Life after prison. Sociocultural orders between dis- und reculturation

• Applicant: Dr. Barbara Sieferle
• Subject Area: Social and Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology
• Term: from 2020 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 429649211

Approximately 50.000 prisoners in Germany are released each year. The large majority have been imprisoned for one to five years. Only 30 percent of all inmates in German prisons receive help to prepare for life outside of prison and are assisted once they have been released – although the German Criminal Code defines rehabilitation of prisoners as the main task of the German penal system. The project addresses this issue by analyzing the cultural construction of everyday life after prison and taking into consideration sociocultural obstacles former inmates face after their release (i.e. alienation from the world outside of prison; stigmatization). The project is based on ethnographic fieldwork, its main methods being participant observation, everyday conversations and interviews. The project identifies and analyses former inmates’ sociocultural actions and experiences which enable (or prevent) the construction of everyday life after prison. With its microanalytical and actor-centred perspective on the sociocultural dimensions of inmates’ release from prison, the project closes an important research gap. Building on the concept of ‘disculturation’ (Erving Goffman), the project introduces the analytical concept of ‘reculturation’. Reculturation refers to the cultural construction of everyday life after being released from prison, to (re-)configurations of the self and to the performance of social roles going beyond the externally ascribed role of ‘ex-prisoner’. The concept of reculturation will be tested empirically and developed further on an analytical and theoretical basis.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants