Continuums of Violence

Abstract

This chapter looks specifically at gender-based violence directed towards women, acknowledging that gender-based violence is also experienced by men and boys. The continuum of violence is a constitutive relationship between different types of violence, from small acts of personal violence to large scale institutional violence. The chapter focuses on the links between “everyday” gender-based violence and violence associated with war as part of continuums of violence. Feminist lenses perceive gender and power dynamics in relation to violence and analyses the relationships between various types of violence, which are both spatial and temporal. The interrogation of Western (white) feminism is particularly important for feminist peace researchers and gives space to consider the varieties of “everyday violence” that are the consequences of paternalism and exploitation. Feminist postcolonial theorists and transnational feminist activists draw attention to intersecting identities and the historical contexts of colonial relations that reinforce continuums of violence as a global phenomenon embedded in every institution.