{"id":446,"date":"2014-07-16T15:47:46","date_gmt":"2014-07-16T12:47:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ecobuild-africa.com\/wordpress\/?page_id=446"},"modified":"2014-09-01T13:03:06","modified_gmt":"2014-09-01T13:03:06","slug":"understanding-the-tipping-point-of-urban-violence","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ecobuild-africa.com\/home\/sustainable-urban-development\/understanding-the-tipping-point-of-urban-violence\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding the Tipping Point of Urban Violence"},"content":{"rendered":"

This project is was financed by the UK-Aid and DfID. It involved 10 researchers, namelyAlfred Omenya and Grace Lubaale (Eco-Build Africa), Caroline Moser and Denis Rodgers (University of Manchester), Alfredo Roderiguez, Marisol Soborido and Olga Segovia (Santiago Chile),\u00a0 ShivaniSatija (Patna, India) Oliver Jutasonke, JovanaCerapic (Geneva). The study was based on four cities, namely: Nairobi; – Kenya; Patna – India; Santiago \u2013 Chile; Dilli \u2013 Timor Leste.<\/p>\n

This study was investigating conventional wisdom of causes of violence, namely: political exclusion; prevalence of poverty; youth bulges and inadequate consideration of gender based insecurity. It employed participatory violence analysis methods, using \u2018tipping points\u2019 and \u2018violence chains\u2019 as conceptual frames.<\/p>\n

On gender based violence reduction strategies, the study noted that these tend to focuse on women in public domain (Santiago; Patna)<\/span>, \u2018invisiblising\u2019 violence in private places (Santiago)<\/span>. Studies tend to ignore (sometimes rightly so) male to male violence <\/span>in pubic domain (Dilli). Further interventions tend to deal with gender based violence in isolation<\/span>; while it is actually a part ofcross sectoral \/ cross societal violence. Gender based violence was the second most prevalent type of violence after political violence and is embedded in economics. Male \u2013 female violence is way more complex than patriarchy. <\/span>Santiago exposed the role of middle class aspiration in difficult economic times; and the silence of middle and higher class women on gender based violations.<\/p>\n

Research has tended to focus on non-structural violence <\/span>against women at the expense of the structural. Policies attempts to address the failure to consider women security in cities, from non-structural crimes perspective<\/span>.Structural GBV is significant in all the case study cities:<\/p>\n

\u0097\u00a0 Gender based violence is very structural, generally condoned <\/span>by society and tends to be embedded in culture<\/span> (Patna, Santiago & Dilli) \u2013 ignored by most researchers ad policy makers<\/p>\n

\u0097\u00a0 Gender based violence can be very widespread because of structural \/ socio-cultural infrastructures of violence<\/span><\/p>\n

\u0097\u00a0 Gender based violence can and does tip; the tipping is often unnoticed because of social systems and structures that makes it invisible, e.g. <\/span>during civil upheavals<\/p>\n

\u0097\u00a0 Structural gendered violence is often not conceptualized as such, therefore no research, policy or programmatic interventions.<\/p>\n

\u2018Violence at home\u2019 and \u2018violence on the street\u2019 (Santiago): Visible violence tends to happen in public spaces (Nairobi, Dilli, Santiago, Patna). Invisible violence does not only happen in private, but tends to be privatized \u2013 does not come to the public domain; remains the business of individuals involved; unaddressed by policy or action; acts tend to be criminal yet no action is often taken. Policy can \/does responded to visible \/ public violence through:<\/p>\n