Hinter der Lage

What do police officers mean when they talk about “gut feeling”? What functions does experiential knowledge fulfill in everyday work, and what challenges does it pose? This ethnographic study shows how police experiential knowledge is created, shaped by formal guidelines, everyday experiences, and colleagues, and guides action in the field. The work reveals how this gives rise to informal routines interpretation that supplement or undermine formal rules—sometimes with discriminatory consequences. The study is aimed at police researchers, organizational sociologists, and anyone interested in the organizational causes of police discrimination. The author conducts ethnographic research on the police, organization, and everyday knowledge.