Nick de Viggiani
Nick de Viggiani was a senior lecturer in Public Health at the University of the West of England, Bristol from 1998 to 2025 and led the MSc Public Health Programme for ten years. He remains a reviewer for the international Agency for Public Health Education Accreditation (APHEA). Nick graduated in Geography from Sheffield University in 1987, then trained as a Registered General Nurse in London, subsequently completing his MSc in Health Promotion at Manchester University in 1991. A developing interest in health and social inequality led him into a career in health promotion, working in the North-West of England as an HIV Health Promotion Specialist. In 1993, he was appointed to his first academic post as a Lecturer in Health Promotion at Liverpool John Moores University, then in 1999 moving to a Senior Lecturer post in Public Health at UWE Bristol. In 2003, he completed his PhD with the University of Bristol, having completed an ethnography involving men in prison, exploring prison masculinities as determinants of health. This led on to various funded research projects involving people in the adult and youth justice systems, including a Big Lottery funded three-year study involving young offenders, undertaken in partnership with a music charity. His research in the criminal justice health sector has involved developing relations with regional and national stakeholders across public, private and third sector agencies, and with colleagues across universities. His most recent research has focused on injustice and inequality within justice systems, and the links between adverse childhood experiences (‘ACEs’), criminality and social inequality. His publications include peer reviewed outputs spanning prison public health, prison masculinities, the impact of economic austerity on prison health and qualitative research. He is a strong advocate for prisoner rights and for evolving just, humane and purposeful justice systems.
Phone: +447906301387
Address: School of Health & Social Wellbeing, University of the West of England, Bristol, BS16 1QY
Phone: +447906301387
Address: School of Health & Social Wellbeing, University of the West of England, Bristol, BS16 1QY
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Thesis Chapters by Nick de Viggiani
The study was conducted in an enhanced wing of an adult male training prison in Southern England. A reflexive ethnographic approach was used, comprising sustained (non-participant) observation, focus group interviewing, and in-depth, semi-structured interviews with thirty-five inmates and four prison officers.
The research revealed how prison masculinities were produced and performed by inmates and prison staff, and through the discourses and practices of the prison regime. They were manifested at social and organisational levels as key determinants of health – as ‘deprivations’ associated with imprisonment and as ‘importation factors’ reflecting inmates pre-prison health status. Values of the institution and those of inmates and staff combined to create a pervasively ‘masculine’ atmosphere and culture, which adversely affected the physical and mental health of many prisoners.
This thesis recommends that health policy for prisons is developed and organised with consideration to issues of gender and power. The masculine ideology that underpinned the organisational and social fabric of the prison in this study was evident in the attitudes and behaviours of inmates and staff and in the ‘progressive regime’ advocated by the Prison Service. This research shows that a broad, holistic and ‘gendered’ view of prison health can provide alternative insight into men’s health in prisons, and therefore offer a positive and productive way forward for future prison health policy, in line with the World Health Organisation’s Healthy Prisons philosophy.
Papers by Nick de Viggiani