Tomas Max Martins
Biographic Data
| ID | 108797 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Tomas Max Martins |
| GIVEN NAMES | Tomas Max |
| FAMILY NAME | Martins |
| SIGNATURE | MARTINS T M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Danish Institute against Torture |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5068-9198 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 43 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 12 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
The Prison and the Revolution in Myanmar: Exploring Prison Protests During a Revolutionary Situation
What role do prison protests play in revolutions? This article examines the prison protests that have occurred since the military coup, situating them as integral and instructive elements of an unfolding revolutionary situation. The analysis explores the character and significance of such protests at a moment of fierce and violent political contestation. It documents and contextualises them and develops an argument about their contemporary signif…
Penal duress in (post)colonial Myanmar
This article explores the notion and nature of penal duress, illustrated through analysis of martial, penal practice in Myanmar. We examine prison labour and pone-san (a demeaning, defamatory and coercive control of prisoners’ bodies) to show how these two enduring practices of domination, subjection and constraint – understood, drawing on Ann Laura Stoler, as relations of duress – animate penal practice in powerful, productive and problematic wa…
The politics of prison air: Breath, smell, and wind in Myanmar prisons
This article explores what air means and entails in penal settings and examines how carcerality attaches itself to air. With inspiration from social science approaches to the study of air, I propose that the lived experience of prison air can be fruitfully analyzed through the notions of breath, smell, and wind. This point is explored through two incidents about prison air drawn from ethnographic fieldwork in Myanmar. Together they illustrate a s…
Danielle Celermajer, The Prevention of Torture: An Ecological Approach
Connecting and Disconnection
Drawing on a case study carried out in Myanmar, this article elaborates on the concept of connectivity as a rich and critical articulation of the way prisoners and their relatives develop and sustain relationships during incarceration. The notion of connectivity offers an alternative analytic frame to that provided by established notions of prisoner-family contact. Drawing primarily on interview data, we examine how people connect and disconnect …
Prison Ethnography in Africa: Reflections on a Maturing Field
On peut aujourd'hui affirmer que les études sur les prisons dans les pays du Sud sont arrivées à maturité. Dans cet article, nous nous appuyons sur près de vingt années de recherches ethnographiques sur les prisons « au-delà de l'Occident » pour analyser ce processus de maturation. Il n'est plus possible de considérer que les prisons africaines n'ont pas été soumises au regard empirique des sciences sociales ou que tout ce que nous savons sur le …
Immersion in the bureaucratic field: Methodological pathways
The introduction argues that while the legitimacy of bureaucracy as an object of inquiry is well established, little is generally said on the methodologies mobilized by ethnographers to study the bureaucratic field. The special issue is a contribution to fill this gap. The authors characterize bureaucracy as a mode of control by way of four dimensions-service, rule, violence, and secrecy-and propose three methodological pathways through which eth…
The ethnographer as accomplice-Edifying qualms of bureaucratic fieldwork in Kafka's penal colony
This article explores the ethnographer's equivocal role as an accomplice of bureaucratic power through a reading of Kafka's short story "In the Penal Colony." The researcher's position when enrolled and affined in the bureaucratic field, which Kafka so uncannily animates, is illustrated via four ethically charged fieldwork experiences in Ugandan, Indian, and Myanmar prisons. I argue that these experiences were telling situations of "edifying qual…
Scrutinizing the Embrace of Human Rights in Ugandan Prisons: An Ethnographic Analysis of the Equivocal Responses to Human Rights Watch Reporting
An acclaimed human rights reform process seems to change Ugandan prisons according to policy prescriptions. Yet prison officers continue to bend rules and use physical violence to actually ensure custodial control and survive professionally in situations of insecurity and exigency. An external audit by Human Rights Watch systematically reads this pragmatic appropriation of human rights as duplicitous and deviant, while the prison management takes…
Managing with escapes – human rights and the practical norms of prison governance in Uganda
This chapter explores escape as an event that is diagnostic of prison governance. The recording of escapes is a general feature of prison statistics and a key indicator of custodial performance. Ugandan Prison Service (UPS) staff assesses escape risk qualitatively and their main indicator is &s;stability&s;. Instability is constituted by multiple factors that staff claims to be able pick up from their personal experience as custodians. Bandyophad…
Reasonable caning and the embrace of human rights in Ugandan prisons
Ugandan prison staff both criticize and welcome human rights as a reform agenda that brings about insecurity as well as tangible improvements. In practice, human rights discourse is malleable enough for prison officers to cobble together a take on human rights that enables them to embrace the concept. The analysis of the emic notion of "reasonable caning" illustrates this malleability as staff concurrently take stands against inhumane violence an…
Sensing prison climates
In December 2010 members of the Global Prisons Research Network (GPRN) met for a seminar entitled "Dissecting the 'Non-Western' Prison." The articles showcased in this thematic section were first presented there. This introduction proposes the notion of "prison climate" as a useful way of rethinking variations and similarities across prisons. This notion directs attention away from the prison "as such" to the prison "as is" and points to the fact…
Immersion in the bureaucratic field: Methodological pathways
The introduction argues that while the legitimacy of bureaucracy as an object of inquiry is well established, little is generally said on the methodologies mobilized by ethnographers to study the bureaucratic field. The special issue is a contribution to fill this gap. The authors characterize bureaucracy as a mode of control by way of four dimensions-service, rule, violence, and secrecy-and propose three methodological pathways through which eth…
Sensing prison climates
In December 2010 members of the Global Prisons Research Network (GPRN) met for a seminar entitled "Dissecting the 'Non-Western' Prison." The articles showcased in this thematic section were first presented there. This introduction proposes the notion of "prison climate" as a useful way of rethinking variations and similarities across prisons. This notion directs attention away from the prison "as such" to the prison "as is" and points to the fact…
The politics of prison air: Breath, smell, and wind in Myanmar prisons
This article explores what air means and entails in penal settings and examines how carcerality attaches itself to air. With inspiration from social science approaches to the study of air, I propose that the lived experience of prison air can be fruitfully analyzed through the notions of breath, smell, and wind. This point is explored through two incidents about prison air drawn from ethnographic fieldwork in Myanmar. Together they illustrate a s…
The ethnographer as accomplice-Edifying qualms of bureaucratic fieldwork in Kafka's penal colony
This article explores the ethnographer's equivocal role as an accomplice of bureaucratic power through a reading of Kafka's short story "In the Penal Colony." The researcher's position when enrolled and affined in the bureaucratic field, which Kafka so uncannily animates, is illustrated via four ethically charged fieldwork experiences in Ugandan, Indian, and Myanmar prisons. I argue that these experiences were telling situations of "edifying qual…
Scrutinizing the Embrace of Human Rights in Ugandan Prisons: An Ethnographic Analysis of the Equivocal Responses to Human Rights Watch Reporting
An acclaimed human rights reform process seems to change Ugandan prisons according to policy prescriptions. Yet prison officers continue to bend rules and use physical violence to actually ensure custodial control and survive professionally in situations of insecurity and exigency. An external audit by Human Rights Watch systematically reads this pragmatic appropriation of human rights as duplicitous and deviant, while the prison management takes…
Reasonable caning and the embrace of human rights in Ugandan prisons
Ugandan prison staff both criticize and welcome human rights as a reform agenda that brings about insecurity as well as tangible improvements. In practice, human rights discourse is malleable enough for prison officers to cobble together a take on human rights that enables them to embrace the concept. The analysis of the emic notion of "reasonable caning" illustrates this malleability as staff concurrently take stands against inhumane violence an…
The Prison and the Revolution in Myanmar: Exploring Prison Protests During a Revolutionary Situation
What role do prison protests play in revolutions? This article examines the prison protests that have occurred since the military coup, situating them as integral and instructive elements of an unfolding revolutionary situation. The analysis explores the character and significance of such protests at a moment of fierce and violent political contestation. It documents and contextualises them and develops an argument about their contemporary signif…
Prison Ethnography in Africa: Reflections on a Maturing Field
On peut aujourd'hui affirmer que les études sur les prisons dans les pays du Sud sont arrivées à maturité. Dans cet article, nous nous appuyons sur près de vingt années de recherches ethnographiques sur les prisons « au-delà de l'Occident » pour analyser ce processus de maturation. Il n'est plus possible de considérer que les prisons africaines n'ont pas été soumises au regard empirique des sciences sociales ou que tout ce que nous savons sur le …
Penal duress in (post)colonial Myanmar
This article explores the notion and nature of penal duress, illustrated through analysis of martial, penal practice in Myanmar. We examine prison labour and pone-san (a demeaning, defamatory and coercive control of prisoners’ bodies) to show how these two enduring practices of domination, subjection and constraint – understood, drawing on Ann Laura Stoler, as relations of duress – animate penal practice in powerful, productive and problematic wa…
Reasonable caning and the embrace of human rights in Ugandan prisons
Ugandan prison staff both criticize and welcome human rights as a reform agenda that brings about insecurity as well as tangible improvements. In practice, human rights discourse is malleable enough for prison officers to cobble together a take on human rights that enables them to embrace the concept. The analysis of the emic notion of "reasonable caning" illustrates this malleability as staff concurrently take stands against inhumane violence an…
Sensing prison climates
In December 2010 members of the Global Prisons Research Network (GPRN) met for a seminar entitled "Dissecting the 'Non-Western' Prison." The articles showcased in this thematic section were first presented there. This introduction proposes the notion of "prison climate" as a useful way of rethinking variations and similarities across prisons. This notion directs attention away from the prison "as such" to the prison "as is" and points to the fact…
Managing with escapes – human rights and the practical norms of prison governance in Uganda
This chapter explores escape as an event that is diagnostic of prison governance. The recording of escapes is a general feature of prison statistics and a key indicator of custodial performance. Ugandan Prison Service (UPS) staff assesses escape risk qualitatively and their main indicator is &s;stability&s;. Instability is constituted by multiple factors that staff claims to be able pick up from their personal experience as custodians. Bandyophad…
Scrutinizing the Embrace of Human Rights in Ugandan Prisons: An Ethnographic Analysis of the Equivocal Responses to Human Rights Watch Reporting
An acclaimed human rights reform process seems to change Ugandan prisons according to policy prescriptions. Yet prison officers continue to bend rules and use physical violence to actually ensure custodial control and survive professionally in situations of insecurity and exigency. An external audit by Human Rights Watch systematically reads this pragmatic appropriation of human rights as duplicitous and deviant, while the prison management takes…
Immersion in the bureaucratic field: Methodological pathways
The introduction argues that while the legitimacy of bureaucracy as an object of inquiry is well established, little is generally said on the methodologies mobilized by ethnographers to study the bureaucratic field. The special issue is a contribution to fill this gap. The authors characterize bureaucracy as a mode of control by way of four dimensions-service, rule, violence, and secrecy-and propose three methodological pathways through which eth…
The ethnographer as accomplice-Edifying qualms of bureaucratic fieldwork in Kafka's penal colony
This article explores the ethnographer's equivocal role as an accomplice of bureaucratic power through a reading of Kafka's short story "In the Penal Colony." The researcher's position when enrolled and affined in the bureaucratic field, which Kafka so uncannily animates, is illustrated via four ethically charged fieldwork experiences in Ugandan, Indian, and Myanmar prisons. I argue that these experiences were telling situations of "edifying qual…
Danielle Celermajer, The Prevention of Torture: An Ecological Approach
Connecting and Disconnection
Drawing on a case study carried out in Myanmar, this article elaborates on the concept of connectivity as a rich and critical articulation of the way prisoners and their relatives develop and sustain relationships during incarceration. The notion of connectivity offers an alternative analytic frame to that provided by established notions of prisoner-family contact. Drawing primarily on interview data, we examine how people connect and disconnect …
Prison Ethnography in Africa: Reflections on a Maturing Field
On peut aujourd'hui affirmer que les études sur les prisons dans les pays du Sud sont arrivées à maturité. Dans cet article, nous nous appuyons sur près de vingt années de recherches ethnographiques sur les prisons « au-delà de l'Occident » pour analyser ce processus de maturation. Il n'est plus possible de considérer que les prisons africaines n'ont pas été soumises au regard empirique des sciences sociales ou que tout ce que nous savons sur le …
The politics of prison air: Breath, smell, and wind in Myanmar prisons
This article explores what air means and entails in penal settings and examines how carcerality attaches itself to air. With inspiration from social science approaches to the study of air, I propose that the lived experience of prison air can be fruitfully analyzed through the notions of breath, smell, and wind. This point is explored through two incidents about prison air drawn from ethnographic fieldwork in Myanmar. Together they illustrate a s…
Penal duress in (post)colonial Myanmar
This article explores the notion and nature of penal duress, illustrated through analysis of martial, penal practice in Myanmar. We examine prison labour and pone-san (a demeaning, defamatory and coercive control of prisoners’ bodies) to show how these two enduring practices of domination, subjection and constraint – understood, drawing on Ann Laura Stoler, as relations of duress – animate penal practice in powerful, productive and problematic wa…
The Prison and the Revolution in Myanmar: Exploring Prison Protests During a Revolutionary Situation
What role do prison protests play in revolutions? This article examines the prison protests that have occurred since the military coup, situating them as integral and instructive elements of an unfolding revolutionary situation. The analysis explores the character and significance of such protests at a moment of fierce and violent political contestation. It documents and contextualises them and develops an argument about their contemporary signif…
Political science (11 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Law (9 works) · Criminology (8 works) · Prison (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis (6 works) · Politics (5 works) · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography (4 works) · Cambodian History and Society (4 works)