Waiting for Europe: Utopia, Narratives of the Imaginary West and the Materiality of Police Culture in Ukraine

Abstract

Despite the long-held interest of researchers in the police culture(s), police imaginaries have barely received attention. This article is concerned with the imaginaries of the West produced by Ukrainian police officers. Based on the 5-month ethnography in two Ukrainian cities, I argue that Ukrainian police officers construct the idealized non-place of the Imaginary West to cope with the pressures of their work and criticize their working conditions, perceived lack of support from the state, gaps in infrastructure and lack of authority in encounters with the public. I discuss the implications of research on imaginary non-places for the field of police studies, arguing for the need to account for the materiality of culture.