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 AnaMariaKiyan.pdf: 575639 bytes, checksum: f99601dbbf306b23a190d86ddec4e2f5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005-06-28 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / The present research is aimed to analyze the metamorphosis in identity (Ciampa, 1996) of the priests who belong to the Roman Apostolic Catholic Church, by giving a special consideration to the celibacy as a meaningful element in the identity policy (Ciampa, 2002) of the institution concerning its clergy, both from the discipline and dogma point of views, all with a social psychology approach. Although the major concern of the research is to talk over the present situation, understanding the process that has set the ecclesiastic celibacy along Catholic Church history is necessary. Thus, the set up of celibacy will be mentioned only to clarify the way it works. Hence, it is a study with no theological basis. The research procedures were contextualized surveys on the historical/social aspects where the situation develops as well as a collection and further analysis of interviews carried out with priests and/or former priests who were for and against the practice of celibacy, with their lives later analyzed under a social psychology approach. / A presente pesquisa, na perspectiva da Psicologia Social, pretende analisar a questão das metamorfoses identitárias (Ciampa, 1996) de sacerdotes da Igreja Católica Apostólica Romana, focalizando especialmente o celibato como um elemento relevante da política de identidade (Ciampa, 2002) dessa instituição em relação ao seu clero, seja do ponto de vista disciplinar, seja dogmático. Embora a preocupação principal da pesquisa seja discutir a situação atual da questão, torna-se necessário compreender o processo de instituição do celibato eclesiástico ao longo da história da Igreja Católica. Assim, a instauração do celibato será mencionada apenas no que se refere à necessidade da compreensão mais ampla dos mecanismos de seu funcionamento. Não se trata portanto de um estudo de base teológica. Os procedimentos da pesquisa consistem num levantamento contextual dos aspectos históricos sociais nos quais se desenrola a questão e também na coleta e análise de entrevistas de padres e/ou ex-padres favoráveis e contrários à prática celibatária e posterior análise das histórias de vida à luz da Psicologia Social.