The term ‘carceral geography’ describes a vibrant field of geographical and space-centred research into practices and institutions of incarceration, ranging from prisons to migrant detention facilities and beyond. Although rapid, its development is far outpaced by the expansion, diversification and proliferation of those strategies of spatial control and coercion towards which it is attuned. The dictionary definition of carceral is ‘relating to, or of prison’, but as Routley notes ‘carceral geography is not just a fancier name for the geography of prisons’. Carceral geography is in close dialogue with longer-standing academic engagements with the carceral, most notably criminology and prison sociology. Dialogue initially comprised learning and borrowing from criminology, but within a more general criminological engagement with spaces and landscapes  recent years have seen criminologists increasingly considering and adopting perspectives from carceral geography.

Argument

The term ‘carceral geography’ (Moran et al 2011) describes a vibrant field of geographical and space-centred research into practices and institutions of incarceration, ranging from prisons to migrant detention facilities and beyond. Although rapid, its development is far outpaced by the expansion, diversification and proliferation of those strategies of spatial control and coercion towards which it is attuned. The dictionary definition of carceral is ‘relating to, or of prison’, but as Routley notes ‘carceral geography is not just a fancier name for the geography of prisons’ (2016: 1). Carceral geography is in close dialogue with longer-standing academic engagements with the carceral, most notably criminology and prison sociology. Dialogue initially comprised learning and borrowing from criminology, but within a more general criminological engagement with spaces and landscapes (Campbell, 2013; Hayward, 2012, 2016; Kindynis, 2014) recent years have seen criminologists increasingly considering and adopting perspectives from carceral geography. We call for continued interrogation of carceral conditions (Moran et al 2017).

In this session we want to continue this dialogue and critically engage with questions around what a spatial focus can bring to carceral studies.

How do spatial approaches help to:

• understand the new challenges the prison is confronted with?
• define the carceral within or outside walls?
• better understand the functioning of carceral institutions?
• raise new questions for the century-old prison?

Submission guidelines

Please send abstracts of max 200 words, giving names, institutional affiliation and contact details for authors/presenters, to Anna (aks79@cam.ac.uk) and Christophe (christophe.mincke@just.fgov.be) by

no later than 5^thof April 2019.

Session Organisers

• Christophe Mincke (Institut national de criminalistique et de criminologie / Université Saint-Louis - Bruxelles)
• Anna Schliehe (University of Cambridge)