Victims, Perpetrators, and Actors' Revisited: Exploring the Potential for a Feminist Reconseptualisation of (International) Security and (Gender) Violence

Citation:

Shepherd, Laura J. 2007. "Victims, Perpetrators, and Actors' Revisited: Exploring the Potential for a Feminist Reconseptualisation of (International) Security and (Gender) Violence." The British Journal of Politics & International Relations 9 (2): 239-56.

Author: Laura J. Shepherd

Abstract:

In the discipline of International Relations (IR), which takes seriously issues of war and peace, there has been a lack of attention paid to theorising security in relation to violence. In this article, I explore the potential for a feminist reworking of these concepts. With reference to a range of literature addressing security and violence, I offer some insights into the relevance of such a reconceptualisation. I draw attention to the ways in which work on issues of violence and security function to reproduce understandings of these concepts that delimit the value of both academic theorising and policy prescription. In the study of security, because of the discursive power of the concept, and of violence, these considerations are particularly important, as they can literally be issues of life and death.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Feminisms, Gender, Gender-Based Violence, Peacebuilding, Security, Human Security, Violence

Year: 2007