Prisoners in Space: Exploring Spatial Controls and Resistance in a Carceral Setting

Abstract

The paper, submitted as an MSc dissertation, examines of the evolution of prisons and penal philosophy from the eighteenth century onward alongside the accompanying development of a set of spatial techniques of control. Utilising a range of literature beyond mainstream criminology, it suggests that spatial techniques of control are no different from other techniques of control in that they are open to forms of resistance from subordinates. Having established a theoretical basis for the potential existence of challenges to the spatial domination of authority, and having offered some comments on the nature of resistance and transgression, a number of sources are examined for evidence of such forms of resistance. Moreover, as prison authorities use spatial techniques of control, inmates, in resisting general attempts at control, may draw on techniques of resistance that are spatial in nature. Some suggestions are put forward about spatial aspects of riot and other resistant acts.