POLICIES ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE
SPECIAL ISSUE ON “POLICIES ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE”
Guest Editor: Consuelo Corradi, LUMSA University (Italy)
Deadline for abstract submission: September 16, 2019
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE TOPIC
The main purpose of the issue is to provide an overview of comparative perspectives on violence against women (VAW). More specifically, the issue will try to offerinnovative perspectives on VAW, to be applied in contemporary complex and multicultural societies.
The analysis of policies and services offers an innovative point of view to evaluate action on VAW. By VAW, we mean different kinds of individual action purposely meant to harm women and girls. Examples of VAW are, among others, stalking, physical violence, sexual violence, intimate partner violence, and femicide. By policies on VAW we mean laws, plans, services, shelters and any other form of collective initiative that aims at preventing and reducing VAW. In the last 25 years, there has been a growing interest and debate on VAW in many regions of the world. Grass-root movements, feminist and women’s movements, public bodies, NGOs and international bodies such as the ONU, the EU and more, have been active in some way to raise awareness, prevent and combat VAW. This special issue aims at describing and analyzing initiatives (policies, services, campaigns) on VAW across the world, and in particular at exploring initiatives with a comparative outlook. By comparative outlook we mean analysis which looks at similarities and differences in diverse social settings. A comparative outlook on VAW initiatives can show acceleration or deceleration in decision-making, proliferation or scarcity of regulations, plans and services, and reasons why this is the case.
We welcome studies across countries or regions of the world, across two or more initiatives in the same country, across social movements that are engaged in fighting VAW. We welcome a variety of disciplinary perspectives in the humanities and social sciences, as well as in interdisciplinary, intersectional and critical approaches. Extreme geographical variety will be an asset of this special issue. By looking at policy development, can we detect VAW policy regimes? What role do grass-roots/social movements play in this field? What is the actual role of the state, as compared to other collective actors in fighting VAW? Are there trends in VAW policies which are common globally or regionally?