An Ethnomethodological Investigation of Time in a Prison Clyde Brewster

THE WNIVERSITY OF CALGARY Doing Time : An Ethnomethodological Investigation of Time in a Prison by Clyde Brewster Freeman III A TIESIS SUMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF OUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY CALGARY, ALBERTA JULY, 1997 O Clyde Brewster Freeman III 1997 National Library Bibliothèque nationale 1*1 ofCrnada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services seMces bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395, me Wellington Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Oüawa ON K1A ON4 Canada Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence aiiowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or se1 reproduire, prêter, disûi'buer ou copies of this thesis in microfom, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/nIm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author' s ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. ABSTRACT This thesis examines how inmates "do time" by making temporal phenomena available through conversation. The study combines techniques of ethnomethodology and ethnography to analyse time-talk occurring in the natural language of prison inmates. The thesis argues that (a) an analysis of doing time is informative of the temporal dimensions of everyday life in the prison and (b) ethnomethodology would benefit from being attentive to time. iii PREFACE In this section of the thesis 1 provide a context for the work in tenus of the meaning it has concerning the life course of its author. In doing so, 1 specify a problem I experienced during the research project. It is my express hope that if any of this work is to be taken seriously, what will be considered noteworthy is my caution to other graduate students not to lose sight of the focus of their work. There is great danger in doing social research. In that everything social is inherently fascinating, the dimensions of the "interesting stuff" are limitless . This is the serpent that hides in the tree of knowledge. 1 know. The snake bit me. It would be an extreme understatement to Say that completing this thesis was simply arduous. It has been for me a most difficult struggle. For the last four years 1 have attempted to make sense of different versions of competing, not to mention obscure, theoretical approaches to the study of human phenomena. 1 have considered my general substantive area, the prison, placing emphasis on prisoners' experience of the, from the perspective of a variety of often divergent approaches including biographical analysis, conversation analysis, discourse analysis, dramaturgical sociology, ethnomethodology, existential philosophy, historiography, interpretative analysis, narrative theory, phenomenological social science, social constructionism, and symbolic interactionism. My work has been multidisciplinary to the extreme, spanning an equally diverse roster of areas of formal studies . The disciplines of anthropology, criminology, cultural studies, history, human geography, law, literary studies, management science, penology, philosophy, social work, social psychology, and sociology have al1 had significant impact on my studies. Driving me forward was the realization that not one of these approaches is itself entirely adequate for the study of the cornplex human phenornena in which 1 was interested. The danger, however, in adopting such an eclectic approach to social research is that instead of invoking closure, one is tempted to look instead to finding the right approach in the next monograph or research paper. While there is always another scholarly book or journal to read, the solution one seeks might not be invariably forthcoming. 1 accept persona1 responsibility for the difficulty 1 endured during the research process. 1 chose to disregard what 1 recognize now as good advice and allowed my thesis to expand exponentially by delving into areas clearly beyond my ability to resolve over the duration of a masters program. In frustration, on many occasions, 1 deemed both my approach and the task unmanageable and considered with al1 seriousness abandoning the project and withdrawing from my graduate program. At other times, while less angry with myself, but troubled nevertheless, 1 contemplated initiating a far less ambitious undertaking. 1 considered exploring an entirely different substantive area while narrowing both rny reseaxch problern and theoretical toolbox. Perhaps for no reason other than plain stubbornness on the part of both rnyself and my supervisor, 1 continued my research, doing rny best to convince myself and those around me that the task was indeed feasible and that it could be completed within the time frame allotted by the university. 1 came slowly to the realization that in order to complete this project it was essential for me to lower my expectations. This was not easy for me to do. 1 entered graduate studies immediately after completing my undergraduate degree. Steeped with what was then a genuine enthusiasm for the social sciences, 1 focused my attention on the study of Social Anthropology, investigating what I considered to be an important thesis topic. Introduced here at the University of Calgary to ethnomethodology (and conversation analysis) by my supervisor, Professor Graham Watson, 1 recognized that this approach could provide a viable way to study the social phenomena 1 considered of interest: the phenomenon of the as experienced by prison inmates, involuntary members of a social context where time takes on new meanings and significance zt both the level of the social and the individual. Ethnornethodologists are concerned with the practical methods members use in particular contexts to make sense of those settings. Since Garfinkel, ethnomethodologists have argued that social order is to be found by being sensitive to the mundane practices of people carrying out the project of living their everyday lives. Order is there to be found because people describe or report their social context as orderly. By paying attention to these accounts, an ethnomethodological approach seeks to reveal the way people through practical social action (re)constitute their contexts as recognizably orderly and meaningful. Ethnomethodologists discover how people in their actual settings go about the work of sustaining Meir lives as sensible within that particular context. In that we as humans are situated in both space and time, our understanding of our social context reflects spatial and temporal dimensions. Aithough we are al1 bound in space and time, these features take on special significance for people in prison. These phenomena are very different "in the joint" than while "doing" everyday "life on the street. '' At the commencement of my research project, in considering approaches to fieldwork, ethnomethodology appeared to me to provide a feasible way to study how members in one social context establish and make sense of what a non-member would consider very strange temporal structure. 1 asked myself the research question, Wow is that prisoners de tinte? Many metaphors have been used to describe tirne. Some Say that time in contemporary western societies is conceptualized in terms of an arrow. When we consider an arrow in flight, the metaphor is suggestive of the flow of time as a linear progression from past to future, always from the point of reference to the immediate present. Conceptualizing life processes in tems of the arrow metaphor reveals distinct stages of the human life course. Consider f irst the arrow: it begins its path along a certain trajectory at a brisk velocity. The arrow gains altitude. Most of the flight is straight and unwavering. At its zenith, the arrow hones in on its distant, yet visible, target. During the final stage of flight, the arrow loses both speed and elevation. Dependent upon the archer's skill, the arrow either hits or misses its target. The arrow metaphor can be used as a conceptual mode1 of an individual's life passage. The life course can be understood in tems of a progressive narrative, soaring forward to what is recognized as an eventual decline and an inevitable death. We ascribe different meanings to certain points on the life course. Differing among social contexts, different stages of the life course are associated with certain social forrns, particular patterns of social relationships . Thus, the is for humans inherently social. vii Conversely, the social is intrinsically temporal. But there is also a profound component of the experience of the that is located at the level of the individual. As social creatures, we need mechanisms with which to reveal to others our position in flight, to make socially available our position in flight, what may be considered as our "temporal selves. " People develop life stories to document and make sense of the many events that transpire over the course of their lives. We use these narratives to account to ourselves and others significant moments that occurred in our past. There is as well a desire to develop plans in which our future hopes, dreams, and aspirations are expressed. These future histories are grounded in tems of potential futures. In the moment of the present, we make sense of both our past and anticipated future by developing and sharing with others these temporal accounts of past and future. Many factors influence the specific text of such social documents. Life circumstance, that set of unique possibilities in which the individual is surrounded, imposes very real and sometimes harsh constraints on life patterns and life chances. For al1 of US, therefore, there exist fixed boundaries of freedom at each stage of the life course.

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