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Humour, embodiment and use of space: agency and resistance in young people who have lived with domestic violence

Callaghan, J. (2014) Humour, embodiment and use of space: agency and resistance in young people who have lived with domestic violence. Invited Keynote presented to: British Psychological Society Psychology of Women Section (POWS) Annual Conference 2014, Windsor, England, 09-11 July 2014. (Unpublished)

Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Invited Keynote)
Abstract: For the feminist activist or practitioner, the theoretical and research resources psychology offers to understand young people’s responses to domestic violence are very limited. Overwhelmingly, psychological discourses position young people as passive victims, damaged by their ‘exposure’ to domestic violence. Psychological accounts are frequently pathologising, focusing on mental health impact, the negative consequences for social skills, neurological ‘damage’, and poor educational and employment outcomes. While I recognise the importance of understanding the hurt, disruption and damage that domestic violence can cause children, in this paper, I explore other possible ways of talking about and thinking about the lives of young people who have experienced domestic violence. Based on interviews, drawings and photovoice work conducted with 100 young people living in the UK, Greece, Spain and Italy, I use interpretive analysis to explore young people’s capacity for agency and resistance. I explore their use of humour, relationality, embodiment and space to produce gestures of resistance that underpin the construction of (often paradoxically) resistant self-identities, and of agentic strategies for coping with the experience of violence at home.
Uncontrolled Keywords: Domestic violence, domestic abuse, children, qualitative research, resistance, agency, resilience
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology > BF712 Developmental psychology > BF723 Child psychology
H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Women > HQ767 Children. Child development
B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology > BF608 Will. Volition. Choice. Control
H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology > HV6001 Criminology > HV6251 Crimes and offences > HV6626 Family violence
Creators: Callaghan, Jane
Funders or Sponsors: European Commission (Daphne III)
Grant Reference Number: Just/2012/DAP-AG-3461
Projects: Understanding Agency and Resistance Strategies
Faculties, Divisions and Institutes: University Faculties, Divisions and Research Centres - OLD > School of Social Sciences (to 2016)
Date: 11 July 2014
Date Type: Presentation
Event Title: British Psychological Society Psychology of Women Section (POWS) Annual Conference 2014
Event Dates: 09-11 July 2014
Event Location: Windsor, England
Event Type: Conference
Language: English
Status: Unpublished
URI: http://nectar.northampton.ac.uk/id/eprint/6805

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