IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/indgen/v22y2015i1p63-91.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Understanding Violence in Place: Travelling Knowledge Paradigms and Measuring Domestic Violence in India

Author

Listed:
  • Amy Piedalue

Abstract

This article investigates how ‘gender-based violence’ is taken up as a subject of research, and more specifically, how gender violence is understood and researched in the ‘developing world’. Based on analysis of the domestic violence module included in India’s National Family Health Survey-3 (NFHS-3, 2005–2006), I argue that current international trends in survey research on gender violence pay insufficient attention to place-based contexts and the working of structural forces. The domestic violence module used in the NFHS-3 and other demographic health surveys (DHS) derives from a measurement scale developed in the US in the 1970s, and deploys particular assumptions about what constitutes domestic violence. This quantitative survey measure universalises a conception of domestic violence as a personal problem, rather than a systemic social issue. As a travelling knowledge paradigm, the survey elides histories of development intervention in India that have exacerbated and produced women’s vulnerability to violence, and ultimately offers more development as the solution to the problem of gender violence. The mobility of this travelling knowledge paradigm derives from a particular form of biopolitics. By prioritising scope and speed, these surveys erase the complexities of gender violence, thereby significantly hindering not only efforts to understand this violence, but also those aimed at preventing it.

Suggested Citation

  • Amy Piedalue, 2015. "Understanding Violence in Place: Travelling Knowledge Paradigms and Measuring Domestic Violence in India," Indian Journal of Gender Studies, Centre for Women's Development Studies, vol. 22(1), pages 63-91, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:indgen:v:22:y:2015:i:1:p:63-91
    DOI: 10.1177/0971521514556947
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0971521514556947
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0971521514556947?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bina Agarwal & Pradeep Panda, 2007. "Toward Freedom from Domestic Violence: The Neglected Obvious," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(3), pages 359-388.
    2. Panda, Pradeep & Agarwal, Bina, 2005. "Marital violence, human development and women's property status in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 823-850, May.
    3. Kantor, Paula, 2009. "Women's Exclusion and Unfavorable Inclusion in Informal Employment in Lucknow, India: Barriers to Voice and Livelihood Security," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 194-207, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Auriol, Emmanuelle & Platteau, Jean-Philippe & Camilotti, Giula, 2017. "Eradicating Women-Hurting Customs: What Role for Social Engineering?," CEPR Discussion Papers 12107, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Lentz, Erin C., 2018. "Complicating narratives of women’s food and nutrition insecurity: Domestic violence in rural Bangladesh," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 271-280.
    3. Vijay P Singh, 2022. "Judicial Approaches to the Criminalisation of Marital Rape," Indian Journal of Gender Studies, Centre for Women's Development Studies, vol. 29(1), pages 10-32, February.
    4. Węziak-Białowolska, Dorota & Białowolski, Piotr & McNeely, Eileen, 2020. "The impact of workplace harassment and domestic violence on work outcomes in the developing world," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    5. Rao, Nitya, 2017. "Assets, Agency and Legitimacy: Towards a Relational Understanding of Gender Equality Policy and Practice," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 43-54.
    6. Margaux Suteau, 2020. "Inheritance Rights and Women's Empowerment in the Labor and Marriage Markets," THEMA Working Papers 2020-17, THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise.
    7. Allendorf, Keera, 2007. "Do Women's Land Rights Promote Empowerment and Child Health in Nepal?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 1975-1988, November.
    8. Tannistha Samanta, 2020. "Women’s empowerment as self-compassion?: Empirical observations from India," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(5), pages 1-18, May.
    9. Nicola Banks, 2016. "Livelihoods Limitations: The Political Economy of Urban Poverty in Dhaka, Bangladesh," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 47(2), pages 266-292, March.
    10. Paolo Casini & Lore Vandewalle & Zaki Wahhaj, 2017. "Public Good Provision in Indian Rural Areas: The Returns to Collective Action by Microfinance Groups," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 31(1), pages 97-128.
    11. Nicola Banks, 2014. "Livelihoods Limitations: The Political Economy of Urban Poverty in Bangladesh," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series 19914, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    12. Anja Tolonen, 2019. "Endogenous Gender Roles: Evidence from Africa’s Gold Mining Industry," OxCarre Working Papers 209, Oxford Centre for the Analysis of Resource Rich Economies, University of Oxford.
    13. Kien Le & My Nguyen, 2023. "Armed conflicts and women's authority in intra‐household decision making," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 70(3), pages 249-267, July.
    14. Roy Chowdhury, Soumi & Bohara, Alok K. & Horn, Brady P., 2018. "Balance of Power, Domestic Violence, and Health Injuries: Evidence from Demographic and Health Survey of Nepal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 18-29.
    15. Auriol, Emmanuelle & Camilotti, Giula & Platteau, Jean-Philippe, 2017. "Eradicating Women-Hurting Customs: What Role for Social Engineering?," CEPR Discussion Papers 12107, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. Emin Gahramanov & Khusrav Gaibulloev & Javed Younas, 2022. "Does property ownership by women reduce domestic violence? A case of Latin America," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(4), pages 548-563, July.
    17. Manoj K. Pandey & Prakash Singh & Ram Ashish Yadav, 2009. "Labor Domestic Violence and Women's Health in India: Evidence from Health Survey," ASARC Working Papers 2009-13, The Australian National University, Australia South Asia Research Centre.
    18. Yokying, Phanwin & Lambrecht, Isabel, 2020. "Landownership and the gender gap in agriculture: Insights from northern Ghana," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    19. Sofia Amaral, 2015. "Do Improved Property Rights Decrease Violence Against Women in India?," Discussion Papers 15-10, Department of Economics, University of Birmingham.
    20. Meinzen-Dick, Ruth Suseela & Johnson, Nancy & Quisumbing, Agnes R. & Njuki, Jemimah & Behrman, Julia A. & Rubin, Deborah & Peterman, Amber & Waithanji, Elizabeth, 2011. "Gender, assets, and agricultural development programs: A conceptual framework:," CAPRi working papers 99, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:indgen:v:22:y:2015:i:1:p:63-91. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.