The unexceptional im/mobilities of gender-based violence in the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has spotlighted the relationship between mobilities and gender-based violence (GBV). The national lockdowns across the world have im/mobilised people, creating extraordinary social proximities that have been associated with a ‘shadow pandemic’ of violence. Before the pandemic, GBV was often im/mobilised in academic and policy thinking in that it was located in unconnected static sites. This article is based on a transdisciplinary project that seeks to produce understandings of GBV in the Covid-19 pandemic, using the heuristic lens of im/mobilities. The project aims to do so through the creation and analysis of personal stories detailing experiences of GBV across the UK. These stories are in the form of existing first-hand accounts on campaign websites, magazines and newspapers. Through them this article investigates how im/mobilities precipitate gendered violence, both felt and experienced, and examines how embodied experiences become situated in mobile spaces—inside, outside and online—in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. In doing so, it evolves the concept of im/mobilities.

Keywords:

• Im/mobilities
• gender-based violence
• Covid-19
• lockdown
• story
• narrative analysis

Ethical approval

This research project gained ethical approval from the University of Brighton Arts & Humanities Cross-School Research Ethics Committee.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Refuge is a national charity offering a range of services to support survivors of domestic abuse, including a national helpline.

2 The Metropolitan Police (2020) report that 45% of stalking perpetrators are ex-partners. This is likely to be impacted by the under-reporting of all forms of GBV.

3 We have not changed the names of the women in the stories here as they have either already been pseudonymised by those publishing the stories or the real names are given in the published stories with permission.

Additional information

Funding

This research is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) as part of the UK Research and Innovation rapid response to Covid-19 [AH/V013122/1].