Mobilities and power dynamics in carceral institutions
Carceral geography was largely constructed based on a carceral approach, by way of its relation to mobility. This original, founding link between confinement and mobility characterizes the discipline. Based on both a review of the literature, as well as fieldwork conducted on the detention of foreigners in Romania, this article discusses how the power relations that constitute confinement are exercised via these mobilities. The role of mobility in the development of the geography of confinement is first discussed. Next, three scales of deployment for these mobilities are analyzed. First, between closed institutions, where movements are decided and implemented by the various actors charged with enforcing migration and penal policies, and where governmental mobilities are inherent to the implementation of institutional domination. Second, between the interior of the institutions and their immediate environment, mobility generates inside-outside relations that play a part in power relations within the institutions. Finally, the article deals with movements within the institutions. While the management of these movements is one of the main tools used to maintaining order, this negotiated order nonetheless grants a certain amount of leeway to the detainees. Mobility thus proves to be a pertinent prism for studying variations of power relations within closed institutions.