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Organising refuge and domestic abuse services: a feminist oral history project

Porter, Antonia (2025) Organising refuge and domestic abuse services: a feminist oral history project. Gender and Justice, 1 (2). E-ISSN 3033-3660. (In press) (Access to this publication is currently restricted. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:108471)

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Abstract

If freedom is understood as non-domination (Einspahr, 2010) then in the 1970s and 80s, Canterbury’s ‘Rising Sun’ domestic abuse refuge embodied the requisite collective agency and participatory processes. Where consciousness-raising was understood as being inadequate to address women’s oppression, where working for or in the best interests of women rang hollow, genuine collaborative togetherness infused the social construction and rule-making of the refuge. Drawing from interviews with the founders, volunteers and employees, this article’s methods build on scholarly interventions that aim to recover women's lost history (Rackley and Auchmuty, 2019; Thompson, 2022) and its feminist empirical methodologies aim to resonate with that of the refuge community, understanding such work as a ‘continuous process of becoming’ (Whittingdale, 2021). The article traces the accomplishments of the refuge’s non-hierarchical ways of working, noting the method’s presented obstacles, whilst it expertly danced the fine line of the ‘tyranny of structurelessness’ (Freeman, 1972).

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled keywords: refuge and domestic abuse services; women's movement; oral history; non-hierarchy
Subjects: D History General and Old World
D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain
H Social Sciences
H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > Kent Law School
Depositing User: Antonia Porter
Date Deposited: 20 Jan 2025 10:56 UTC
Last Modified: 21 Jan 2025 15:23 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/108471 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Porter, Antonia.

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