19th September 2022
5th Annual Ethnographies of Crime and Control Symposium
King’s College, University of Cambridge
September 19-20, 2022
Ethnography is a method well suited to researching those people and practices otherwise hidden from view, adopted by an increasingly diverse range of practitioners across the social sciences and humanities. In matters of crime, harm, and social control ethnographic approaches are subject to dual sets of pressures: on the one hand the need to demonstrate risk management, relevance, and impact, and on the other the more nebulous challenges presented by a focus on topics that carry political charge and social sensitivity. Added to this, the limitations to movement and contact imposed by COVID have forced hiatus on many, and an increased reliance on digital communications for all of us. As the world tentatively reopens, this symposium invites ethnographers both emerging and established to discuss different ways of doing ethnography with a particular emphasis on how privileging the senses affects our practice and offers the potential for innovations to our craft. As we prepare to return to the field, we invite reflection on how to revitalise innovative conceptual, methodological, and practical responses to this changed and fragile world.
Through a combination of workshops, keynotes, and discussions, we aim to create a space – both real and virtual – to support researchers at all stages of development in a spirit of openness, honesty, and debate.
** In-person attendance is full, but virtual attendance remains available.