Transcript DOMESTIC VIOLENCE - Ending Violence BC

“DEATH BY CULTURE”:
ENGAGING CULTURAL
DIFFERENCES IN THE CONTEXT
OF VAW
Sujata Warrier, PhD
Phone: 212-417-5944
e-mail: [email protected]
7/20/2015
©Sujata Warrier, 2011
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An Old Berber Song…
So vast the prison crushing me,
Release, where will you come from?
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Goals of the Keynote
As a result of this presentation, you will be better able to:
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Define the terms culture and cultural competency and enhance respect
for the dynamics of difference.
Identify ways in which culture is relevant in the every encounter.
Recognize cultural misinformation and avoid assumptions about a
person or the facts of a situation based on misinformation.
Assess blinding preferences that are brought to various encounters that
might influence demeanor or the interpretation of facts, or developing
diverse messages and shaping outcomes.
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Cultural Identity Exercise
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What is your cultural identity?
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How does your identity enhance, limit, affect
your work?
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For a minute…..
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You are facing the Old Royal Observatory, Greenwich.
Walk around its walls until you come to a brass strip set
in the pavement. The smooth, gold band in the ground
marks the Prime Meridian, or Longitude Zero… Stand to
the left- hand side of the brass strip and your are in the
Western hemisphere. But move a yard to the right, and
you enter the East: whoever you are, you have been
translated from a European into an Oriental1.
Young, R.C. (1995) Colonial Desire: Hybridity in Theory, Culture and Race.
Routledge:London, p.1
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Why Should We Consider Culture?
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Culture shapes an individual’s experience of the world.
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Culture shapes how someone responds to intervention.
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Culture shapes access to other services that might be
crucial for people.
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The culture of the advocate/professional,the system and
the other person will impact outcome.
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What Is Culture?
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Historically and anthropologically thought to be
a stable pattern of beliefs, values, thoughts,
norms etc.. that are transmitted from generation
to generation for successfully adapting to other
group members and their environment.
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The problem is that this is an outdated
definition.
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Definition Of Culture
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A critical definition of culture refers to shared experiences or
commonalities that have developed and continue to evolve in
relation to changing social and political contexts, based on:
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race
ethnicity
national origin
sexuality
gender
religion
age
class
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disability status
immigration status
education
geographic location (space)
rural, urban,
time, or
other axes of identification
within the historical context
of oppression
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Intersectionality
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People live multiple, layered lives derived from social
relations, history and the operation of the structures of
power.
Understanding intersectionality exposes all types of
discrimination that occur as a consequence of the
combination.
Something unique is produced at the point of
intersection – full complexity of experiences.
No slotting people, no single form of discrimination –
exposes full range of vulnerabilities as it links all
structures of oppressions.
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Cultural Context
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In all cultures, contexts of privilege and access
are created by certain norms against which all
other sub groups are compared.
In Canada, attributes of the dominant culture
includes English as a primary language,
“whiteness”, Christianity, physically able, male,
economic resources and heterosexuality.
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Cultural Context
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Privileges and access arise from having
one or more of the above attributes of
identity. Privilege includes not having to
recognize own culture as norm, access to
resources, connections and status.
Privileges for one group can create the
dynamics of domination.
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Violence Against Women
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Violence against women (VAW) occurs on a
continuum - beginning with female foetcide and
ending with women murder and includes female
infanticide, incest, sexual harassment, poverty, and
domestic violence.
VAW can also be understood as occurring on a
tightening spiral or a coil or as a corkscrew.
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Violence Against Women
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As much as patriarchal domination varies in shape,
form and texture so too does violence against
women.
Since violence is used to control women in
patriarchal societies, it is important to understand the
nature of patriarchy and its relationship to other
forms of oppression such as racism, colonialism,
heterosexuality etc.
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Violence Against Women
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Our work focuses on restoring agency to women.
Understanding the contextual nature of violence
against women during her life cycle is crucial to
resolving trauma and restoring agency.
Violence against women is a world wide phenomena
occurring in all communities and groups.
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“Death by Culture”
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The tendency to construct a practice as a feature of
culture instead of a deviant practice
Generates inaccurate information
Obscures variation and a broad range of issues
Reproduces negative stereotypes
Border crossings
Historical and social context
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“Death by Culture”
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Contextualize issues
Recognize that agendas are shaped by
different conditions in different localities
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THE EVERYDAY
WORLD
Everyday World
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A web of agencies and political entities make
up Institutions of Social Management (ISM’s)
Institutions of Social Management
Colleges
K-12
Education
Universities
Tech.
Institutes
Mental
Health
Child
Protection
Civil
Courts
Family &
Juvenile
Courts
Law
Enforcement
and
Housing
Criminal
Authority
Courts
Medi
TANF
Everyday World
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Regulatory bodies
and economic systems shape the functioning of the
ISM’s
Economic System
Regulatory Bodies
Institutions of Social Management
Colleges
K-12
Education
Psych.
Child
Universities
Professions
Protection
Tech.
Institutes
Civil
Courts
Law
Family & Enforcement
Juvenile
and
Housing
Courts
Criminal
Courts
Authority
Everyday World
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Discourse and Dominant Ideologies
Discourse
•There is a world of discourse,
comprised of language, theories, concepts…
•That “abstract world” of discourse is applied by
practitioners (within ISM’s) to situations in the
everyday world
•The discourse shapes how practitioners think
about the situations they are handling
•The ideology of the institution is carried through
the discourse into workers’ practices
•Discourse is not produced locally, but extra-locally
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“We don’t see things as they are, we
see them as we are.”
Anias Nin
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Working Assumptions
CULTURALLY COMPETENT ASSUMPTIONS:
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All cultures are contradictory in that there are both widespread
acceptance of oppressive practices as part of society and traditions of
resistance.
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Each victim is not only a member of her/his community, but a unique
individual with their own responses. The complexity of a person’s
response is shaped by multiple factors.
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Each individual comes into any encounter with cultural experiences and
perspectives that might differ from those present in the system.
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All institutions have to develop specific policies and procedures to
systematically build cultural competence.
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Dynamics of Difference
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“…encourage us to tolerate and interpret ambivalence,
ambiguity, and multiplicity as well as expose the roots
of our need for imposing order and structure no matter
how arbitrary and oppressive these needs may be. If we
do our work well, reality will appear more unstable,
complex and disorderly than it does now.”
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J.Flax, 1990. Thinking Fragments:Psychoanalysis, Feminism and
Postmodernism in the Contemporary West. Berkeley: University of California
Press. pp.56-7
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Cultural Competency
Begins With:
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Being aware of one’s
biases, prejudices and
knowledge about a victim.
For example,
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Challenge your assumptions.
Take into consider implicit
bias
Use appropriate language.
Be aware of assumptions of
family.
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Recognizing professional
power and avoiding the
imposition of those values.
For example,
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Use non-judgmental
questions
Listen to the person. For
example,
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Let them narrate their story.
Do not assume people have
resources.
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CULTURAL COMPETENCY BEGINS WITH:
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Gathering information
about the person’s
interpretation of their
culture. For example in
assessment:
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“what is it like for you
to talk about this
problem in your
community?”
©Sujata Warrier, 2011
Validating the person’s
strengths. For example in
intervention:
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thank them for sharing and
acknowledge existing
support systems and efforts
to keep safe.
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CULTURAL COMPETENCY BEGINS WITH:
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Insuring safety and selfdetermination. For
example,
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Take into account culturally
specific needs.
Developing linkages with
the community. For
example,
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Negotiating the acceptance
of a different set of values.
For example,
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Remember, it takes time for
people to accept new
systems and ideas.
Patience is the key.
Give culturally appropriate
referrals.
Work with community
based agencies.
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“World Travelling1” method of Cultural
Competency
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Culturally challenging practices require a vision
of independence and connectedness:
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understanding oneself in one’s own historical context with an
emphasis on the overlaps, influences, and conditions one
observes in the other.
Understand one’s historical relationship to the other - see the
self as the other sees you
must see the other in their own context.
Arrogant perception creates distance between
oneself and “the Other”.
1Gunning,
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Isabella. 1992. “Female Genital Surgeries,” Columbia Human Rights Law Review 23(2):189-248.
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Reminder
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“Our struggle is for a fundamental change in social
relationships rather than for a per community quota of
representations in the parliament of “race” and
“ethnicities.” We are engaged in politics, linking theories
with practices, examining ideologies through our lives,
and our lives through revolutionary ideas. We are not
shopping in the market of cultural differences”.
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Bannerji, Himani. 1993. “Returning the Gaze:An Introduction,” in Returning the Gaze.
Toronto: Sister Vision, p.xxix
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In conclusion……
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“It seems utopian, but the world must recover
its capacity for dreaming and in order to start, a
new paradigm is required…..”
Cecilia Lopez
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