Disavowing 'the' prison

Armstrong, S. and Jefferson, A. (2017) Disavowing 'the' prison. In: Moran, D. and Schliehe, A. K. (eds.) Carceral Spatiality: Dialogues between Geography and Criminology. Series: Palgrave studies in prisons and penology. Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke, pp. 237-267. ISBN 9781137560575 (doi: 10.1057/978-1-137-56057-5_9)

Abstract

This chapter confronts the idea of ‘the’ prison, that is, prison as a fixed entity. However hard we, that is, prison scholars including ourselves, seek to deconstruct and critique specific aspects of confinement, there is a tendency to slip into a default position that envisions the prison as something given and pre-understood. When it comes to prison our imagination seems to clog up. It is the political solution to its own failure, and the preferred metaphor for its own representation.

• Item Type: Book Sections
• Keywords: Prisons, theory, critique, Global South, order.
• Status: Published
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Armstrong, Professor Sarah
• Authors: Armstrong, S., and Jefferson, A.
• Subjects: H Social Sciences > HM Sociology; H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Sociology Anthropology and Applied Social Sciences
• Research Group: Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• ISBN: 9781137560575