Interview with Carol Hagemann-White and Maria José Magalhães on "International Innovation"

Professor Dr Carol Hagemann-White and Professor Maria José Magalhães outline the CEINAV project and respective research aims as well as the benefits of forming international partnerships on the website "International Innovation" with the title "Seeking to understand the impact of violence interventions for women and children across Europe".
You can find the article here and download the pdf from there to disseminate further.

1st Visual Culture Encounter, Coimbra, 11th November, 2015

 The 1^st Visual Culture Encounter dedicated to the topic “The share of the visible: gazing politics” took place on the 11^th of November. The event was held at the University of Coimbra, at “Casa das Caldeiras” and was organized by a recently formed Working Group on Visual Culture from the Portuguese Communication Association (PCA). 

In the communication “Visual Narratives: the expression of intervention by women and youngsters victims of violence”, the CEINAV team presented the analysis of the visual narratives produced in a participatory art process. The presentation covered the following topics: introduction, methodology, ethical considerations, creative project's structure, results analysis and conclusion. The visual narratives analysis allowed us to identify three main categories: confinement, liberation and resignation. Image and interpretation were combined for a better understanding of the research that CEINAV is conducting.

Workshop with Associate Partners - October 9th, 2015

On October 9th, 2015 we met with Associate Partners and discussed the project’s results so far. We talked about the comparative papers that have been written recently and the creative workshops that were developed in the four countries. We also brainstormed about the project’s final seminar, namely the organization of the talks. We also designated a provisional date for the event. Finally, we formalized the collaboration with the Association for Family Planning (APF), which has a specialized division that provides services to victims of human trafficking.

Rita Lopez

From left to right: Clara Sottomayor (Senior Researcher), Angélica Lima Cruz (Senior Researcher), Raquel Felgueiras (Artist-Researcher), Rita Lopez (Researcher), Ilda Afonso (Associate Partner - UMAR), Leonor Valente Monteiro (Associate Partner - APC), Fernanda Pinto (Associate Partner - APF), Rita Moreira (Associate Partner - APF), Maria José Magalhães (Principal Investigator)

"Creative Dialogue" in Berlin ein Erfolg EN/DE

For english version of this entry see below

"Creative Dialogue" in Berlin ein Erfolg

Am 16. September haben das DIJuF aus Heidelberg und die Universität Osnabrück, als deutsche Partner im EU-Projekt „Cultural Encounters in Intervention Against Violence“ (CEINAV), zu einem kreativen Workshop eingeladen, um die Möglichkeiten zu beleuchten, die Kunst zur besseren Verständigung über Erfahrungen von Betroffenen mit der Intervention leisten kann. Er fand in Räumen der „WeiberWirtschaft eG“ in Berlin statt; für die Frauenhauskoordinierung nahm Heike Herold teil.

Nachdem im ersten Projektjahr die Perspektive der Fachkräfte im Mittelpunkt stand (vgl. „working papers“ hier im Projektblog) haben die beiden deutschen Teams in diesem Jahr insgesamt 27

Mit "Fusspartituren" haben die Betroffenen ihren
Weg durch die Intervention gezeigt

Interviews mit Frauen und mit Jugendlichen durchgeführt, die Interventionserfahrungen nach häuslicher Gewalt, Frauenhandel, oder Inobhutnahme aufgrund von Gewalt oder Vernachlässigung in der Kindheit erlebt hatten. Dabei wurden besonders InterviewpartnerInnen gesucht, die einen Minderheiten- oder Migrationshintergrund haben. 

Im Sommer wurden die InterviewpartnerInnen eingeladen, an einem Kunstworkshop teilzunehmen, in dem sie mit Unterstützung einer professionellen Künstlerin selber ihre Interventionserfahrungen mit den Mitteln der Kunst darstellen konnten. Die Künstlerin, Ninette Rothmüller, bot den TeilnehmerInnen Material und Möglichkeiten an, mit unterschiedlichen Medien kreativ zu werden, und es wurde dann auch eine Vielfalt von Kunstformen verwendet: Malen, Zeichnen, Wortbilder und Gedichte, ein Quilt, eine Audiodatei, ein Guckkasten. Diese Kunst sowie drei eigene Werke der Künstlerin zum Thema waren bei dem Berlinworkshop nun ausgestellt, und auch die meisten der Kunstschaffenden waren anwesend

Es war eine bunte und zugleich ausgeglichene Mischung: Teilgenommen haben vier Gruppen:

Interventionsgeschichte in einem Quilt und eine lebhafte Diskussion

sechs Frauen (darunter eine Jugendliche), die in Kunstworkshops Bilder über ihre Erfahrungen geschaffen haben; sieben Fachkräfte aus der Interventionspraxis (zu häuslicher Gewalt, Frauenhandel, oder Schutz von misshandelten oder vernachlässigten Kindern), sechs Vertreterinnen der Praxisnetzwerke, die seit 2013 das Projekt beratend begleiten (KOK, bff und IGfH), und fünf Teammitglieder der beiden Forschungspartner. Es entstanden lebhafte und sehr spannende Gespräche. Eine externe Moderatorin sorgte u.a. dafür, dass in der Gruppenarbeit die verschiedenen Perspektiven präsent waren. Die Künstlerin, die die Workshops geleitet hat, konnte in Berlin nicht persönlich dabei sein, nahm aber per Video und Skype teil.

In der Schlussrunde haben die Künstlerinnen den Wert dieser Erfahrung für sie selbst betont. Mit der Die Vieldeutigkeit der Kunst und der Reflexion über sie erweitern den Horizont und ermöglicht, im

Nachdenken vor einem Kunstwerk
von Ninette

Gespräch sehr verschiedene Wege zu gehen. Gespräche ohne einen solchen Anknüpfungspunkt entwickeln sich oft eher „linear“. Somit eröffnen sich nicht nur den Künstler/innen Freiräume, auch Professionellen, bieten sich Räume für das Vorwärtstasten und die Reflexion. Fachkraft und Künstlerin begegnen sich auf Augenhöhe, es kann sich sogar eine Umkehrung der sonst in der Beratung vorhandenen Hierarchie ergeben, denn hier war die Künstlerin die Expertin, die befragt werden musste, um zu verstehen. Das habe eine ganz andere Qualität als bei den verbreiteten Methoden der Kunsttherapie und sei damit nicht zu vergleichen. Diese Erfahrung wollten mehrere Fachkräfte mitnehmen in die Praxis; es blieb aber offen, wie das umgesetzt werden kann. Zusätzlich wurde von den Fachkräften hervorgehoben, dass Kunst, die Interventionserfahrungen darstellt, ein Mittel sein könnte, denjenigen Gehör zu verschaffen, die in öffentlichen Debatten um ‚gute Praxis’ oft nicht wahrgenommen werden. Und auch im Rahmen von Fortbildungsveranstaltungen für Fachkräfte könnte Kunst ein Mittel sein, die Reflexion über eigene Interventionspraktiken zu vertiefen. Kunst wird, so mehrere Fachkräfte, eine emotionale Tiefe schneller erreicht als in Beratungsgesprächen, und kann in einfachen Worten erklärt werden. Unausgesprochenes kann sprechbar werden. 

"War die Zeit für die Gruppenarbeit genug, zu wenig, zu viel?"

 "Creative Dialogue" in Berlin  a success

The two German partners in CEINAV jointly organised an all-day „Creative Dialogue“ workshop with associate partners (national umbrella organisations of NGOs and practitioners), women and young people who had created art works reflecting on their intervention experiences, and professionals who had participated in the 2014 workshops. It took place on September 16 in Berlin. On the day before, the two research teams from Heidelberg and Osnabrück met with representatives of the associate partners to discuss interim results of the project. The creative dialogue was focused entirely on the art work exhibited, and sought to explore the possibilities of using art to further better understanding between professionals and the recipients of intervention. 

The workshop drew on the research activities of CEINAV. During 2015 the two research teams

Participants portrayed pathways through intervention
through "foot prints"

carried out a total of 27 interviews with women and young people who had experienced intervention due to domestic violence, trafficking for sexual exploitation, or removal from the family due to abuse or neglect. Particular efforts were made to find interview partners with a migration or minority background. 

The women and young people were then invited to participate in art workshops led by an artist-researcher, Ninette Rothmüller. The artist prepared the workshops, bringing a variety of art materials and offering the participants a range of options for the kind of art work they would like to undertake, and a variety of different “products” were made: paintings, drawings, word pictures, poetry, a quilt, an audiotape, and a peep-box. Outside these workshops the artist, who is herself a sculptor, also created three art works of her own reflecting on themes that emerged from how interviewees described their intervention experience. All of the art work was on exhibit in rooms where the creative dialogue was held, and almost all of the artists took part in the workshop.

The „creative dialogue“ workshop was made up of four equal-size groups: six women who had been creative in the art workshops (five women who had

Intervention experience in a quilt and a lively discussion

survived domestic violence and one adolescent with child protection experience), seven professionals with experience in intervention in one or more of the forms of violence that CEINAV is studying, six representatives of the associate partners who have contributed the perspective of practitioners to CEINAV since 2013, and five researchers from the two partners. An external facilitator from Heidelberg moderated the workshop through the day, ensuring that discussion groups had a mix of these different perspectives. The artist-researcher who had led the art workshops was unable to be in Berlin but was present by video, giving an introduction to how the art workshops had been run, as well as explanatory notes to her own art work, and participated in a Skype discussion with all participants.

In the closing reflective discussion, the artists who had exhibited their work emphasized the value of this experience for themselves. The intervention professionals found that through art work emotional

Pondering Ninettes artwork

depths could be reached more quickly than in advisory talks, and that with the art, these feelings could be expressed in simple words. Unspoken aspects can thus find their way into speech. (This has added value for women with a migration background, who may not be fluent in German.) The ambiguities inherent in art and the process of reflecting on these widen the horizon and make it possible to take a variety of different directions in conversation. Conversations that do not have such a reference point often tend to develop in a more “linear” way. Thus, a space of freedom of action is opened up, not only for the ones who created the art, but also for the professionals, enabling both to “feel their way” forward taking a reflective approach. Professional and artist meet as equals, and this can even reverse the hierarchy in their intervention relationship, in which the counsellor is the expert and the person seeking help asks questions. Here, the ones who created art were the experts, and the professionals sought help and advice in order to understand. This changes their relationship, and is, they said, an altogether different process from the established methods of art therapy.

Some professionals explicitly said they would like to carry this experience over into their practical work, but it remained an open question how this can be done. In addition, it was said that art representing the experience of the recipients of intervention could be a means of making marginalized voices heard, and it could be used to advantage in further training with professionals to encourage them to reflect on their own intervention practice.

"Was the time for the group work enough, too little, too long?"

 

CEINAV on ISPCAN Conference in Bucharest

The CEINAV findings from the child physical abuse and neglect stream found broad interest on the European Regional Conference of the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN) in Bucharest on September 26th to 30th, 2015. Janna Beckmann from the DIJuF-Team presented “ethical issues and dilemmas in German child protection interventions”. Concentrating on the high value of relationships of trust in the German system she showed the tensions professionals in the expert workshops sensed when acting without consent, for example to share information or to intervene. From the interviews with young persons she could show the importance of confidentiality and trustful relationships in their perception. Thomas Meysen talked about the international comparison between the four countries: “paternalism and ethical sensitivity in diverse approaches to child protection interventions”. Different systems face similar problems and find diverse solutions, e.g. on the approach towards multidisciplinarity, information sharing, weighing between interests or delegating professional decision to rules and detailed criteria. – The responses indicate that ethics in child protection interventions is deemed as highly relevant and discussions wait to be deepened.

Thomas Meysen

CEINAV symposium at the European Conference on Domestic Violence in Belfast (6-9 September 2015)

On September 8th 2015, representatives of the four CEINAV teams presented a symposium at the European Conference on Domestic Violence, held at Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland from 6-9th September 2015. A symposium was prepared by Vlasta Jalušič and colleagues from all research teams with the title Cultural patterns in interventions against violence. The symposium took place on the third day of the conference with almost full conference room of participants. Liz Kelly gave the introdution to the CEINAV framework and methods.

The aim of the symposium  was to address the cultural patterns in interventions against domestic violence. It  focused particularly on  professional's intervention strategies against  violence directed towards women and children. On the basis of empirical data, collected in the  project until now, the papers explored the cultural premises (similarities and differences) on which intervention patterns in four   countries (Germany, Portugal, Slovenia and the UK) are built on domestic violence and child abuse and how these intersect. We explored questions such as for example: How is violence understood? Is there a cultural framing of it? What is the threshold for intervention, when is it acceptable to act without the consent of the woman/parents?  How is culture understood? Which are the cultural minorities that need or are given a special attention and why? Is intervention framed differently for women and children who are positioned as cultural/ethnic minorities?

Prof. Liz Kelly opened the symposium with an overview of the entire CEINAV project, including its goals and methodology. She then presented the professionals’ discourses in the UK: “From private to public, need to risk, women to children: the changing professional discourse on domestic violence in the UK.” Prof. Rita Lopez then gave a presentation on the analysis conducted in Portugal entitled: “Cultural barriers to the protection of women and children against domestic violence: professionals’ discourses in Portugal.” Following, Bianca Grafe presented the German team’s data: “Framing intervention and handling difficult decisions in professional responses to domestic violence in Germany.” Finally, Prof. Vlasta Jalusic gave an account of the Slovenian Professionals’ discourses and closed with a few conclusions that emerged from the cross-country analysis of the professionals’ discourses.

Vlasta Jalušič & Rita Lopez

 

From left to right: Prof. Liz Kelly (PI - UK), Prof. Vlasta Jalusic (PI - Slovenia), Prof. Maria José Magalhães (PI - Portugal), Raquel Felgueiras (artist-researcher - Portugal), Rita Lopez (researcher – Portugal) and Bianca Grafe (researcher – Germany).

Juggling tasks: Interviews, Analysis and Participatory Art

A couple of weeks have passed again, but the more busy we get, the less time we find for writing and keeping you up to date.

Let me just update you with our work schedule.

All the interviews are done

Although in some of the countries it was very hard  to get all the interviewpartners we aimed for, and sometimes we did not succeed, we did what we could. But I am happy to announce, that on the other hand we have more interviews than anticipated in all fields of violence in the German team and in the field of domestiv violence and child abuse in the Portuguese team.

Analysis is on the way

The researchers have extracted stories out of the interviews which very briefly tell a story. In order to keep them anonymous, we split up some interviews in several stories, so the unique combination would not give away who told it. As always, this overlaps with analyzing the interviews. Meanwhile...

the artists are preparing and conducting their workshops

The first art workshop with interviewees already took place in Slovenia and produced some interesting pieces which are not ready for public presentation at this time.  We will however discuss them in four creative dialoge meetings with practitioners and associate partners in each of the four countries in September.

Also the artists have gotten their own little discussion space which is also (due to safety reasons) closed off from the public. There they can discuss their ideas and inspirations as well as very practical questions. We will invite one of the artists to write something here later.