Police officers relaxing. Literature, sport and culture within the police force

French version

(English below)

Study Day – ANR ArabPol

Thursday 25 March 2027 – INALCO

Police officers relaxing. Literature, sport and culture within the police force

At first glance, police officers’ activities outside their police duties may seem to be a marginal aspect when it comes to understanding police institutions and their development. However, a closer look at their leisure, cultural, sporting, community and charitable activities – which remain largely unexplored – as well as an examination of police officers’ more or less routine involvement in social work, refereeing sports matches or managing football teams or even federations, would shed light on our understanding of these security bodies and their officers. Police officers and their institutions do, in fact, engage in leisure activities and cultural, sporting and social practices through which personal sensibilities are expressed, emotions linked to the profession are ‘released’, or solidarity is demonstrated. Far from being confined to the so-called ‘Northern’ police forces, these activities are also found elsewhere and have been established – in some cases for several decades – amongst police forces in the Arab world, for example. 

Undoubtedly part of a quest for internal and external, individual and institutional legitimacy, these activities – which are sometimes used for propaganda purposes – shed light on what these police forces are and aspire to be, in tension with their repressive practices at the heart of modes of governance. Although seemingly innocuous, they thus provide a fruitful point of entry for the social sciences, enabling a multifaceted examination of police institutions and an understanding of them at different levels: individual, organisational and managerial. These different levels underpin three research themes identified within the framework of this call for papers. The first theme concerns the artistic, literary and sporting activities that certain police officers choose to engage in outside their duties. A second theme focuses on these same types of activities when they take place within the police organisation or are supervised by it. Finally, a third theme centres on police officers’ involvement outside the institution or in connection with it, in clubs, federations or associations.

Theme 1 : Leisure activities on the side: unwinding after work

Engaging in writing poetry or crime novels, painting, or getting involved in charitable work seems to characterise certain police officers in the region. Some of these activities are undertaken by senior civil servants whose authoritarian dispositions and sense of public duty also appear to be channelled through the cultural capital exemplified by their proud mastery of Arabic literary canons (classical poetry and rhetoric). Whilst these skills and personal qualities were characteristic of senior officers in the second half of the 20th century, artistic pursuits for one’s own sake seem to be more typical of police officers at the start of the 21st century. This is the case with police officers who write crime novels; in addition to the advantage of being able to draw on their insider’s knowledge of the profession and its challenges, they can distinguish themselves by aligning themselves with a tradition of the enlightened and intellectual detective, whilst also benefiting, through a valued cultural pursuit, from additional income. The centrality of cultural capital raises the question: what do these various practices tell us about officers’ educational and cultural resources and their aspirations for recognition, or indeed about the ways in which they construct an identity beyond their profession? Do prior socialisation experiences and specific social and cultural dispositions influence the choice of these practices? Some of these literary practices may even be viewed by their authors as a means of carving out a space of freedom from the hierarchy. Furthermore, writings targeting the hierarchy may sometimes be tolerated by it, in what appears to be a negotiated space allowing staff to remain within the institution despite their dissatisfaction. This dual response raises questions about the legal framework governing such practices: what obligations of discretion must officers observe? What authorisations do police officers require to publish their works, and what are the current rules regarding their engagement in multiple activities? To what extent are these practices, in order to be carried out, subject to negotiations between officers and their institution, and to restrictions imposed by the latter?

Some police officers, meanwhile, favour sporting activities and attend local sports clubs to practise boxing or martial arts in their spare time. As well as keeping fit, these training sessions can be regarded as genuine hobbies. What do these practices tell us about physical learning and any continuities between sporting activities and police careers ?

Observing these practices – whether sporting or cultural – and how they evolve over time prompts us to consider possible differences in attitudes across generations, ranks and social backgrounds. This research area therefore aims to explore the rationale behind the choice of activities and the meanings attributed to them. Are certain practices gradually losing their value or even becoming despised, whilst others are becoming particularly sought after? What role does religion play in the forms of personal expression favoured by officers? What meanings do they ascribe to them?

Research Area 2: Sport and the arts in the service of police institutions: supervising, staging, organising competitions

Far from being mere leisure pursuits, these activities – whether artistic, literary or sporting – play a full part in the representational economies at the heart of police institutions’ missions. Such is the case with the poetry of praise produced by poet-officers who publicly pay tribute to their colleagues who have died as martyrs, or with those practices less visible to the outside world, such as painting, which remain confined to the privacy of the institution that showcases them at public events (open days). At a time when mass cultural practices are flourishing, these occasional forums for institutional representation and engagement with the public can serve to bring to the fore certain creative skills that are subsequently associated with particular officers. This is the case, for example, with the re-enactment of crime scenes for entertainment purposes and aimed at the general public; by seeking to highlight the work of a specialist unit (the forensic team, in this instance), simultaneously enables the development of creative work and creative practitioners. The mobilisation of these personal talents in the service of the institution, rather than for the benefit of the practitioners’ individual development, invites us to examine the relationship between police institutions and these leisure activities, as well as the ways in which they are integrated, their selection and their promotion. What forms of artistic expression do these institutions seek out and promote, and for which audiences ?

Activities, particularly sporting ones, play a central role within police institutions, which organise them, both as internal competitions within the force and as events open to external participants. Since independence, security institutions in Morocco, Syria and Egypt have thus invested in football clubs, sometimes even leading to the proliferation of such clubs within the same ministries. For example, the Egyptian Ministry of the Interior currently owns two clubs (Ittihad ash-Shurta, founded in 1980, and ad-Dakhiliya, founded in 2005). Similarly, teams comprising both army and police officers take part in all manner of sporting tournaments organised by the various Egyptian sports federations. Furthermore, national security institutions regularly compete in international competitions bringing together different countries. These events raise questions about the diversification of channels through which the intense international cooperation between police forces worldwide, in particular, and security institutions, in general, takes place.

This research strand will analyse the sporting practices engaged in by officers and promoted by police institutions. Among the possible avenues of inquiry, contributions may examine the models of masculinity associated with these practices, in order to understand their role in shaping the institutional gender regime. From this perspective, attention may be focused on the processes of production, legitimisation and reconfiguration of hierarchies between forms of masculinity and gender relations, with a view to identifying the gender norms that these sporting practices help to reinforce or influence. What, for example, does the encouragement of the formation of women’s police teams in certain sports at the expense of others, as is the case in Tunisia with basketball or handball? These lines of inquiry are not exhaustive and may be extended to include further questions regarding sporting, cultural or community practices that are regulated, embodied or staged by the relevant institutions.

Theme 3: Beyond the police: officers, clubs and community involvement

Finally, a distinctive feature observed in the Arab world (and perhaps characteristic of other national and geographical contexts) concerns the management by police officers of non-police organisations and institutions linked to leisure activities. Some senior police officers are, in fact, directly involved in the management of sports clubs or organisations. In Morocco, for example, football appears to have forged strong and long-standing links with security personnel, particularly the police: several senior police officers have managed or chaired football clubs that still contribute to the reputation of certain cities (Tangier, Rabat, Casablanca, Marrakesh, etc.). In the case of certain club chairmen, who are deeply identified with their teams, their links to the security services are often overlooked (one thinks of Casablanca’s Wydad, long led by a high-ranking officer who was also in charge of the poetry pages of a major Moroccan daily newspaper). Players are sometimes police officers themselves or go on to join the police force, sport having facilitated their entry into the civil service. The exercise of leadership roles within associations is not limited to the sporting sphere: it also extends to the arts, charity, religion and the professional world. Associations of retired police officers can also be seen as an extension of these responsibilities, helping to consolidate positions of influence whilst facilitating collective organisation around the specific social needs of former officers and their families. 

In this context, an analysis of the responsibilities exercised by officers within sports organisations or associations (charitable, religious, professional) will enable us to examine the links between institutional roles and community involvement by analysing how the resources, skills and forms of authority acquired in one context are mobilised or reconfigured in the other. Why and how are these activities – which may open the door to leadership roles for some or to employment for others – undertaken, and with what resources? What do these links between state institutions, police officers and sport in these countries tell us, when elsewhere, as in Europe, the world of football seems to be predominantly in the hands of businessmen ? What do they teach us about state formation in the post-colonial context and about the integration of security personnel into arenas scrutinised for their subversive potential, such as football Ultras ?

Workshop objectives and questions

These themes, drawing on initial empirical evidence and reflections developed within the research team of the ANR Arabpol, the organiser of this workshop, highlight themes that we encounter in our sources and in our ongoing research into the reconfiguration of police forces in the Arab world, and which we would like to explore and examine in greater depth. The documentation gathered on these leisure activities, the biographies and career trajectories of certain officers, as well as the promotional messaging – the propagandistic nature of which we are well aware – provide us with interesting insights into what these police forces are and aspire to be in their quest for internal and external legitimacy, a quest which is nevertheless constantly contradicted by their openly repressive practices. Indeed, how do these artistic and sporting activities coexist, compensate for, or are they intended to mask the repressive practices of these state bodies ? Whilst these activities may indeed serve to legitimise the institution, maintain networks or exercise forms of control, they may also stem from personal tastes, everyday social interactions or strategies of distinction that are relatively independent of the profession. Our aim is both to examine how police institutions utilise these activities (the question of political and institutional uses remains open), and to reflect on what they reveal about police officers as social actors, their relationship with society, and the – sometimes porous – boundaries between police spheres and everyday social spaces. 

Several questions guide the organisation of this study day. They aim to understand the relationships and interactions between institutions of authority and cultural, social and sporting organisations and practices not strictly intended for the officers themselves. What can these forms of social engagement tell us about the broader connection that may exist between sporting and/or cultural activities and mechanisms of control? What do they bring to the institution and what are their implications? Do they or do they not play a role in shaping a particular type of policing? What are the historical roots of such practices, and how do they enable us to understand recent configurations of police institutions (postcolonial in the case of police forces in formerly colonised countries) from a different perspective? What discourses frame these practices? What, if any, are the links between police cultural and sporting practices and those of the general public? How can these indicators help us understand the strength (or otherwise) of police officers’ social roots ?

These questions are by no means exhaustive. The discussions held during this event will help to define them more clearly, drawing on distinct geographical contexts. This is why we wish to bring together researchers working on issues related to cultural and sporting practices that could shed light on the role of police officers, their practices, or even the management of these activities by police institutions. The aim is to pool archival and ethnographic documentary material that will help to better define the nature of this relationship between the police, on the one hand, and culture, leisure or the management of sport, on the other. Furthermore, engaging in dialogue with specialists in security institutions in general (including the armed forces) and police institutions in particular, across different national contexts, would enable us to examine these practices more closely, whether they serve the institutional hierarchy, the personal well-being of officers, or in the shadow of a less than honourable private life. Furthermore, whilst we are aware that these practices have been the subject of only very few specific studies, we believe it is important to also engage with specialists in cultural productions and sporting activities, considered, amongst other things, from the perspective of security, authoritarianism or repression.

Schedule for proposal submissions

Proposals for papers should be sent to View e-mail by 20 December 2026. They must include a title, a 400-word abstract (excluding references) clearly indicating the chosen perspective, and a short biography. Those who have submitted a proposal will be informed of the committee’s decision in early January 2027.

As a publication (the format of which will be communicated to you at a later date) is planned following the workshop, those whose proposals have been selected will be invited to submit their presentation in advance of the workshop, by 8 March 2027.

English version 

Workshop – ANR ArabPol

Thursday 25 March 2027

Police Officers at Ease: Literature, Sport and Culture in the Police Force

At first glance, police officers’ non-policing (or off-duty) activities may appear to be a marginal aspect when it comes to understanding police institutions and their development. Yet, a closer look at leisure, cultural, sporting, community and charitable activities – areas which remain largely unexplored – alongside an examination of police officers’ more or less routine involvement in welfare initiatives, refereeing sporting matches or managing football teams and even football federations, would shed light on our understanding of these security agencies and their officers. Police officers and their institutions do indeed engage in leisure activities and cultural, sporting and social practices through which personal sensibilities are expressed, emotions linked to the profession are ‘released’ (or vented), or solidarity is demonstrated. Far from being confined to the so-called ‘Northern’ police forces, these practices are also found elsewhere and have been established – in some cases for several decades – amongst police forces in the Arab world, for example.

Firmly rooted in a quest for internal and external legitimacy, at both individual and institutional levels, these activities – sometimes used for propaganda purposes – shed light on what these police forces are and aspire to be, in tension with the repressive practices central to their modes of governance. Neither trivial nor of little interest to the social sciences, these activities offer a fruitful avenue for social science inquiry, opening up multiple perspectives on police institutions and allowing them to be examined at different levels: individual, organisational and managerial. These levels underpin the three themes identified for this call for papers. The first theme concerns the artistic, literary and sporting activities that certain police officers choose to engage in outside their working hours. A second theme focuses on these same types of activities when they take place within the police institution or are supervised by it. Finally, a third theme concerns police officers’ involvement outside the institution or in connection with it, in clubs, federations or associations.

Theme 1: Leisure activities outside work: unwinding after work

Engaging in writing poetry or crime novels, taking up painting, or getting involved in social projects seems to be a characteristic of some police officers in the region. Some of these activities are undertaken by high-ranking civil servants whose authoritarian tendencies and sense of public duty also appear to find expression through forms of cultural capital, exemplified by their proud mastery of the Arabic literary canon (classical poetry and rhetoric). Whilst these skills and dispositions were the hallmark of senior officers in the second half of the 20th century, artistic pursuits for their own sake seem to characterise police officers at the start of the 21st century to a greater extent. This is certainly true of police officers who write crime novels; as well as having the advantage of being able to draw on their insider’s knowledge of the profession and its challenges, they can distinguish themselves by following in the tradition of the enlightened, intellectual police officer, whilst also benefiting from additional income through a cultural practice that is highly valued. The central role of cultural capital raises questions: what do these various practices tell us about officers’ educational and cultural resources and their aspirations for recognition, or about the ways in which they construct an identity beyond their profession? Do earlier socialisation and specific social and cultural dispositions influence the choice of practices? Some of these literary practices may even be seen by their authors as a means of carving out a space of freedom from the hierarchy. Furthermore, writings that criticise the hierarchy may sometimes be tolerated by it, in what appears to be a negotiated space allowing staff to remain within the institution despite their dissatisfaction. This dual response raises questions about the legal framework governing such practices: what confidentiality obligations must officers observe? What authorisations do police officers require in order to publish their work, and what are the current rules regarding their involvement in multiple activities? To what extent are these practices, in order to be carried out, subject to negotiations between officers and their institutions, and to restrictions imposed by the latter?

Some police officers, for their part, prefer sporting activities and attend local sports clubs to practise boxing or martial arts in their spare time. As well as maintaining physical fitness, these training sessions can be regarded as genuine hobbies. What do these practices tell us about the acquisition of physical skills and any possible continuity between sporting activities and police careers?

Observing these practices – whether sporting or cultural – and how they have evolved over time invites us to consider possible differences in attitudes between generations, ranks and social backgrounds. This research theme therefore aims to explore the underlying principles that shape the choice of activities and the meanings attributed to them. Are certain practices gradually losing their value or even becoming frowned upon, whilst others are becoming particularly sought after? What role does religion play in the forms of personal expression favoured by police officers? What meanings do officers attach to these activities?

Theme 2: Sport and the arts in the service of police forces: organising, staging and fostering competition

Far from being mere leisure pursuits, these activities – whether artistic, literary or sporting – play an integral part in the economies of representation that lie at the heart of police institutions’ missions. This is the case with the poetry of praise written by officers who are poets, paying public tribute to their colleagues who died as martyrs, or with those practices that are less visible to the general public, such as painting, which remain confined to the institution’s internal life, but are occasionally showcased on open days, for instance. At a time when mass cultural practices are expanding, these temporary venues for institutional representation and interaction with the public can foster the emergence of creative skills that subsequently come to be associated with certain officers. This is the case, for example, with the re-enactment of crime scenes for entertainment purposes aimed at the general public; whilst seeking to highlight the work of a specialist unit (the forensic team, in this instance), it also facilitates the development of creative work and creative officers. The fact that these personal talents are channelled into serving the organisation, rather than primarily for the benefit of officers’ personal development, calls for an examination of the relationship between police institutions and such leisure activities, as well as the ways in which they are integrated, selected and publicised. What forms of artistic expression do these institutions seek out and promote, and for which audiences are they intended?

Activities, particularly sporting ones, play a central role within police institutions, which organise them, both as part of competitions within the force and those open to participants from outside. Since independence, security agencies in Morocco, Syria and Egypt have invested in football clubs, sometimes to the extent that several such clubs have sprung up within the same ministries. For example, the Egyptian Ministry of the Interior currently owns two clubs (Ittihad ash-Shurta, founded in 1980, and ad-Dakhiliya, founded in 2005). Similarly, teams comprising both army and police officers take part in all manner of sports tournaments organised by the various Egyptian sports federations. Furthermore, national security agencies regularly compete against one another at international events bringing together different countries. Such occasions raise questions about the diversification of the channels through which intensive international cooperation between police forces worldwide, in particular, and security agencies, in general, takes place.

This theme will focus on analysing the sporting activities undertaken by police officers and promoted by police institutions. Among the possible avenues for research, contributions may examine the models of masculinity associated with these activities and their role in shaping the institution’s gender regime. From this perspective, the focus may be on the processes of production, legitimisation and reconfiguration of hierarchies between masculinities and gender relations, with a view to identifying the gender norms that these sporting practices help to reinforce or influence. What, for example, are we to make of the encouragement to form all-female police teams in certain sports rather than others, as is the case in Tunisia with basketball and handball? These avenues are by no means exhaustive and could be expanded to include further questions regarding sporting, cultural or community activities that are supervised, embodied or dramatised by the relevant institutions.

Theme 3: Beyond the police: officers, clubs and involvement in associations

Finally, one feature observed in the Arab world (and which may also be characteristic of other national and geographical areas) concerns the management by police officers of non-police organisations and institutions linked to leisure activities. Some senior police officers are, in fact, directly involved in the running of sports clubs or organisations. In Morocco, for example, football has strong and long-standing links with the security services: several senior police officers have managed or chaired football clubs that still contribute to the reputation of certain cities (Tangier, Rabat, Casablanca, Marrakesh, etc.). In the case of some club chairmen, who are closely identified with their clubs, we tend to overlook their links to the security services (one thinks of Casablanca’s Wydad, which was long run by a senior, high-ranking police officer, who was also in charge of the poetry pages of a major Moroccan daily newspaper). Players are sometimes police officers themselves or go on to join the police force, as sport has facilitated their entry into the civil service. Holding positions of responsibility in associations is not limited to the sporting sphere: it also extends to the arts, charity work, religion and the professional world. Associations of retired police officers can also be seen as an extension of these responsibilities, fostering the consolidation of their status as local dignitaries whilst also facilitating collective organisation around the specific social needs of former officers and their families.

In this theme, an analysis of the responsibilities exercised by officers within sports organisations or associations (charitable, religious, professional) will enable us to explore the relationship between institutional functions and associative commitments by examining how the resources, skills and forms of authority acquired in one setting are mobilised or reconfigured in the other. Why and how do these activities – which may open the way to leadership roles for some and to police posts for others – come to be undertaken, and with what resources? What do these links between state institutions, police officers and sport in these countries tell us, when elsewhere – as in Europe – the world of football seems to be largely in the hands of businessmen? What do they teach us about state formation in the post-colonial context and about the integration of security personnel into arenas scrutinised for their subversive potential, such as football Ultras?

Aims and questions of the workshop

These areas of focus, informed by initial empirical findings and reflections developed within the research team at ANR Arabpol – the organiser of this workshop – highlight themes that we encounter in our sources and in our ongoing research into the reconfiguration of police forces in the Arab world, and which we would like to explore and examine in greater depth. The documentation compiled on these leisure activities, the biographies and career histories of certain officers, as well as the communication campaigns – the propagandistic nature of which we are well aware – provide us with interesting insights into what these police forces are and aspire to be, as they seek internal and external legitimacy despite their openly repressive practices. Indeed, how do these artistic and sporting activities coexist with, counterbalance or seek to conceal the repressive practices of these state bodies? Whilst these activities may indeed serve to legitimise the institution, maintain networks or exercise various forms of control, they may also stem from personal tastes, everyday social interactions or strategies of distinction that are relatively independent of the profession. Our aim is both to examine how police institutions deal with these activities (the question of their political and institutional uses remains open), and also to reflect on what they teach us about police officers as social actors, about their relationship with society, and about the – sometimes porous – boundaries between the police world and other social spaces.

Several questions are guiding the design of this workshop. They aim to understand the relationships and interactions between institutions of authority and cultural, social and sporting organisations and practices that are not strictly intended for the participants themselves. What can these forms of social engagement tell us about the broader connection that may exist between sporting and/or cultural activities and mechanisms of control? What do they achieve for the police institution, and what are the outcomes? Do they or do they not play a role in shaping a particular type of police force? What are the historical roots of such practices, and how do they enable us to gain a different perspective on the recent configurations of police institutions (postcolonial in the case of police forces in formerly colonised countries)? What discourses underpin these practices? What, if any, are the links between police cultural and sporting practices and those of the general public? How can these indicators help us to understand the vitality (or lack thereof) of police officers’ social ties?

These questions are by no means exhaustive. The insights gained during the workshop will enable us to define them more clearly, drawing on distinct geographical contexts. That is why we wish to bring together researchers working on issues relating to cultural and sporting practices who could shed light on the role of police officers, their practices, or the way in which police institutions manage these activities. The aim is to pool archival and ethnographic source material in order to better define the nature of this relationship between the police, on the one hand, and culture, leisure and the management of sport, on the other. Furthermore, engaging in dialogue with specialists from security institutions in general (including the armed forces) and police forces in particular, across different national contexts, would enable us to examine these practices more closely, whether they serve the institutional hierarchy, the personal well-being of officers, or take place in the shadow of a less than honourable form of privacy. Furthermore, as we are aware that these practices have been the subject of very few specific studies, we believe it is important to engage in dialogue with specialists in cultural productions and sporting activities, considered, amongst other things, from the perspective of security, authoritarianism and repression.

Timeline for proposal submissions

Proposals for papers should be sent to View e-mail by 20 December 2026. They should include a title, a 400-word abstract (excluding references) clearly setting out the chosen angle, and a short biography. Those who have submitted a proposal will be informed of the committee’s decision in early January 2027.

As a publication (the format of which will be announced at a later date) is planned following the workshop, those whose proposals have been selected will be invited to submit their presentation prior to the workshop, by 8 March 2027.

1. Hidalgo-Laurier, Oriane and Desnos, Louise, ‘ ‘Cops but Artists ’”, Mouvement. Indisciplinary Cultural Magazine, Jan–Feb 2020, no. 105, pp. 30–35.
2. Derived from the term ‘dégagé’, which comes from the expression ‘dégagement’ used by French criminal investigation officers to refer to moments of relaxation whilst off duty, at night, in bars, in Hidalgo-Laurier Oriane and Desnos Louise, “ Cops but Artists ”, Mouvement. Indisciplined cultural magazine, Jan–Feb 2020, no. 105, pp. 30–35.