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Sensing the Atmosphere in Tightly Controlled Settings

Flower, Lisa LU orcid and Wästerfors, David LU (2026) p.100-116
Abstract
This chapter highlights the centrality of atmospheres in tightly controlled environments like courtrooms and youth detention homes. In courtrooms, social control is achieved through affective arrangements, such as reading emotional cues and using touch or its avoidance to manage order. Legal professionals rely on their ability to sense and act on shifting atmospheres as part of their implicit skill set. In youth detention homes, sensory impressions like alarms, screams, or subdued atmospheres play a key role in social control. Staff and youths navigate these sensory landscapes daily, whether through sharp awareness in turbulent moments or a muted, “gray” institutional atmosphere during monotony. For ethnographers, capturing these and... (More)
This chapter highlights the centrality of atmospheres in tightly controlled environments like courtrooms and youth detention homes. In courtrooms, social control is achieved through affective arrangements, such as reading emotional cues and using touch or its avoidance to manage order. Legal professionals rely on their ability to sense and act on shifting atmospheres as part of their implicit skill set. In youth detention homes, sensory impressions like alarms, screams, or subdued atmospheres play a key role in social control. Staff and youths navigate these sensory landscapes daily, whether through sharp awareness in turbulent moments or a muted, “gray” institutional atmosphere during monotony. For ethnographers, capturing these and similar atmospheres requires using and analysing sensory experiences alongside narratives, material cues, and observations. The ability to vividly convey these collective and affective dynamics in their ethnographic accounts is critical to making the intangible socially and analytically significant. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
host publication
Sensing Life : The Social Organisation of the Senses in Interaction - The Social Organisation of the Senses in Interaction
editor
Gibson, Will ; Ruiz-Junco, Natalia and vom Lehn, Dirk
edition
1
pages
17 pages
publisher
Routledge
external identifiers
  • scopus:105035757157
ISBN
9781003422471
DOI
10.4324/9781003422471-6
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
5432edde-90d2-4e7b-8a39-5b2a3e8cff4c
date added to LUP
2026-04-22 08:24:35
date last changed
2026-05-29 13:19:29
@inbook{5432edde-90d2-4e7b-8a39-5b2a3e8cff4c,
  abstract     = {{This chapter highlights the centrality of atmospheres in tightly controlled environments like courtrooms and youth detention homes. In courtrooms, social control is achieved through affective arrangements, such as reading emotional cues and using touch or its avoidance to manage order. Legal professionals rely on their ability to sense and act on shifting atmospheres as part of their implicit skill set. In youth detention homes, sensory impressions like alarms, screams, or subdued atmospheres play a key role in social control. Staff and youths navigate these sensory landscapes daily, whether through sharp awareness in turbulent moments or a muted, “gray” institutional atmosphere during monotony. For ethnographers, capturing these and similar atmospheres requires using and analysing sensory experiences alongside narratives, material cues, and observations. The ability to vividly convey these collective and affective dynamics in their ethnographic accounts is critical to making the intangible socially and analytically significant.}},
  author       = {{Flower, Lisa and Wästerfors, David}},
  booktitle    = {{Sensing Life : The Social Organisation of the Senses in Interaction}},
  editor       = {{Gibson, Will and Ruiz-Junco, Natalia and vom Lehn, Dirk}},
  isbn         = {{9781003422471}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{100--116}},
  publisher    = {{Routledge}},
  title        = {{Sensing the Atmosphere in Tightly Controlled Settings}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003422471-6}},
  doi          = {{10.4324/9781003422471-6}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}