Performing the role of ethnographer: processing and managing the emotional dimensions of prison research

Abstract

This article presents a reflective account of the emotional dimensions of in-depth field research in prisons. Drawing on the work of Goffman to make sense of ethnographic processes and techniques, it is argued that performance and impression management play crucial roles in the research process. However, it is suggested that there are commensurate emotional costs associated with the roles and identities that ethnographers might enact in the field. It is argued that the finer details of ethnographic practice can be better understood when the emotional dimensions of research experiences are carefully analysed and processed.

Keywords:

• ethnography
• emotion-as-data
• methodology
• epistemology
• prisons

Acknowledgements

We want to thank the anonymous reviewers of this article and the editor for their insightful comments and suggestions.

Notes

1. It should be noted that our strategy in this respect differed from those described by some other prison ethnographers. For example, Jacobs (1974) and Waldram (2009) have suggested that in order to gain acceptance with prisoner groups they needed to maintain a level of distance and even slight (but carefully managed) hostility with the staff group. It might be suggested that their strategies differed from ours because prison environments and staff-prisoner relationships in Britain, Canada and the United States differ in important ways.