Challenged bodies: Identities at the front line

In this paper we explore how police officers in a post-conflict context construct their individual and collective identities as good professionals in narratives of bodily encounters with others. The paper treats experiences of bodily involvement in the world of one’s work as occasions for identity work. We specifically focus on the construction of an identity as a ‘good professional’, with an emphasis on ‘good’ as ‘ethical’. Our paper thus aims to bring together concerns around ethics, identity construction, embodiment and inter-subjectivity in an exploration of ethical identity construction.