The Palgrave Handbook of Prison Ethnography

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xix

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2. General Introduction: What Ethnography Tells Us about Prisons and What Prisons Tell Us about Ethnography

   1. General Introduction: What Ethnography Tells Us about Prisons and What Prisons Tell Us about Ethnography

      • Deborah H. Drake, Rod Earle, Jennifer Sloan

      Pages 1-16

3. About Prison Ethnography

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 17-20

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   2. Research ‘Inside’ Viewed from ‘Outside’: Reflections on Prison Ethnography

      • Martyn Hammersley

      Pages 21-39

   3. Walking amongst the Graves of the Living: Reflections about Doing Prison Research from an Abolitionist Perspective

      • David Scott

      Pages 40-58

   4. Prisons Research beyond the Conventional: Dialogue, ‘Creating Miracles’ and Staying Sane in a Maximum-Security Prison

      • Alison Liebling, Helen Arnold, Christina Straub

      Pages 59-80

   5. ‘Get In, Get Out, Go Back?’: Transitioning from Prison Ethnography to Prison Policy Research in Russia

      • Laura Piacentini

      Pages 81-98

   6. Ethnography of Writings in Prison: Professional Power Struggles Surrounding a Digital Notebook in a Prison for Minors

      • Gilles Chantraine, Nicolas Sallée

      Pages 99-123

   7. Closeness, Distance and Honesty in Prison Ethnography

      • Ben Crewe, Alice Ievins

      Pages 124-142

   8. Going in Green: Reflections on the Challenges of ‘Getting In, Getting On, and Getting Out’ for Doctoral Prisons Researchers

      • Jennifer Sloan, Serena Wright

      Pages 143-163

4. Through Prison Ethnography

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 165-167

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   2. Performing Ethnography: Infiltrating Prison Spaces

      • Andrew M. Jefferson

      Pages 169-186

   3. The Perfume of Sweat: Prison Research through Deleuzian Lenses

      • Elisabeth Fransson, Berit Johnsen

      Pages 187-198

   4. Ethnography: Exploring Methodological Nuances in Feminist Research with Men Incarcerated for Sexual Offences

      • Benita Moolman

      Pages 199-213

   5. Writing Bad: Prison Ethnography and the Problem of ‘Tone

      • James B. Waldram

      Pages 214-229

   6. Prison Ethnography at the Threshold of Race, Reflexivity and Difference

      • Rod Earle, Coretta Phillips

      Pages 230-251

   7. Finding Secrets and Secret Findings: Confronting the Limits of the Ethnographer’s Gaze

      • Deborah H. Drake

      Pages 252-270

   8. Ethnographic Imagination in the Field of the Prison

      • Lorna A. Rhodes

      Pages 271-283

5. Of Prison Ethnography

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 285-288

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   2. Insider Ethnography or the Tale of the Prison Governor’s New Clothes

      • Jamie Bennett

      Pages 289-306

The Palgrave Handbook of Prison Ethnography provides an expansive overview of the challenges presented by qualitative, and particularly ethnographic, enquiry. The chapters reflect upon the means by which ethnographers aim to gain understanding, make sense of what they learn and the way they represent their finished work. The Handbook offers urgent insights relevant to current trends in the growth of imprisonment worldwide. In an era of mass incarceration, human-centric ethnography provides an important counter to quantitative analysis and the audit culture on which prisons are frequently judged. 


The Handbook is divided into four parts. Part I ('About Prison Ethnography') assesses methodological, theoretical and pragmatic issues related to the use of ethnographic and qualitative enquiry in prisons. Part II ('Through Prison Ethnography') considers the significance of ethnographic insights in terms of wider social or political concerns. Part III ('Of Prison Ethnography') analyses different aspects of the roles ethnographers take and how they negotiate their research settings. Part IV ('For Prison Ethnography') includes contributions that convincingly extend the value of prison ethnography beyond the prison itself. 


Bringing together contributions by some of the world's leading scholars in criminology and prison studies, this authoritative volume maps out new directions for future research. It will be an indispensable resource for practitioners, students, academics and researchers who use qualitative social research methods to further their understanding of prisons. 

• Prison
• ethnography
• research methods
• global
• reflexivity
• criminology
• anthropology
• penology
• crime and society
• sociology
• qualitative research
• crime

"Undertaking ethnographic observation in prisons troubles its practitioners. Ethnography as a research practice always presents profound challenges; in prisons the ambivalences and embarrassments, the divided loyalties, the fascinations and the tedium, can be demanding and chastening indeed. To their great credit the editors of this beautifully conceived and executed volume neither shy away from these problems nor merely indulge in them. Instead they and their contributors take a measured and reflective look at the problems that prison ethnography raises, including those it cannot resolve. Cumulatively, these essays tell us why it matters that the ethnographic study of places of confinement never be eclipsed and why in the end it will not be. In the future everyone who contemplates doing such work will want to reckon with this book and will have reason to be grateful for its lessons" - Richard Sparks, Professor of Criminology and Head of School of Law, University of Edinburgh, UK

"This Handbook offers a rich, honest, challenging and fascinating overview of prison ethnographies in over 10 countries. It discusses important theoretical issues and methodological dilemmas inherent in conducting qualitative, and more particularly ethnographic, inquiry in prisons, while providing at the same time an authoritative account of prison conditions around the world. By looking not only at how ethnography enhances understanding of the prison, but also how prison ethnographies contribute to our understanding of the ethnographic enterprise, it will be an invaluable source for students, practitioners and researchers both within and beyond criminological and prison studies." Sonja Snacken, Professor of Criminology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium

• The Open University, UK

  Deborah H. Drake, Rod Earle

• Sheffield Hallam University, UK

  Jennifer Sloan

Helen Arnold, University Campus Suffolk, UK Lilian Ayete-Nyampong, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, Ghana Mahuya Bandyopadhyay, Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai, India Jamie Bennett is Governor of HMP Grendon/Springhill and holds a PhD in Criminology. Kristel Beyens, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium Miranda Boone, University of Groningen, Netherlands, and Utrecht University, Netherlands Lucy Carr, University of Sheffield, UK Gilles Chantraine, CNRS CLERSÉ, France Ben Crewe, University of Cambridge, UK William Davies, Leeds Beckett University, UK Deborah H. Drake, The Open University, UK Rod Earle, The Open University, UK Elisabeth Fransson, Correctional Service of Norway Staff Academy Joel Harvey, Kings College London, UK Alice Ievins, University of Cambridge, UK Andrew M. Jefferson, DIGNITY: Danish Institute Against Torture Yvonne Jewkes, University of Leicester, UK Berit Johnsen, Correctional Service of Norway Staff Academy AlisonLiebling, University of Cambridge, UK Tomas Max Martin, Danish Institute for Human Rights Benita Moolmana, Human and Social Development Unit in Cape Town, South Africa Martyn Hammersley The Open University, UK Coretta Phillips, London School of Economics, UK Laura Piacentini, University of Strathclyde, UK Lorna A. Rhodes, University of Washington, USA Abigail Rowe, The Open University, UK Nicolas Sallée, Université de Montréal, Canada David Scott, Liverpool John Moores University, UK Jennifer Sloan, Sheffield Hallam University, UK Christina Straub, Leeds University, UK Thomas Ugelvik, University of Oslo, Norway James B. Waldram, University of Saskatchewan, Canada Lindsay Whetter, University of Exeter, UK Serena Wright, University of Cambridge, UK

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