Moving beyond listening to lived experience voices to better understand friendships during incarceration: an applied knowledge equity approach

Arrondelle, Donna and Conway, Marc (2023) Moving beyond listening to lived experience voices to better understand friendships during incarceration: an applied knowledge equity approach. Listening to all voices? The politics of ‘lived experience’, University of Durham, Durham, United Kingdom.

Abstract

Social scientific research and policy debates increasingly reference the inclusion of ‘lived experience voices.’ However, this does not always serve to reduce power imbalances for the individuals those voices belong to, experts by experience (EbyE). In some cases, inclusion of EbyE becomes tokenistic and at worst their voices can be co-opted to fit existing agendas, reinforcing the very power asymmetries the researcher/organisation purports to challenge. Researchers will often seek to destabilise traditional hierarchical power dynamics, prioritise reflexivity, and act with sensitivity towards EbyE. Yet, arguably, some traditional social scientific participatory processes can inadvertently perpetuate knowledge production elitism as terms of participation get set within specific boundaries decided by others. This paper presents an applied knowledge equity approach, which works to further dismantle power hierarchies between EbyE and those holding traditional elite positions. One author, an EbyE of sentenced imprisonment together with an academic presents an interview-based narrative focusing on the topic of friendships in prison. We utilise academic collaborative writing to co-produce an article submitted to a CJS journal. Through this process of co-production we aim to bridge some of the distance from the conventional space of ‘research participant’ towards a more influential ‘participant author’ suggesting there is added value to research in doing so. As well as making an academic contribution to debates surrounding masculinities and intimacy during incarceration, we also suggest that the innovative method developed to co-produce the narrative would also work well in other contexts to productively challenge epistemic injustices across CJS knowledge and beyond

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Contributors

Author: Donna Arrondelle

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