Analysis of the maintenance of evangelical identity in prison from an interactionist perspective: focusing on tensions and ambiguities

Abstract

Based on the theoretical referential of symbolic interaction, we have endeavored to understand the construction and the maintenance of the evangelical religious identity by individuals who are living in a specific social institution: the prison. In order to do this, we have focused the analysis on the practices and the relationships established by these individuals. On the one hand, we have pointed the transformations in terms of the values, the interpersonal loyalty and the behavior of the converted inmates, on the other hand, we have analyzed the relationships between these religious inmates and the general inmate population, and those are branded by tensions and conflicts. From this double approach – the internal relationships of the religious group and the interactions between religious inmates and general inmate population – we have intended to show the precariousness of this religious identity, constructed in an institution ruled by norms and sui generis values, which define the religious practice inside the dynamic of the prison and the ambiguous position the religious groups hold in this singular social system.