United Agents Community of Practice within Border Policing in the Baltic Sea Area Yakhlef, Sophia 2018 Document Version: Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Yakhlef, S. (2018). United Agents: Community of Practice within Border Policing in the Baltic Sea Area. Lund University. 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LUND UNIVERSITY PO Box 117 221 00 Lund +46 46-222 00 00 SOPHIA YAKHLEF AN ECOLABEL 3041 0903 United AgentsUnited United Agents ryck, Lund 2018 NORDIC SW Community Practice in of the within BalticPolicing Sea Area Border This study focuses on a border police collaboration Printed by Media-T United Agents project called Turnstone. The purpose of the project was to prevent and fight transnational crime in Community of Practice within Border Policing the Baltic Sea area and increase collaboration between border intelligence officers. Participants in the Baltic Sea Area in the project included police, coast guard, and border police officers from Estonia, Finland, Latvia, SOPHIA YAKHLEF Lithuania and Sweden. DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY | LUND UNIVERSITY 2018 Based on observations and interviews, and taking a community of practice perspective, the study illustrates the significance of informal processes and practices for creating a trust-based context conducive to the exchange of sensitive information and the generation of new practices. Face-to-face interactions (involving among other things joking and sharing stories), negotiations, and engaging in everyday activities have proved to be instrumental in creating a collaborative climate. Lund University Faculty of Social Sciences 538066 Department of Sociology ISBN 978-91-7753-806-6 789177 ISSN 1102-4712 9 119 United Agents 1 2 United Agents Community of Practice within Border Policing in the Baltic Sea Area Sophia Yakhlef DOCTORAL DISSERTATION by due permission of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Lund University, Sweden. To be defended at Kulturens hörsal, 26th of October 2018 at 13.15. Faculty opponent Helene O. I. Gundhus, University of Oslo 3 Organization Document name LUND UNIVERSITY Doctoral Dissertation Date of issue 26th of October 2018 Author(s) Sophia Yakhlef Sponsoring organization Title and subtitle United Agents: Community of Practice within Border Policing in the Baltic Sea Area Abstract The risks and insecurities emphasised in contemporary societies have given rise to diverse forms of policing, such as transnational and intelligence-based police collaborations. This dissertation focuses on a border police collaboration project, called Turnstone, that took place between 2014 and 2015, aiming to address issues related to irregular migration and cross border crimes in the Baltic Sea areas. The purpose of this study is to provide a community of practice perspective on cross- border police collaboration drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with a number of intelligence police, coast-guard, and border guard officers from Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden. The study illustrates the everyday interactions as well as the formal processes and practices that have generated a trust-based collaborative environment, which is necessary for sharing secret intelligence information. Increasing demands of collaboration places the officers in an ambivalent position: their neighbouring countries are both their work partners and the ”source” of the cross-border criminals. Two processes account for the emergence of a community of practice: 1) the development of a common linguistic repertoire (a set of norms and values that served as guidelines for streamlining and guiding the pursuit of their joint daily activities), and 2) the actors’ engaging in what they consider “real police work”. The study shows how the participants are at pains to reconcile between these two demands: “real police work” involving “action” and aiming at catching criminals, versus formal work practices, such as attending formal meetings and writing reports, thereby catering to bureaucratic needs. By focusing on their joint activities organized during the project (referred to as Power Weeks), the study shows how a trust-based relationship, which is necessary for the exchange of culturally, politically and professionally sensitive information, has gradually developed by the participants in and through their joint engagement in these everyday practices. The study highlights the importance of both informal face-to-face encounters and more formal processes in the development of the group as an entity. The findings of this study suggest that working together, attending formal meetings, producing reports, sharing sensitive information, and profiling suspects are equally important as the informal after-work activities. The Power Weeks included various episodes of telling stories and sharing jokes and this has proved to a be a fertile context for generating trust, knowledge, and innovative work practices. The study emphasises the relevance of community of practice for understanding how participants from different organizational and cultural contexts brought together in a project can develop a collaborative environment around sensitive issues. Key words: Border police collaboration, community of practice, intelligence sharing, transnational policing, face- to-face encounters, meetings, trust building, Baltic Sea area, Europe. Classification system and/or index terms (if any) Supplementary bibliographical information Language English ISSN and key title ISBN 978-91-7753-806-6 (print) ISSN 1102-4712 United Agents ISBN 978-91-7753-807-3 (pdf) Recipient’s notes Number of pages 211 Price Security classification I, the undersigned, being the copyright owner of the abstract of the above-mentioned dissertation, hereby grant to all reference sources permission to publish and disseminate the abstract of the above-mentioned dissertation. Signature Date 2018- 09-17 4 United Agents Community of Practice within Border Policing in the Baltic Sea Area Sophia Yakhlef 5 Cover photo by Sophia Yakhlef Back cover photo by Oliver Victor Pawela Copyright Sophia Yakhlef Faculty of Social Sciences Department of Sociology ISBN 978-91-7753-806-6 (print) ISBN 978-91-7753-807-3 (pdf) ISSN 1102-4712 nr 119 Printed in Sweden by Media-Tryck, Lund University Lund 2018 WAN E S CO IC L D A B R E O L N Media-Tryck is an environmentally certified and ISO 14001 certified 1234 5678 provider of printed material. Read more about our environmental work at www.mediatryck.lu.se 6 To my family 7 Contents Acknowledgements ........................................................................................ 11 1. Introduction ..................................................................................................... 13 Background of the Study ............................................................................... 15 The Research Project ............................................................................ 15 Border Policing in the EU .................................................................... 17 Transnational (Border Police) Collaboration ......................................... 20 The Aim of the Study .................................................................................... 23 Contributions of the Study ................................................................... 24 Thesis Outline ............................................................................................... 26 2. Previous Research ............................................................................................. 29 Global Policing and Transnational Collaboration .......................................... 29 Changes in Policing .............................................................................. 29 Police Collaboration ............................................................................. 30 Intelligence Based Policing .................................................................... 32 Collaboration Obstacles ........................................................................ 34 Police Occupational Culture.......................................................................... 37 Community of Practice in Police Research ............................................ 40 3. Theoretical Framework .................................................................................... 43 Community of Practice ................................................................................. 43 Mutual Engagement, Enterprise and Repertoire .................................... 46 Participation,