Paper short abstract:

This paper interrogates the importance of addressing violence to social justice.

Paper long abstract:

This paper interrogates the importance of addressing violence to social justice. In doing so, it contributes to research which considers social justice a practice which challenges and addresses structural inequity – and the narratives on which it is based – and locates a confrontation of violence as central to this work. The paper looks at queer experiences of domestic violence and the complexity of social justice in the face of intersecting structures of domination. Primarily known as and considered within the context of violence against women, domestic violence provides a lens to critically interrogate gendered, racialized and heteronormative inequity and violence. Drawing on interviews with queer people in South Africa who have experienced domestic violence, including intimate partner violence, the paper identifies three components of the practice of social justice in this context: a central consideration of violence; a radical confrontation with the structures of domination; and an intersectional approach which mirrors the interconnectivity of the inequity it is addressing.