A vida com farda: A vestimenta policial como relato institucional em Disputa

Abstract

Institutions build stories to support them; narrations that stimulate speeches, experiences and values from which to think themselves as a social group and an institution. This paper intends to analyze one of the fondest institutional stories of police agency: the uniform as an investiture. The author states the figure of the police uniform in such terms because the symbols embodied in it allow for building an understanding both of the individual wearing the uniform and of the group to which he belongs. Upon that professional and moral understanding lies the sense of the story, which is capable of functioning as a figure of thought and of guiding thespeech in a certain direction. Going deeper into the senses, thatswirl andsettle around the figure of the police uniform, is, finally, a way of beginning to analyze the concrete modes through which individuals and institution think about themselves.