‘The elephant in the room’: silencing everyday violence in rights-based approaches to women's community participation in Argentina

Abstract

This article examines the role of the Manzaneras women's community network in Aranda, a poor neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, where levels of violence and organized crime are high. The analysis explores the impact of the hidden forms of domination and unvoiced fears of violence which limit the local government's rights-based approach to women's community participation in food aid delivery. It finds that the social conditions and power relations, in which the network is embedded, limit the potential of innovative rights-based strategies to transform women and community development in the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires. Unrecognized violence is a major obstacle to women's community participation.