Carceral Geography: Prisons, prisoners and mobilities: “Geography Directions” blog

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Carceral Geography: Prisons, prisoners and mobilities

by Fiona Ferbrache

…Carceral geography is also the focus of Moran, Piacentini and Pallot’s paper in Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. Their work draws from empirical research on the Russian Penal system, and mobility theories.  The authors argue that much mobility has been conceptualised in a way that emphasises association with freedom and autonomy.  The downside is that mobility is seldom considered as an instrument of power that disciplines and limits a subject’s agency.  As the authors indicate, the academic question ‘why travel?’ is seldom answered: ‘because I had no choice’…

ESRC Seminar Series “‘Exploring Everyday Practice and Resistance in Immigration Detention”

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The ESRC intends to fund a seminar series entitled ‘Exploring Everyday Practice and Resistance in Immigration Detention’. This seminar series brings together scholars from the universities of Oxford, York, Birmingham, Lancaster and Exeter, who span the disciplines of politics, sociology, geography and criminology, across five events during 2012-2014. These events aim to provide a means of networking between academics and practitioners, and those who have experienced detention, in order to exchange expertise and knowledge around the operation and implications of immigration detention in a national and international context. They also aim to raise public awareness of immigration detention and provide a foundation for a strong future research bid to the ESRC in this important and under-researched area. The seminar series is coordinated by Dr Nick Gill of Exeter University’s Geography Department (Principle Investigator) and will involve international speakers from Canada, America, Finland and Australia.

Carceral Geography sessions at the RGS-IBG conference 2012

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There will be two sessions under the heading of  “Everyday geographies of the punitive State ” at the Royal Geographical Society – Institute of British Geographers conference in Edinburgh, UK in July 2012

Everyday geographies of the punitive State 1: Carceral Geography

  • Dominique Moran: Carceral Geography: themes and directions
  • James Humberto Zomighani Jr: Geographic Connections and Socio-spatial Segregation in São Paulo State, Brazil
  • Agatha Herman: Is Empowerment Possible within Prison? Exploring the role of the discourse of empowerment in sustainable reintegration strategies
  • Uma Kothari: Mobility, confinement and the politics of exile: Contesting colonial rule in the Indian Ocean

Everyday geographies of the punitive State 2: Securitization

  • Jon Coaffee: Unpacking the carceral city: enhancing the resilience and securitisation of public places
  • Chin-Ee Ong, Claudio Minca and James Sidaway: The Empire and its Hotel: The Changing Biopolitics of Hotel Lloyd, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  • Joaquín Villanueva: “Urban Violence,” Everyday Life and the Shifting Presence  of the Penal State
  • Craig Johnstone: Securing public space from the ‘threat’ of young people: Controlling everyday behaviour in the UK