Feminist violence studies

Feminist Violence Studies approaches violence as a fundamentally gendered phenomenon that cuts across various societal levels. Violence is understood broadly, including physical, psychological, sexual, economic and symbolic violence across different contexts and levels.

Violence is studied from various methodological perspectives, ranging from qualitative analysis of the microdynamics of interpersonal violence to measuring and comparing the prevalence and consequences of violence on macro level, and developing tools and terminologies to inform policy, practice and action against violence. Theory, concepts and methodologies on violence are also developed from a feminist perspective, as well as conceptualizations of related concepts, such as sexual consent. Sexual consent and grey areas between sex and sexual violence are other central research themes.

The research field considers the wide range of approaches within different academic disciplines to the concept of violence, the differences between forms of violence, the distinctions and boundaries between violence and non-violence. The significance of multiple inequalities (e.g. class, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, nation, migration, sexuality, and trans) and their intersections are studied in e.g., collective violence, organisational violence, sexual violence, and environmental and slow violence – in online/offline contexts.  Attention is paid to the comparative and transnational dimensions of the production and organising of violence(s) in polity, economy, civil society, and in intimate relations, and to the relations between violence, gender, and sexuality as organisational and political issues. Scholars working on Feminist Violence Studies in the CFS is also part of the research environment Centre for Violence Studies (CVS).