The immobilities of gender-based violence in the Covid-19 pandemic
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Brighton
Department Name: Sch of Applied Social Sciences
Abstract
One particularly concerning consequence of the Covid-19 crisis is the reported surge in domestic
abuse. This transdisciplinary project seeks to produce understandings of domestic violence in
relation to gender-based violence (GBV) and immobilities in order to produce insights that can be
converted to policy. It does so through the creation and analysis of personal stories detailing
experiences of GBV across the UK at different stages in the Covid-19 crisis. The Covid-19 lockdown
has focused attention on domestic violence and its relationship to constrained mobilities.
Understanding domestic abuse within the frame of GBV allows us to look across the multiple sites
of felt violence that have been reconfigured. It is critical that we understand and deliberate GBV in
these redefined spaces in order to invigorate policy responses to domestic abuse and other GBV
within the current crisis and beyond. This research does so through the analysis of told and untold
stories of GBV in relation to the complex interdependencies of immobilities. The project
investigates how im/mobilities precipitate gendered violence, both felt and experienced and how
embodied experiences become situated in mobile spaces - inside, outside and online - in the
context of the Covid-19 pandemic. The project combines analysis of existing stories (in the public
domain already) with directed original life writing, supported in creative writing cafes, to develop a
form of autoethnography that values narrative accounts of experiences of GBV at different stages
of the pandemic and reveals inequalities. These stories will be valued as part of the critical
research through academic outputs as well underpinning online conversations with policymakers
and professionals with a view to producing tangible policy recommendations.
abuse. This transdisciplinary project seeks to produce understandings of domestic violence in
relation to gender-based violence (GBV) and immobilities in order to produce insights that can be
converted to policy. It does so through the creation and analysis of personal stories detailing
experiences of GBV across the UK at different stages in the Covid-19 crisis. The Covid-19 lockdown
has focused attention on domestic violence and its relationship to constrained mobilities.
Understanding domestic abuse within the frame of GBV allows us to look across the multiple sites
of felt violence that have been reconfigured. It is critical that we understand and deliberate GBV in
these redefined spaces in order to invigorate policy responses to domestic abuse and other GBV
within the current crisis and beyond. This research does so through the analysis of told and untold
stories of GBV in relation to the complex interdependencies of immobilities. The project
investigates how im/mobilities precipitate gendered violence, both felt and experienced and how
embodied experiences become situated in mobile spaces - inside, outside and online - in the
context of the Covid-19 pandemic. The project combines analysis of existing stories (in the public
domain already) with directed original life writing, supported in creative writing cafes, to develop a
form of autoethnography that values narrative accounts of experiences of GBV at different stages
of the pandemic and reveals inequalities. These stories will be valued as part of the critical
research through academic outputs as well underpinning online conversations with policymakers
and professionals with a view to producing tangible policy recommendations.
Organisations
Publications
Moriarty J
(2022)
The immobilities of gender-based violence in lockdown: Devising workshops to support women who experienced gender-based violence during the Covid-19 pandemic to tell and share their stories
in LIRIC: The Lapidus International Research and Innovation Community Journal
Murray L
(2022)
The unexceptional im/mobilities of gender-based violence in the Covid-19 pandemic
in Mobilities
Murray L
(2023)
Trans/feminist collaborative autoethnographic storying of gender-based violence, during the COVID-19 pandemic
in Journal of Gender-Based Violence
Murray L
(2021)
Generational mobility cultures: implications for decarbonisation
Parks M
(2022)
Silent Footsteps: Renga Poetry as a Collaborative, Creative Research Method Reflecting on the Immobilities of Gender-Based Violence in the Covid-19 Pandemic
in Cultural Studies ? Critical Methodologies
| Title | Drop in the Ocean by Karolina Jonc Buczek |
| Description | Commissioned comic story of GBV in Covid 19 |
| Type Of Art | Image |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | The image was used in our project, as part of the policy workshops and as part of an exhibition on the project |
| URL | https://immobsgbv.edublogs.org/illustrations/ |
| Title | I was on my way home by Sarah Ushurhe |
| Description | Commissioned comic story of GBV in Covid 19 |
| Type Of Art | Image |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | The image was used in our project, as part of the policy workshops and as part of an exhibition on the project |
| URL | https://immobsgbv.edublogs.org/illustrations/ |
| Title | Reflection by Elijah Vardo |
| Description | Comic story of GBV in Covid 19 pandemic |
| Type Of Art | Image |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | The image was used in our project, as part of the policy workshops and as part of an exhibition on the project |
| URL | https://immobsgbv.edublogs.org/illustrations/ |
| Title | Something is Happening...by Ottilie Hainsworth |
| Description | Commissioned comic story of GBV in Covid 19 |
| Type Of Art | Image |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | The image was used in our project, as part of the policy workshops and as part of an exhibition on the project |
| URL | https://immobsgbv.edublogs.org/illustrations/ |
| Title | The end of the night |
| Description | Commissioned comic story of GBV in Covid 19 |
| Type Of Art | Image |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | The image was used in our project, as part of the policy workshops and as part of an exhibition on the project |
| URL | https://immobsgbv.edublogs.org/illustrations/ |
| Title | The walk home by Sabba Khan |
| Description | Commissioned comic story of GBV in Covid 19 |
| Type Of Art | Image |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | The image was used in our project, as part of the policy workshops and as part of an exhibition on the project |
| URL | https://immobsgbv.edublogs.org/illustrations/ |
| Description | The research findings are as follows, presented in response to the research questions. 1. How have domestic abuse, and GBV more broadly, manifested across multiple immobilised sites during the Covid-19 crisis in the UK? The data suggested that firstly, GBV experiences are shared across multiple and connected spaces, which reflected the literature review. In addition, we found that secondly, Covid 19 has led to immobilisations of GBV that are often related to intensification of space and isolation of space. GBV is not dependent on lockdown space being either the usually domesticated intensified, spaces of the home or more isolated, usually outdoor spaces, but rather it is configured according to these spatialities, which in turn determine varying degrees of immobility. 2. What insights are revealed from the uneven stories of GBV, told at different times during the Covid-19 crisis? The key findings here were that, firstly, the cumulative experience of GBV over time determines emotional response and sensory engagement that are immobilising and, secondly, that the amplified sensory and emotional responses precipitate turning points of resistance, acceptance and ambivalence. The Covid 19 pandemic illuminated the emotional and sensory experiences of GBV. Gender-based violence is 'felt' and engaging with its lived experience through stories is essential to a full understanding of the ways in which GBV accumulates in the body and in space over time - so that by older age, women have a significant archive of experiences. At the same time the sensory and emotional engagements with GBV offer up the opportunity to make transformations - for example in escaping the currently experienced GBV, which a number of women did during the pandemic. 3. How can the insights from these stories instigate knowledge exchange to enable strategies to combat GBV during and after the Covid-19 pandemic? As above, we have shown that stories can enable their creators and their readers to 'feel' the sensory and emotional experiences of GBV. Stories can bring GBV during Covid 19 'to life' in contrast to the crime statistics that often inform policy. The Covid 19 pandemic has presented the opportunity to tell stories as it has highlighted the intensification and isolation of space described above. Understanding the practices of storying as well as the content of stories deepens understanding. This includes understanding the politics of storying - context, authorship, readership - associations with campaign funding, sales, hits. Stories are engaging and can facilitate the vicarious lived experience of GBV and therefore transform as part of a policy dialogue. |
| Exploitation Route | Academic outcomes will be taken forward through academic publications. We have held a policy workshop, which generated further outcomes as follows: • Covid 19 led to increased inequality in relation to GBV as the most unequal could not access support during the pandemic • There are many missing stories - of undocumented migrants, minoritized people, black women, trans people, disabled people, sex workers, neurodiverse people, people who have been killed, key workers and case workers that should be the subject of further research using the methods developed in this project • The Covid 19 pandemic highlighted the cumulative lifecourse experiences of GBV • Stories of GBV are often about the victim and perpetrator but less so around the underlying social and cultural context and in particular the social acculturation of misogyny - there is a need to challenge gender norms and this can be achieved through a large number of small policy interventions that will lead to medium term change • There is a need to change ideas around what is acceptable evidence in order to gain the full picture and to illuminate these small policy interventions - this should include the broader acceptability of qualitative methods and in particular of stories as evidence • Stories can impact policy as they instigate dialogue and the emergence of small policy changes. We will create and take opportunities to work with policy makers and the police to put these into action. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Government, Democracy and Justice,Transport |
| URL | https://immobsgbv.edublogs.org |
| Description | Transforming trans-national landscapes of gender-based violence through trans-sensory storying |
| Amount | £67,717 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | AH/X008843/1 |
| Organisation | Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2023 |
| End | 01/2024 |
| Title | Trans-feminist autoethnography |
| Description | A transdisciplinary method for producing nuanced understandings of, in particular, sensitive topics that brings together researchers from different disciplines in an auto ethnography process that includes the intersection of thematic and narrative analysis. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The methods has been used by the researchers in further projects. |
| Title | The immobilities of gender-based violence int eh Covid 19 pandemic - database of existing stories |
| Description | This is a collection of publicly available excerpts of 125 first and third person accounts, stories, of gender-based violence in the Covid 19 pandemic, which has been anonymised |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | The collection has been used to generate outputs in the research project |
| Description | Invited talk for Lapidus International |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | An online talk for Lapidus International on our method of devising worshop spaces for vilnerable women. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Invited talk for the University of Brighton |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A workshop and talk detailing how the GBV project had inspired the workshop development for a new project working on menopause which also engages women in creative workshops. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.brighton.ac.uk/community-partnerships/community-events/brains-at-the-bevy.aspx |
| Description | Meeting with Sussex Police |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Meeting with Sussex police to consider methods for reducing GBV |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Storying autobiographical experiences with gender-based violence: a collaborative autoethnography |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Training session for postgraduate researchers at the University of Brighton |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |