Vol. 9 No. 2 (2025): Institutional Escapes | Journal of Extreme Anthropology
Anthropological inquiry into institutional lives has conventionally focused on life within the institution and life ‘after and/or outside the institution’. The aim of this issue is to explore the liminal states and spaces created through the acts of escaping: states and spaces that are neither in nor out of an institution. While escapes have naturally been part of the prison studies (Martin & Chantraine, 2018; Fontes 2022; Thompson 2023), there has been less focus on this matter within other institutional contexts. We thus broaden our gaze to institutions that do not necessarily organize their functioning based on escape or runaway predictions, like carceral spaces (e.g. prisons, detention centers, camps), to include care institutions (e.g. hospitals, residential childcare, adult residential care facilities, psychiatric wards, rehabilitation centers, retirement homes) and educational and therapeutic environments (e.g. boarding schools, therapeutic communities) and more.
Aleksandra Bartoszko 