Reintegration, Hospitality and Hostility: Song-writing and Song-sharing in Criminal Justice

Abstract

Distant Voices is an ongoing, interdisciplinary collaborative action research project, drawing on criminology, community development, politics, practice-led research and songwriting to explore crime, punishment and reintegration through creative conversations that aim to challenge and unsettle understandings of and approaches to rehabilitation and reintegration. In this paper, we discuss some of the thinking behind the project and we reflect on our experiences to date as a community of enquiry. Specifically, we explore the extent to which certain practices of hospitality that we have experienced in processes of collaborative songwriting and song-sharing might mediate and resist the ‘hostile environment’ that faces people leaving prison in many contemporary societies. Drawing on our experience, we argue that hospitality is often disruptive; that creating and sustaining hospitable environments is extremely challenging; and that to do so requires careful thought and planning, including in relation to problems created by the power dynamics intrinsic to criminal justice. The paper includes links to and discussion of one song written in the project – ‘An Open Door’ -- which engages with and illustrates these themes.

Collaboration before collaborative research: The development of ‘Distant Voices’

“…Although it remains too soon for us to write much about the learning from the current phase of the project, there are numerous forms of output on our website (www.distantvoices.org.uk) – blogposts, songs, podcasts and so on – that both represent and reflect upon that learning. In a recently published paper, Urie et al (2019) provide a more detailed account of the research design and method, and reflect on some of the learning to date.…”

Re-writing punishment? Songs and narrative problem-solving

“…The origins of the current project lie in precursor projects which revealed both the importance of social re/integration after punishment and the profound difficulties associated with seeking and securing it, particularly within hostile environments (McNeill and Urie, 2020; Urie et al, 2019). At its inception, Distant Voices sought to explore whether and how creative processes might enable a more constructive, affective engagement with questions of crime, punishment and reintegration (cf.…”

Playing the game? A criminological account of the making and sharing of Probationary: The Game of Life on Licence

“…Inspired by Urie et al (2019), our approach to working together suggests that all involved are part of a 'community of co-inquiry', bringing artists' own research practise together with socially based research designs and the creative potential and practise of communities, allowing for a continual dialogue and knowledge exchange (Murray, Davies and Gee, 2019). As a collective, we came together through a shared interest in both social justice and alternative epistemological and theoretical modes of 'knowing' and 'sharing'.…”