States of violence: Exploring welfare state regimes as violence regimes by developing a violence regimes index

Sofia Strid*, Anne Laure Humbert, Jeff Hearn, Dag Balkmar

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The aim of the article is to examine if and how the welfare state regime typology translates into a violence regime typology in a European context. It builds on the concept of violence regimes (Strid et al. 2017; Hearn et al. 2020) to empirically examine whether the production of interpersonal violence constitutes distinct regimes, and how these correspond (or not) with welfare regimes, gender regimes, and with other comparative metrics on violence, gender equality and feminist mobilisation and transnational actors. Its main contribution is to operationalise the concept of violence regimes, thereby moving from theory to a first empirical measurement. By first constructing a new composite measure of violence, a Violence Regimes Index, based on secondary administrative and survey data covering the then 28 EU member states, countries are clustered along two axes of violence: ‘deadly’ violence and ‘damaging’ gender-based violence. This serves to examine if, and how, the production of gendered violence in different states constitutes distinct regimes, analogous to welfare state regimes, as well as to enable future research and further comparisons and contrasts, specifically related to violence and the welfare state. By providing an empirical measurement of violence regimes in the EU, the article then contributes further to the debates on welfare, welfare regimes, and violence. It specifically contributes with discussions on the extent to which there are different violence regimes, comparable to welfare regimes, and with discussions on the relevance of moving from thinking about violence as an institution within other inequality regimes, to thinking about violence as a macro-regime, a way of governing and ruling in its own right. The article concludes that the exclusion of violence from mainstream social theory and research has produced results that may not be valid, and offers an alternative classification using the concept of violence regimes, thereby demonstrating the usefulness of the concept.

Original languageEnglish
Peer-reviewed scientific journalJournal of European Social Policy
Volume31
Issue number3
Pages (from-to)321-336
Number of pages16
ISSN0958-9287
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15.04.2021
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article - refereed

Keywords

  • 514,1 Sociology
  • violence
  • Nordic countries
  • EU28
  • comparative studies
  • social policy
  • gender regimes
  • violence regimes
  • violence regimes index
  • welfare regimes

Areas of Strength and Areas of High Potential (AoS and AoHP)

  • AoS: Responsible organising

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