ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we argue that ethnography can play a more active role in transforming policing to better serve the current and future needs of communities by focusing on positive experiences as an explicit change process perspective. We explore the utility of appreciative inquiry (AI) in ethnographic policing scholarship, specifically drawing on ethnographic data on Vietnam. AI is an innovative approach to discovering and fostering innovations in organisational development. It is a strength-based approach to social research which aims to elicit values, facts and feelings from participants through an emphasis on real and positive experiences with a view to building and co-creating a better future. ‘Future-forming’ approaches, such as AI, enable both ethnographers and police officers to become ‘agents of social change’. We contend that applying AI in ethnographies on policing that it can help ‘unstick’ difficult policy areas encourages a contest of ideas to enhance capacity for change, and facilitates change in relatively stable organisational environments.
