Sensing proximity, sensing parameters

• In Event: Culture, Narrative and the Sensory in Research

Abstract

Drawing on findings from past research - including the recently published "Sound, Order and Survival in Prison (Bristol) - as well as a current paper-in-progress, I explore the ways in which foregrounding the sensory shifts senses of space. I use space here to mean both the material environment and the less tangible distance between myself as researcher, and those who inhabit the prison social world and form the focus of inquiry. The sensory, I argue, can shift and diminish the distance between researcher and those we collaborate with. This has implications on several fronts, three of which form the subject of this presentation. First, encouraging sensory reflection alters the way we understand, relate and experience the materiality of the prison in conjunction with those we spend time with. Second, the sensory encourages an interrogation of positionality and proximity in relation to those we work with. Third, this has significant implications for how we understand prisons research – at least that of an immersive variety – as emotional and corporeal edgework, demanding constant assessment and navigation of ethical practice as boundaries warp and flex.

Author

• Kate Herrity, University of Cambridge