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Paper short abstract

Discomfort is common for social scientists navigating prison settings. Questioning the legitimacy of research in a “total institution”, among detained people and under administrative supervision, makes discomfort a generative site of reflexivity, especially for female researchers in male prisons.

Paper long abstract

Carceral settings are highly demanding fields, marked by ethical and methodological challenges. Social scientists have long emphasised the emotional endeavours of conducting ethnographic research in prison, which require constant self-questioning, as well as reflection on the legitimacy of navigating an environment deeply shaped by power dynamics.

Discomfort is a widespread experience among researchers who navigate the complexity of the “total institution”. It comes from the environment itself, hostile to the outsider’s gaze; from interacting with a “captive population”, such as detained people; from dealing with limitations imposed by carceral administrations, which affect methodology and methods adopted. These constraints restrict the possibility of seeing, talking, and listening freely, allowing the researcher to conduct only “partial ethnographies”.

Moreover, prisons are gendered institutions, largely inhabited and governed by men. Being a female researcher entails an additional layer of discomfort, as the researcher’s self is exposed to ongoing scrutiny and negotiation in the field.

Drawing on three ethnographic experiences conducted in several Italian and Spanish prisons between 2022 and 2025, this paper examines how ethnographic discomfort, under institutional constraints and surveillance, shapes the researcher's positionality and the forms of knowledge produced in prison ethnography. It highlights the potential of reflexivity to enhance both the researcher's understanding of their role and the mechanisms of knowledge production in restrictive settings. Despite many limitations, collaborative knowledge remains a possible and desirable goal: from this perspective, discomfort becomes a keystone for unveiling the complexity of prison ethnography.