Researching Complexity: Social
Domains and Emotion in Prison
Research
Dr Victoria Knight
De Montfort University
vknight@dmu.ac.uk
Abstract
This paper reflects on research which examined the impact of in-cell television
on social relations in prison life in one closed male adult prison. An
ethnographic research strategy was adopted and was directly informed by
Layder’s (2005) theory of ‘domains’ and his ‘adaptive’ approach was used to
interrogate the data from interviews and from diaries. Data collection was
carried out using two methods: semi-structured interviews with nineteen
prisoners and nine staff, and nine structured diaries completed by
prisoners. This paper reflects on the value of Layder’s model for
empirical exploration of emotions that appear in research. It will
interrogate how domain theory and the adaptive approach can
provide a valuable framework to develop conceptual links
between the self, emotion and settings.
Session: Researching Emotions Empirically
My Aim & Objectives
• Aim: To explore prisoners’ use of television
Objectives:
• To explore prisoners’ situated and mediated
experiences of in-cell television
• To reflect upon the ‘social uses’ of television in
the context of incarceration
• To reflect on the role that in-cell television plays
in the prison regime
• Contribute to television audience research
methodologies in non-domestic settings
The Study of Emotion
‘one of the problems in studying emotion is
there seem to be so many aspects to
experiencing emotion...especially when many
aspects of emotional experience, such as
cognition or embodied emotion, are often taken
as in opposition...My solution is to view
emotions as complexes...’ (Burkitt 2014:14)
Ontological & Methodological Dead
Ends?
• Where were the ‘felt’ experiences of prison life/
watching television?
• Discourse of pain in prison literature- typologies
dominated the ways in which prison life is
conceptualized- this ‘rationalized’ our
understanding and thus affect is lost
• Finding a way not to measure emotion- a
qualitative view which celebrates the complexity
of everyday life.
Would I have interrogated emotion in
the ways that I have without Layder’s
Theory of Social Domains?
A framework for social reality
Layder’s view of social reality- ‘Social Domain
Theory’ (2005)
Contextual
Resources
Social Settings
Situated Activity
Psychobiography
Some Insights into Social Domain
Theory
• Houston(2010)- ‘stratified world’, ‘depth and width’
(et al 2011) ‘wary of closure’ , ‘rich ontology’
‘psychological depth and sociological width’
• Knight, C.(2012)- complexity of interpersonal
control and how this manifests in work with
offenders- domains as orientation
• Besant & Francis (2005) – complexity and rigour
‘facilitates action research where there are several
relevant interacting theoretical areas’ ‘theory
development’
• Bunt (2013) –reach cognition and have dialogue
with other theories
Scaffolding- building a framework
• Uses and Gratification models- psychobiography
▫ McQuail- uses and gratifications
▫ Lull (1980)- ‘social uses of television’
▫ Jewkes (2001)- ‘meanings and motivations’
• Television and Everyday Life- situated activity
▫ Silverstone (1996)
▫ Moores (1993)
• Audience ethnography- settings
▫ Moores
▫ Bird
▫ Silverstone et al
•
•
•
•
•
Emotion- Layder (2005), Hoschchild (1985)
Civilised Elias () Garland ()- cultural resources
Governance and therapy- Rose (1999)- cultural resources
Pains of incarceration- Sykes (1958)
Mood management and media use- psychological research
An Adjoining Methodology :The
Adaptive Approach (Layder 1998)
• Middle range
• Different to grounded theory
▫ Scaffolding
▫ Extant theory
▫ Avoids dualism and conflation
• Social Domains
• Methods & Analysis
▫ Triangulation
▫ Data Saturation- immediate analysis
▫ Sampling
• Conceptualising and theory building
• Quality and rigour
• Writing and planning
Application and Execution- 1
• Layder’s (1996) ‘adaptive approach’
• Moores- ethnography of audiences- capturing
varying perspectives- the culture of TV in
prison- (see also Hammersley and Atkinson
2010, Bird 2003, Jewkes 2002, Gray 1992,
Silverstone et al 1991)
• Knight (2001)- use of television diaries
Application and Execution - 2
• Phased data collection
1. Consultation with prisoners and staff- how should I
research this topic?
2. TV use diaries
3. Prisoner interviews- (some also completed diaries)
4. Key staff interviews
• Phased analysis- Layder’s adaptive approach
1. Segmenting- open coding
2. Axial coding- finalising code book- intensified
dialogue with extant theory
3. Concept-indicator links
4. Final concept development and elaboration
5. Basic quantification of diary data
Managing Emotion in Qualitative Data
Analysis
Segmenting- Open Coding
• What were prisoners doing with TV?
• What were staff doing with TV?
1
Axial Coding- Code Book
• Emotion codes
• What do sociologists do with emotion?
Concept-indicator Links
• Extant theory- what others have said about emotion in these contexts
• Patterns and relationships across data and participants
Final Concept Development
• Linkages & Clusters
• Elaboration
Deciphering Emotion in Data- Shaun’s
feelings
I don’t watch news, who wants to listen to
news? I don’t care what’s going on out there, I just
don’t care. I sometimes read a newspaper like
[local], Inside Time is better for in here. Like the
Michael Jackson death, it is a big thing in the media
and on the front cover of the newspapers, so my
girlfriend tells me. I am in a way disconnected and
media still allows me to interact, or not as the case
maybe at the minute. But I don’t care at present, as
soon as you come through those gates the world
has ended.
Sensitizing Constructs- Telling the
Story
Bridging or binding concept = CONTROL• Making Room for In-cell TV- Contextual Resources &
Social Setting
▫ Domestication of TV, entering the moral economy- Silverstone
▫ Impact on social relations- Spigel, Moores, O’Sullivan, Berker et al
• Personal Control- TV, Emotion and Prison LifePsychobiography
▫
▫
▫
▫
‘protective device’ – Layder, ‘ontological security’ Silverstone
Mood management- Zillman, Kubey
Reach- Moores
Dailiness- Scannell
• Situated and Mediated Control- Governing Souls with InCell TV- Situated Activity
▫ Therapy and rationalization- Rose
▫ Civilizing effects- Silverstone, Elias, Moores
▫ Watching and surveillance- Lull, Rose
Concept development of control:
personal, inter-personal & technical
• Control, as Layder (2004:17) suggests, is not
devoid of emotion, and is a ‘constant
companion to power’.
• In the absence of formal routes to therapy, the
expert comes to represent a form of psychic
control as Rose (1999:144) argues: ‘a science of
the soul [has] combined with a strategy for the
government of the individual’.
Interpretation and Discussion- 3
Concept: Control- Techno-therapy
• Concept: Control- Techno-therapy
TV as care-giver
Control
Managing emotion
Linkages between codesclusters
Looking after yourself
Prison life
IEP
Staff- prison work
Experts
Therapy
Time
Staying connected to
people
Being in control
Elaboration
Self-regulation- (Rose 1991)
Ontological security (Layder 2004;
Silverstone 1996)
Care and control (Rose 1991; Garland
1991)
Contributing to Domain Theory
Contextual
Resources
Social
Settings
Situated Activity
Psychobiography
Mediated Activity
Emotion
Would I have interrogated emotion in
the ways that I have without Layder’s
Theory of Social Domains?
Opportunities
• Break the constraints of a duality model of
structure-agency
• Avoids conflation or flattening out of duals
• Multi disciplinarily
• Multi strategies method
• ...complex!
Some References
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Bessant, J. & Francis (2005) ‘Transferring Soft Technologies: Exploring Adaptive Theory,
International journal of Technology Management and Sustainable Development, Vol. 4,
(2) pp.93-112.
Bunt, S. (2013) ‘A Framework for the Analysis of the Social Processes in the Adoption of
Disabled Children’ Journal of Social Work, May, 13, 3.
Burkitt, I. (2014) Emotions and Social Relations London, Sage
Crewe, B., Warr, J., Bennett, P., & Smith, A. (2013). The emotional geography of prison life.
Theoretical Criminology
Houston, S. & Mullen-Jensen (2011), ‘Towards Depth and Width in Qualitative Social
Work: Aligning Phenomenological Analysis with the Theory of Social Domains’ Qualitative
Social Work, June Vol. 10.
Knight, C. (2012) Soft Skills for Hard Work: An Explanation of the Efficacy of Emotional
literacy of Practitioners working within the National Offender management Service with
High risk Offenders. PhD. Thesis, DeMontfort University.
Knight, V. (2012) Governing Souls with In-Cell Television: A study of the Role of In-Cell
television in an adult Male prison In the UK. Ph.D thesis, De Montfort University.
Layder, D. (2004) Emotion in Social Life: The Lost Heart of Society London, Sage
Layder, D. (2005) Sociological Practice: Linking Theory and Social Research London, Sage
Layder, D. (2006) Understanding Social Theory London, Sage
Moores, S. (1993) Interpreting Audiences: The Ethnography of Media Consumption
London, Sage
Rose, N. (1999) Governing the Soul: The Shaping of the Private Self London, Routledge
Silverstone, R. (1999) Television and Everyday Life London: Routledge