Dr Mike Rowe

My main research interest at present is in policing. With colleagues, I have conducted a six-year ethnographic study of the use of discretion by front line officers. This arose out of on-going concerns about the use of stop and search powers but embraces all aspects of discretion. We observed officers in three police forces and have published work on the craft of policing, police culture, the use of body-worn cameras, discretion in decisions to arrest and other topics. The work has led to the establishment of a European network, funded by EU COST, on Police Stops, of which I was the Vice Chair. Further information is available at: https://www.polstops.eu/. More recently, aspects of the research have been picked up by practitioners, including the Independent Office for Police Conduct.

Much of my research in public administration is informed by the work of Michael Lipsky on street-level bureaucracy. I am keen to explore the application of these ideas to public services, broadly understood, and in the changing context where, for example, AI and other advances alter the interactions between citizens and the state. I am currently engaged in preparing a book on these ideas for the Routledge Series on Interpretive Methods.

With colleagues from Denmark and Switzerland, I am engaged in a project exploring the meaning of those long periods of inactivity in the field that we experience as ethnographers. In particular, by focusing on activities and points of interest, we miss the significance of the silences and the work being done when there is nothing apparent to observe. This work has been supported by the Independent Social Research Foundation and will, we hope, culminate in a book on the topic.