Reflexivity as capacity in EU’s border security: a contribution to theory and practice through the case of Polish Border Guard training

Project Information

RefBORDER

Grant agreement ID: 749314

DOI

10.3030/749314

Project closed

EC signature date 9 March 2017

Start date 1 September 2017

End date 31 August 2019

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 183 454,80

EU contribution

€ 183 454,80

Coordinated by

ABERYSTWYTH UNIVERSITY
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - RefBORDER (Reflexivity as capacity in EU’s border security: a contribution to theory and practice through the case of Polish Border Guard training)

Reporting period: 2017-09-01 to 2019-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

This project started with an observation that the current context of enhanced European border security challenges calls for innovative theorizing and policy and social engagement. The scholarship and policy analysis on border security and reform are considerable but they do not incorporate the lived experience of border guards as agents who are the closest to the daily implementation of border security practices. The project focused on the case of the Polish Border Guard service because of its particular history of reform – from the military body to law enforcement – and the current function on the Eastern flank of the European Union of both protecting the European realm and translating EU border management practices to third countries.

The project relied on the researcher’s previous research experience and access to Polish border guards. Its scholarly and social engagement aim was twofold: 1. To study different approaches to the notion of reflexivity and ‘reflective practice’ by tapping to the existing reflective attitude among the practitioners, and to then 2. develop an innovative relational methodology based on the psychosocial perspective as a contribution to border guard training geared towards promoting the ethos of ‘reflective practitioner.’ Such ethos has wider societal implications in the times of increased migration and humanitarian challenges at the border, including in the treatment and integration of migrants in European societies

The main methodology of the project was twofold: 1. Interpretive fieldwork with practitioners which relied on taking interviews and life stories, supported by archival work in the Polish Border Guard archives and desk research; 2. The researcher’s own training in relational psychosocial methodologies to share this knowledge with practitioners. The expected dissemination plan needed to be amended, however, because of denied access to active Polish border guards by the Commander-in-Chief in September 2018. The main adjustment was a redirection of fieldwork and sharing of results towards retired border guards who work as consultants on EU border assistance projects and/or in civil society initiatives which seek to influence border security policies in Poland, as well as the training of Polish border guards. This is also where the impact of the project can be located.

Conceptually and empirically, this impediment further steered the project in two ways, as exemplified in deliverables described below: 1. Towards a focus on interpretive and psychosocial methodologies in fieldwork research but also in the study of academic practice where, arguably, the ethos of reflective practitioner is also urgently needed; 2. To study the backlash against the liberal notion of open intuitions in today’s Poland. Towards this end, the project has been extended to interpretive fieldwork with liberal intellectuals in Poland who reflect on the local and regional backlash against liberalism. Exploring this condition is crucial for understanding the current condition of EU societies and their political future. This task stands at the core of the book manuscript that arises from this project.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The work of the project unfolded in several steams, including: conceptual development of theories of reflexivity: methodological training in reflective practice and psychosocial methodology; interpretive fieldwork with practitioners, including taking interviews, life stories, participation in events, and background research with local journalists and civil society initiatives.

The project work yielded several manuscripts on interpretive fieldwork, theory of reflexivity, and psychosocial methodology. It equipped the researcher with methodological tools to design different scenarios of developing the ethos of reflective practitioner, and led to a collection of significant empirical material on the history of reform of the Polish Border Guard (including through archival research in the archives of Polish Border Guard in Szczecin, Poland) and life stories of those involved in reform processes at local and national level. As the project redirected to the larger question of the illiberal backlash against open institutions, more empirical material has been collected from public intellectual involved in the liberal reform in Poland and their reflection on the past trajectories of such reforms and their contemporary effects.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The most significant progress beyond the state of art includes conceptual innovation to theories of reflexivity based on psychosocial approaches, and a contribution to designing reflective practice and to developing the ethos of reflective practitioner.

The expected impact of the project has shifted from directly contributing to the training of the active Polish border guards, to consulting with the retired border guards, specifically those engaged in civil initiatives around the Polish Border Guard. Among these beneficiaries the aim has been to promote the ethos of the reflective practitioner. The lack of direct access to Polish Border Guard training means that direct impact on its work has not been possible. Yet this indirect route has facilitated impact on beneficiaries who have a role in training processes. The positive aspect of this change has been the possibility to engage in sustained consultation with very experienced practitioners who can advise on content and method of promoting the ethos of reflective practitioner, as well as facilitate informal access to colleagues at different levels and locations of the Polish Border Guard. Forging links with relevant civil society actors is not only a way of exploiting the project’s results but also helping these actors formulate their own goals in a politically adverse situation.

An additional exploitation of the results includes the promotion of the reflective academic practice and contribution to developing the ethos of reflective practitioner in the academia which should have wider societal implications for how contemporary academic practice can improved.