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Shannon Philip
(University of Cambridge)
Garima Jaju
(University of Cambridge)
Manali Desai
(University of Cambridge)
Chair:
Garima Jaju
(University of Cambridge)
Discussant:
Garima Jaju
(University of Cambridge)
Format:
Panel
Streams:
Gender & generation
Technology & innovation
Sessions:
Friday 8 July, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Gendered Violence and Urban Transformations in the Global South III.
Panel P16c at conference DSA2022: Just sustainable futures in an urbanising and mobile world.
In this panel, we invite ethnographically or qualitatively informed papers that look at women’s everyday negotiations of interpersonal violence, in the larger context of the changing urban landscapes of the Global South.
Long Abstract:
Gender based violence – its actual occurrence, its looming possibility or its structuring force – acts upon already existing gendered social worlds and women’s positioning within them. It is important to move away from focusing on singular ‘acts’ of violence, and instead look at the whole of gendered social worlds that women occupy in which violence is managed within negotiated social relations, aspirations and social performances. It is these social worlds that create the conditions for violence, that absorb the shock of violence and get reinterpreted and renegotiated in the wake of violence. Focusing on social worlds, we look at conjugal relations, kin relations, friendships as well as the relational creation of personhood. These relations are significantly shaped by the urban context, which provides a distinctly urban moral, ethical as well as cultural and socio-economic framework within which they operate. Questioning the roles of gender and its inequalities and violences marks important possibilities for sustainable and just futures for urban contexts around the world.
In this panel, we invite ethnographically or qualitatively informed papers that look at women’s everyday negotiations of interpersonal violence, in the larger context of the changing urban landscapes of the Global South. We are keen to explore the relationships between masculinities and femininities and their many changing cultures and embodiments in various social contexts. We are particularly keen to engage with scholars working on urban contexts in South Asia and Southern Africa that speak to the themes of the panel. This panel will also bring together insights from The GendV Project led by Prof Manali Desai at the University of Cambridge which looks at gendered violence and urban transformations in India and South Africa.
Methodology - This is a paper based panel. Papers can be supported with PowerPoint presentations that use photo, audio or video material. All panellists will work with the panel conveners to think creatively about engaging audience participation for an inclusive and interactive session.
The paper looks at the types of backlash faced by women public figures in the digital space where gender justice issues are being contested. This manifestation of backlash to women's rights and the contemporary women's movement shrinks women's access and presence in the digital space.
Paper long abstract:
The rapid use and accessibility of the internet in Bangladesh during the COVID pandemic is a shift to urban transformation. This shift has led to the emergence of "new spaces" like social media, to look at gender-based violence. This paper, focusing on everyday Facebook interactions by women public figures who campaign on gender justice issues, tries to understand the backlash and trends of violence against women in the digital space. The paper looks at the types of backlash and the contested issues around which backlash occurs. It also tries to unpack who the perpetrators are and the strategies used by women to counter them. The paper analyses the Facebook profiles of three female media personalities and two national events that created mass debate in social media on women's agency and rights in social media. The analysis is based on the contents posted by these Facebook profiles, the events, and the comment sections. Women are stigmatised, mocked, threatened with sexually explicit hate comments when they raise their voices on gender justice issues. The findings showed that when women seek to break stereotypes, a negative alternative image is created by the backlash actors. This creation justifies discrimination, stigmatisation, and violence against women and makes them the prime target of violence. The paper concludes that these forms of violence are a manifestation of backlash to women's rights and the contemporary women's movement and causes immense psychological trauma, often demotivating women from continuing their presence in cyberspace.
Following the gang rape of a student in Delhi in December 2012, a widespread wave of protest happened. University students took a lead in these mobilisations. This paper explores female students' experiences of sexual violence in university campuses and their modes of protest.
Paper long abstract:
Following the gang rape of a medical student in Delhi in December 2012, a widespread wave of protest happened against sexual violence, and students in Higher Educational institutions took a lead in these mobilisations. Night marches with feminist slogans began to ascertain women's freedom of mobility in the urban space. The huge participation of young women and men in these mobilisations reflected entry of a new generation to the women's movement in India.
This paper is an exploration of female students' experiences of sexual violence in university campuses and the ways in which their modes of protest have consolidated in the last decade. It is important to note that mass mobilisation against an incident of gang rape founded a collective to fight against restrictions on women's mobility and resulted in political expressions like kissing in public or pasting sanitary napkins with slogans across university campuses. The basic commonality in such modes of activism seems to be on using the body - bearing different inscriptions of femininity - as both site and sight of resistance. Activists are challenging the modes of 'looking at' women by choosing to be 'seen' in the ways they want. The paper also refers to my own experiences of being a part of the gender sensitisation process in my university as a woman faculty member and sustained conversations with friends, colleagues and students on the issue of women's safety in urban campuses.
Drawing from ethnographic and cyber-ethnographic research in Gurgaon, the paper attempts to look at the double-edged relationship women in cities share with new digital technologies and media - security and anxieties, independence and vulnerabilities, belongingness and apprehensions they bring in.
Paper long abstract:
An important part of current processes of urbanisation is the rapid technologisation of spaces. The digital sphere has become an extension of the physical space of the city, and Internet technologies a part of people's everyday lives. For women in the city, smart phones equipped with various kinds of apps, software and social networking sites, cut both ways. On the one hand, for many women, the tracking and mapping made possible through geo-locators and GPS enabled apps, provides a sense of security and ease of movement through the city. Social media sites help them to find others similarly placed, and provides platforms to make friends, voice concerns, share joys and sorrows. On the other hand, cases of cyber bullying and harassment, Internet trolling, possibilities of surveillance and stalking become new sources of apprehensions, anxieties and vulnerability.
Drawing from a combination of cyber-ethnographic and physical fieldwork in Gurgaon, this paper will try to examine the Janus-faced relationship that women in cities share with new digital technologies and media. As part of the wider research on 'Gendered Violence and Urban Transformations', this ethnographic exploration aims to shed light on the experiences of violence, and more importantly, the everyday practices women carry on to "prevent" violence from occurring. This paper, therefore, is an attempt to understand how technology becomes entwined with the urban landscape and its gendered social worlds. It will look at the ways women in Gurgaon make use of and negotiate with the digital space in order to navigate the cityscape.
This paper explores the complex and contradictory understandings of the 'home' and its relation to the 'city' amongst middle class South African women during the COVID-19 pandemic, and its interplay with narratives of gendered violence, classed respectability and urban transformations.
Paper long abstract:
The 'home' has long been a site of feminist engagement and critical scholarship. During the global COVID-19 pandemic and its 'shadow pandemic' of gendered violence, the home as a site of enquiry has gained renewed attention. In this paper I look at how wealthy and middle-class South African women conceptualise their 'home' within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular I focus on the narratives of gendered violence experienced and discussed by some women as well as contrasting narratives about the 'safe home' and the 'dangerous city' that several other women talked about. In this way, a complex picture emerges around the ideas and imaginaries of the 'home', its lived realities and the many classed and gendered anxieties that shape it in relation to urban transformations. The data for this paper is derived primarily from semi-structured interviews with 40 women in the wealthy suburb of Sandton in Johannesburg. The paper reveals complex and contradictory understandings of the 'home' during the COVID-19 pandemic, and its interplay with narratives of gendered violence, a gendered respectability as well as ideas about unsafe urban spaces. In this way the paper attempts to connect the 'home' and the 'outside', as well as ideas of violence, safety and 'protection' along a single analytical continuum.
Click the star to add/remove an item to/from your individual schedule.
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Garima Jaju (University of Cambridge)
Manali Desai (University of Cambridge)
Short Abstract:
In this panel, we invite ethnographically or qualitatively informed papers that look at women’s everyday negotiations of interpersonal violence, in the larger context of the changing urban landscapes of the Global South.
Long Abstract:
Gender based violence – its actual occurrence, its looming possibility or its structuring force – acts upon already existing gendered social worlds and women’s positioning within them. It is important to move away from focusing on singular ‘acts’ of violence, and instead look at the whole of gendered social worlds that women occupy in which violence is managed within negotiated social relations, aspirations and social performances. It is these social worlds that create the conditions for violence, that absorb the shock of violence and get reinterpreted and renegotiated in the wake of violence. Focusing on social worlds, we look at conjugal relations, kin relations, friendships as well as the relational creation of personhood. These relations are significantly shaped by the urban context, which provides a distinctly urban moral, ethical as well as cultural and socio-economic framework within which they operate. Questioning the roles of gender and its inequalities and violences marks important possibilities for sustainable and just futures for urban contexts around the world.
In this panel, we invite ethnographically or qualitatively informed papers that look at women’s everyday negotiations of interpersonal violence, in the larger context of the changing urban landscapes of the Global South. We are keen to explore the relationships between masculinities and femininities and their many changing cultures and embodiments in various social contexts. We are particularly keen to engage with scholars working on urban contexts in South Asia and Southern Africa that speak to the themes of the panel. This panel will also bring together insights from The GendV Project led by Prof Manali Desai at the University of Cambridge which looks at gendered violence and urban transformations in India and South Africa.
Methodology - This is a paper based panel. Papers can be supported with PowerPoint presentations that use photo, audio or video material. All panellists will work with the panel conveners to think creatively about engaging audience participation for an inclusive and interactive session.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 8 July, 2022, -Iffat Jahan (BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD), BRAC University) Pragyna Mahpara (BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD), BRAC University)
Mallarika Sinha Roy (Jawaharlal Nehru University)
Pratichi Majumdar
Shannon Philip (University of Cambridge)