Connecting and Disconnection

Bibliographic Data

ID4380179
AuthorsAndrew M Jefferson (0000-0003-2155-2309, DIGNITY – Danish Institute Against Torture, corresponding author), Tomas Max Martins (0000-0002-5068-9198, Danish Institute against Torture), Tomas Max Martin (DIGNITY – Danish Institute Against Torture)
Year2020
Volume38
Issue1
Pages105-122
Publication date2020-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Cambridge Journal of Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0305-7674 • E-ISSN: 2047-7716
PublisherBerghahn Books (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.3167/cja.2020.380108
OpenAlexW3014648611
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited29

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 in situations of chaos, control and surveillance; how they suffer under circumstances of not-knowing; and how they establish protective exchange relations. We illustrate the utility of the concept of connectivity for interrogating the fundamentally relational practice of imprisonment and show that common notions of inside and outside are partially deconstructed through prison actors' agentic efforts to cut ties or tie strings across prison walls

Criminology · Disconnection · Epistemology · Imprisonment · Political science · Prison · Sociology · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · Cambodian History and Society · Computer Science · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis · Law

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access