The idea that certain categories of sick, vulnerable, criminal or 'antisocial' individuals would benefit from time in an institution has a long history and the Essex landscape is scattered with nineteenth-century institutional buildings. This MA module examines the development of such institutions through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and considers how institutional philosophy was worked out in local communities and particular institutions. Using examples from Essex sources, the module examines the implications for local politics, changed in understanding of physical and mental illness, of the roots of criminal behavior, of the perceived dangers inherent in poverty and also of appropriate responses. Such responses included methods of treatment, social attitudes and attention to institutional architecture. The module will consider prisons and houses of correction, hospitals and asylums, workhouses and almshouses