Ethnography in Contexts of Incarceration: Exploring potentials and limits*

This article compares two ethnographic studies in a penitentiary context – a male prison in Portugal and a female prison in Spain. Two perspectives are used: 1) a methodological dimension: to be a woman anthropologist influences the conduct of the empiric investigation in female and male prisons, conditions access to the terrain, observation of daily prison life and the relations constructed with interlocutors; 2) an analytical dimension: gender relations are central to perceiving the dynamics constructed between the inmate population in their processes of daily conviviality and establishment of hierarchies, but they must be integrated in the relations of class and gender in which they are inserted. Thus, we defend an intersectional perspective to understand the relational dynamics between the different subjects in the prison – guards, administrators, workers, inmates – and between them and the researchers. In conclusion, we reflect on subjectivity and reflexivity in field work that has particular demands in how we manage emotions, distance and proximity.

Ethnography; prison; gender; subjectivity