Abstract
Institutional ethnography (IE) is a method of inquiry created by Canadian feminist sociologist Dorothy E. Smith to examine how sequences of texts coordinate forms of organisation. Here we explain how to use IE, and why scholars in criminal justice and socio-legal studies should use it in their research. We focus on IE’s analysis of texts and intertextual hierarchy, as well as Smith’s understanding of mapping as a methodological technique; the latter entails explaining how IE’s approach to mapping differs from other social science approaches. We also argue that IE’s terms and techniques can help examine the textual work undertaken in criminal justice and legal organisations, and reveal how people are governed and ruled by these organisational processes. In the discussion, we summarise how IE can productively contribute to criminal justice and socio-legal studies in the twenty-first century.
Highlights
Criminal justice and legal agencies are full of textual knowledge practices that govern and shape our worlds
This paper considers the potential of what is called institutional ethnography (IE)—a method of qualitative inquiry created in Canada—for exploring the nexus between dominant and experiential knowledge practices in the context of everyday functioning of legal and criminal justice agencies
We focus on three features of IE: conceptualisation of standpoint, textually mediated relations and a technique of mapping, which we find of particular relevance for criminal justice and socio-legal research projects
Summary
Criminal justice and legal agencies are full of textual knowledge practices that govern and shape our worlds. Some people’s sense of self can become completely constituted by these agencies (e.g., criminal, prisoner) These powerful agencies can create social problems for those who are governed by organisational processes when these agencies use a framework (e.g., security, treatment) at odds with how people (be they workers in the agencies or not) experience their daily lives. We argue IE can play a key role in helping criminal justice and socio-legal studies scholars explore law as a practice in the twenty-first century, as it can enhance a more nuanced study of law in action. We aim to demonstrate how the IE toolbox can assist criminal justice and socio-legal studies in their exploration of texts in operation, and how institutional priorities such as punishment, security and treatment are achieved through routine actions of professionals working in institutions governed by texts.
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