Abstract
In this article I observe negotiations that marked my search with “thieves”. I argue that the relations plan which sustain them, the called “crime”, consist of three assemblages: 1) a stubborn preoccupation with the question about “what is right?”; 2) a collective “movement” of variables considerations about who “is right”; 3) a continuous process of (re)definitions of “allies”/”enemies.” Under such relations plan, the research became possible every time I was classified as someone of “human rights”. This notion may well be used to classify circumstantial “allies” (researchers, Prison Pastoral), indicating a strong skepticism about the possibility of “prison oppression” being fought by the “system” and absolutely indifferent to any universalistic intent. But its provocative content is due the fact of also being used, as presented in this article through two ethnographic cases, to reflect the own efforts of prison “commands”.
Keywords
ethnography; human rights; prison gangs; reversibility