The scientization of social life…some reflections on life as a criminologist

• In Event: Researcher Wellbeing and Emotionally Challenging Research

Abstract

This paper will offer some personal reflections on criminological journeys via empirical fieldwork in different settings, and life in academic institutional settings which emphasise ‘objective scientific findings’. Utilising the work of Isabel Menzies-Lyth on ‘containing anxiety in institutions’ and structures as defence mechanisms, and drawing on experience of major institutional trauma, I will offer some reflections on learning points for the future in terms of the well-being of individual researchers, and the well-being of institutions.

Author

• Loraine Gelsthorpe, University of Cambridge