‘“Indelible characters”:Tattoos, Power and the Late Nineteenth-Century Irish Convict Body

Since the late nineteenth-century works of criminologists Lombroso and Lacassagne, tattoos in Europe have been commonly associated with deviant bodies. Like many other studies of tattoos of non-indigenous origin, the locus of our research is the convict body. Given the corporeal emphasis of prison records, we argue that tattoos form a crucial part of the power dynamic. Tattoos in the carceral context embody an inherent paradox of their being a component in the reidentification of 'habitual criminals'. We argue that their presence can be regarded as an expression of convict agency: by the act of imprinting unique identifiers on their bodies, convicts boldly defied the official gaze, while equally their description in official records exacted power over the deviant body. Cursory findings show an alignment with other national studies; corporeal inscriptions in Ireland were more prevalent in men's prisons than women's and associated, however loosely, with certain occupations. For instance, maritime and military motifs find representation. Recidivists were more likely to have tattoos than first-time offenders; inscriptions were described as monotone, rudimentary in design and incorporated a limited range of impressions. Further to our argument that tattoos form an expression of convict defiance of prison authority, we have found an unusual idiosyncrasy in the convict record, that is, that the agency of photography, while undermined in general terms, was manipulated by prison officers.

Advancing Research on Men and Reproduction

While feminist scholarship has centred reproduction in women’s lives, it has inadequately explored its meanings in men’s. If we assume that reproduction happens in relationships of one kind or another between males and females, then missing men is a considerable oversight. Although there is now much research on fatherhood,merely focussing on this end-stage assumes that women take care of all of the foreplay, leaving unanswered questions in relation, inter alia, to men’s desires for parenthood,men’s involvement in planning or lack of planning to have children, the way men struggle or cope with infertility, their encounters with new reproductive technologies and surrogate mothers, their experiences of foetal screening, their involvement in abortion decision-making, and their experiences of becoming or not becoming a father. In this article I argue that men have compelling experiences throughout the reproductive trajectory deserving of more attention. I offer a profeminist theoretical composition for advancing further enquiries on men and reproduction,which begins with the feminism-informed Critical Studies of Men and Masculinities (CSM), and then weaves this together with the theories of intimate citizenship, sociology of the body, and the sociology of science and technology. I will propose how concepts from these collective theories may be useful in opening up layered questions about gender relations, intimacy, bodies, and technologies in future studies of men and reproduction.

Maternal Risk Anxiety in Belfast: Claims, Evaluations, Responses

This paper considers the social logic of maternal anxiety about risks posed to children in segregated, post-conflict neighbourhoods. Focusing on qualitative research with mothers in Belfast’s impoverished and divided inner city, the paper draws on the interactionist perspective in the sociology of emotions to explore the ways in which maternal anxiety drives claims for recognition of good mothering, through orientations to these neighbourhoods. Drawing on Hirschman’s model of exit, loyalty and voice types of situated action, the paper examines the relationship between maternal risk anxiety and evaluations of neighbourhood safety. In arguing that emotions are important aspects of claims for social recognition, the paper demonstrates that anxiety provokes efforts to claim status, in this context through the explicit affirmation of non-sectarian mothering.

Emotions & social change in Ireland:Exploring habitus shift in liquid modernity

Drawing on insights from a range of disciplines, including philosophy, psychology, history, politics, but particularly sociology and sociological theory, this thesis explores the relationship between emotions and social change in late or 'liquid' modernity. It deploys the Republic of Ireland in the twentieth century as a case study. It argues that the Irish case in an ideal site for this research given the speed and scale of changes that have occurred there, particularly since the 1950's. The primary research question guiding the study is: What has been the effect of 'social change' in Ireland on the emotional lives of Irish people? The thesis is structured in three parts. Part one (chapters one to three) is primarily theoretical. It aims to develop a distinctive theoretical framework, process-relational realism, and argues that three concepts, properly treated, are central to answering the research question. These are emotion, power and (emotional) habitus. Part two is a bridging chapter, in which the empirical portion of the study, its design and method, are outlined. This study is based on a series of qualitative life-history interviews conducted using the Biographical Narrative Research Method. Part three is primarily empirical. The first chapter critically explores Bauman's concept of liquid modernity in relation to the Irish case and offers a short social history of the Irish twentieth century, which focuses on emotions and power. The second deploys two (ideal-type) interview cases to support the argument that Ireland experienced a habitus shift, from a relatively homogeneous to a heterogeneous habitus, and a corresponding shift from a relatively repressive emotional regime to a more expressive one, with significant effects on the emotional habitus. The final chapter takes a broader view of these changes, suggests that social change has been ambivalent, and outlines a new typology of emotional pathologies that the study suggests are characteristic of contemporary emotional life.