Schreeche-Powell, Edwin ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5551-9649 (2025) Hollowing out peer support: knowledge conversion in hostile knowledge environments of open prisons. Criminology & Criminal Justice (CCJ). ISSN 1748-8958 (Print), 1748-8966 (Online) (In Press)

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Abstract

This article examines peer-led induction (PLI) in open prisons to explore how managerialism, responsibilisation, and staff culture distort the circulation and conversion of knowledge in penal institutions. Drawing on Nonaka and Takeuchi’s SECI model, it shows that the stages of socialisation, externalisation, combination, and internalisation were systematically fractured. Officers possessed tacit insights into the anxieties of transfer, while peers held experiential expertise; however, both forms of knowledge were displaced by managerialist priorities that privileged paperwork and audit over relational support. This created what is theorised as a hostile knowledge environment, where valuable tacit expertise was muted, fragmented, or reframed. The article further introduces the peer support paradox: the tendency for responsibilisation and audit cultures to hollow out lived-experience interventions, turning them into rituals of compliance. The findings extend debates on legitimacy, responsibilisation, and penal governance by showing how hostile knowledge economies erode authenticity, learning, and institutional credibility.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	peer support, prisons, penal governance, Managerialism, responsibilisation, knowledge conversion
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) K Law > K Law (General)
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Law, Arts and Social Sciences Faculty of Law, Arts and Social Sciences > School of Law and Criminology
Last Modified:	03 Nov 2025 10:28
URI:	https://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/51392

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