Violence, the Body and the Spaces of Intimate War. Issue 5 (19th October 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Little, Jo
• Is Part Of: Geopolitics. Volume 25:Issue 5(2020)
• Page Start: 1118
• Page End: 1137
• Publication Date: 2020-10-19
• Subjects: Geopolitics -- Periodicals; Boundary disputes -- Periodicals; Sovereignty -- Periodicals; 320
• DOI: 10.1080/14650045.2019.1567498
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1465-0045

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This paper explores the relationship between domestic violence and rurality through the theoretical lens of intimate war. It argues for a geopolitical perspective that foregrounds issues of space and scale and emphasises the 'entwined geographies of corporality and violence'. Drawing on recent empirical research in the UK, I explore the ways in which the body is contained and controlled both physically and emotionally through intimate war. In doing so I focus on three key aspects of domestic violence: hidden geographies, tactics of entrapment and surveillance and the wounding of the body. The context of rurality provides a set of spatial and social characteristics that need to be taken into consideration in understandings of the experience of domestic violence and the responses by agencies and professionals.