Paper short abstract:

This paper is an attempt to rethink meetings as occasions of reaffirming hierarchy within institutions, by drawing on data from fieldwork in public women’s shelters in Turkey.

Paper long abstract:

This paper is an attempt to rethink meetings as occasions of reaffirming hierarchy within institutions. By drawing on data from my fieldwork in public women's shelters in Turkey, I take meetings in these women's shelters (where the staff and residents get together) as occasions where rules are reminded and new rules are enforced, where words of objection are murmured and silenced, and where each side's position in the shelter are endorsed - in an institution which is historically supposed to be devoid of such hierarchies in order to be able to be in solidarity with women who face violence.