James Hardie-Bick

Total institutions and the last human freedom

Shortly after the liberation of Paris in 1944 Jean-Paul Sartre declared that ‘We were never more free than during the German Occupation’ (1947: 498). He claimed that during the occupation ‘every French person had the free choice to be part of the resistance… or be an enemy’ (see Gerassi 2009: 122). For Sartre’s critics, this is just one of many examples that confirm Sartre’s exaggerated view of freedom, a freedom he believed to be total and indestructible, a freedom we cannot escape.1 This chapter explores Sartre’s views on freedom, examines the intellectual currents that undermined Sartre’s existentialism and suggests that the abrupt intellectual shift away from Sartre’s work has overlooked important aspects of his philosophy. Furthermore, it draws on empirical research on total institutions together with the personal accounts of writers who have reflected on their experiences of life within the German concentration camps of the Second World War. The aim is to consider Sartre’s notion of ‘ontological freedom’ and to critically assess Sartre’s claim that, regardless of the circumstance, individuals always have the potential to choose, adapt, interpret and give meaning to their lives.

Experiencing flow, enjoyment and risk in skydiving and climbing

This article brings together findings from two separate ethnographic studies that explore the motivations, behaviours and experiences of those who voluntarily engage in high-risk activities. Focusing on Csikszentmihalyi’s phenomenology of enjoyment, and taking a particular interest in the psychological and experiential aspects of action, the accounts of skydivers and climbers are presented and discussed in relation to each of the components Csikszentmihalyi has identified as necessary for providing a deep sense of enjoyment. The aim of the article is to show how the concept of flow provides a useful framework for understanding the attractions of engaging in high-risk pursuits that are often overlooked. This contributes to an understanding of particular rural settings, specifically mountains and flying sites, as a backdrop for meaningful action.

Goffman, existentialism and criminology

This chapter considers how the work of Goffman can be understood in terms of its affinity with certain tenets of existentialist thought, notably in the work of Sartre. Sartre’s descriptions of ‘Bad Faith’ speak of personal identity as being constructed through forms of performativity that have certain parallels with Goffman’s dramaturgical model of social interaction. On the other hand, Goffman departs from the existentialists in offering an account of the ways in which social interactions are patterned or structured, as constituents of a social order that is constructed through ritualised exchanges. Goffman applied this approach to his studies of breakdowns in the ritual order; occasions in which failure to respect informal codes and social expectations often overlap with legally defined categories of crime, anti-social activity, and mental illness. In Criminology, subsequent scholarship influenced by his work has considered how key concepts such as ‘face-work’ and key themes such as ‘bystander intervention’ remain central to our understanding of the micro-level choreography of crime events and people’s responses to them. At the same time, a resurgence of interest in the emotionality and identity-work involved in criminal risk-taking has raised the profile of both Goffman’s canon and that of the existentialists, while tending to overlook connections and departures between both bodies of work.

Identity, imprisonment and narrative configuration

This article addresses the role of self-narratives for coping with the laws of captivity. By focusing on how confinement can disrupt narrative coherence, the intention is to examine the role of self-narratives for interpreting previous events and anticipating future actions. Drawing on a range of interdisciplinary research on self-identity, imprisonment, and offender narratives, this article highlights how narrative reconstruction can alter our desires, commitments, behavior, beliefs, and values. By (re)telling a story about our lives, it is possible to reinterpret existing circumstances and make new connections between our past, present, and future selves. Whereas research suggests the importance of narrative reconstruction for protecting against a sense of meaninglessness, this article shows how self-narratives have the potential to be empowering and divisive. The final part of the article examines how the narratives inmates construct about themselves and others can serve to legitimize violence against other prisoners.

Tales from the Drop Zone: roles, risks and dramaturgical dilemmas

This article critically revisits conventional understandings of ethnographic fieldwork roles, arguing that representations of the covert insider as heroic and adventurous are often idealistic and unrealistic. Drawing on one of the authors’ experiences of being both a covert and overt researcher in an ethnographic study of skydiving, we identify some of the dramaturgical dilemmas that can unexpectedly affect relations with participants throughout the research process. Our overall aim is to highlight how issues of trust, betrayal, exposure and vulnerability, together with the practical considerations of field research, combine to shape the researcher’s interactional strategies of identity work.

Idealism, violence and censure

This chapter builds on Sumner’s (1990, 1997, 2015) research by drawing attention to the work of Erich Fromm ([1941] 1969) and Ernest Becker (1975). Whilst there are important differences between their approaches, both theorists directly address the unconscious desires that motivate people to engage in extreme violence and other forms of destructive behaviour. The main themes addressed by Fromm and Becker will be discussed in relation to Cottee and Hayward’s (2011) research on the existential attractions of engaging in terrorist acts. The chapter concludes by considering the different ideas put forward by Fromm and Becker concerning the possibility for living in a more open, tolerant and less destructive world.