This book examines the significance of food within prison, arguing that it acts as a means of normalization, autonomy, identity construction, power and hierarchies, group formation, and even security. It focusses on prison foodways in Belgium as a central European country. It draws on and broadens the existing scholarship on imprisonment in the Anglo-Saxon world to review, compare and suggest different practices. Belgium has interesting international influences on its national penal policies and a unique set of challenges and developments in prisons which are explored. This book has three parts which examine the symbolic role of food in Belgium and beyond, prisonsers' experiences of food and practices, and the impact of penal policy including future implications. This study uses food as the creative lens to provide greater nuance in the understanding of under-explored areas such as: normalization outside of the Nordic welfare states, multiculturalism in prison, and identity construction in prison, to give penologists a deeper insight into prison policies and prisoners' experiences. It makes an important contribution to the study and practice of penology in Europe and provides theoretical insights into the socio-cultural role of food in closed environments.

Book Information
ISBN 9783030961244
Author An-Sofie Vanhouche
Format Hardback
Imprint Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Publisher Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Weight(grams) 148g