The contested concept of culture: encounters in policy and practice on violence and abuse
Date
2019
Journal Title
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Volume Title
Publisher
Verlag Barbara Budrich
Abstract
Culture as a concept is complex, contested. The discourse enters an arena of political perspectives both theoretically and practically. Academics and professionals enter a slippery ground seeking to avoid homogenising and stereotypes. At the same time this unease, especially when relating to cultural differences, carries the risk of diluting, or even failing to recognise, how variations in cultural norms affect victim-survivor experiences, and how professionals respond. In this respect culture becomes a discursive resource which can be used in multiple ways in relation to violence against women and/or children: it can be drawn on as an explanation for the violence itself; for how victim-survivors respond; and/or as a reference point for the actions of professionals and agencies. In this chapter we explore how the issue of culture emerged in the multi-disciplinary focus groups with practitioners that we conducted to each form of violence. Towards the end of all the 24 focus groups we asked participants whether it would have made a difference for their interventions if the persons in the phased story we discussed before had belonged to a minority or, as the terminology in other languages could be translated back into English, had a migration/migrant background. Our analytic template for working with the data from the focus groups not only included to explore the implicit cultural premises of intervention, including professional and organizational cultures, but also the framing of culture, cultural difference, and the minoritised position of the persons concerned in the interventions. The explicit focus on difficult decisions and dilemmas that practitioners face proved useful in highlighting perceptions of difference. (Author Text)
Description
item.page.type
text
book chapter
book chapter
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Keywords
child abuse, prevention, barriers, International Resources
Citation
Kelly, Liz ; Magalhães, Maria José ; Meysen, Thomas ; Garner, Maria. (2019). The contested concept of culture: encounters in policy and practice on violence and abuse. In: Carol Hagemann-White ; Liz Kelly ; Thomas Meysen (eds.). (2019). Interventions Against Child Abuse and Violence Against Women: Ethics and culture in practice and policy. Verlag Barbara Budrich. pages 121-133.