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).
