Prison space : post-independence Tunisians in a perpetual state of stuckness

This research expands on the well-established literature on institutional prison to ask one major question: where is prison? Instead of questioning its essence, it ventures to deconstruct its slippery yet very tangible existence. Is prison localized? Is prison monolithic or is it plural by definition? Does prison move, and if so what type of movement does it make? All are theoretical questions that this thesis disentangles through its chapters – and with whose ready-made (sometimes described as “common sense”) answers it engages. Where and how is prison encountered and experienced? And what does it entail to move from ‘prison’ to ‘prison experience’, methodologically and epistemologically? These questions led this research to investigate the everyday and the mundane aspect of prison space through life stories and trajectories. These questions engage critically with the predicaments of a large portion of the Tunisian population who live under conditions of heightened precarity and economic, social and political stuckness. They also guide an investigation of other “prison maps” or geographies of confinement and stuckness. Prison space in this research is, therefore, an analytical framework to communicate and reflect on precarious spaces of Tunisia, and to describe the affective, and physical experiences of people who are dwelling in these spaces.