Friendships worth fighting for:bonds between women and men karate practitioners as sites for deconstructing gender inequality

Ways of doing our relationships are embedded with ways of ‘doing gender’ (Jamieson 1997 ; West and Zimmerman 1987 ). Doing gender is a social, interactive, act, done relationally to the specifi c setting and people present, and embedded with ways of performing diff erences that re/create the distinct categories of man and woman (West and Zimmerman 1987 ). Th e perceived diff erences between what it is to ‘be a man’ and what it is to ‘be a woman’ not only entail distinct expectations of what women and men should do and howthey should present themselves in social situations, but are also used to legitimize a gender hierarchy that subordinates women, and what women do (Connell 2009 ). As a woman doing gender thus entails doing/being subjected to subordination. Th e extent to which our relationships refl ect traditional, hierarchically distinct, ways of doing gender vary – some relationships may strongly recreate notions of diff erence that subordinate women, whilst others might render certain notions of diff erence unviable, and in the process, begin to ‘undo’ gender (Deutsch 2007 ). As such, how we ‘do’ our relationships can impact the extent to which we recreate a gender hierarchy that subordinates women

Fighting with the senses: exploring the doing and undoing of gendered embodiment in karate

Karate is a sensuous martial art-come-sporting practice. Through a combinations of tacit exchanges of kicks and punches, sweaty touches, sweaty smells, aggressive shouts, communal laughs and helping tweaks of the body karate practitioners come to develop their practice, know their body and one-another, and assert their status in the karate hall. As a combative bodily practice, karate replicates an imagined, and often real, source of men’s power over, and distinction from, women. Yet in practice karate is an arena where women and men spar, sweat, and laugh together whereby, through inter-bodily, sensory, interactions, women can, and often do, out perform men. As such, karate presents a fruitful arena for exploring the sensory formation of gendered relations and embodiments of gender. Despite the integral role of the body and the senses to embodied participation in sport, and indeed in our gendered performances of self and distributions/assertions of power between women and men, exploration of the role of the senses in our sporting and gendered embodiment is largely absent from existing literature. This thesis argues that to understand gendered embodiment within karate requires reflection to these multidimensional, multi-sensory threads spun between sportsmen and women in embodied play. Building a sensory ethnographic framework for conducting the research, data was gathered from 9 months of ‘sensuous participation’ at 3 karate clubs engaging in mixed-sex and a women-only classes, 6 photo-elicitation interviews and 11 semi-structured interviews with women and men from across the three clubs, and reflections from my own embodied history as a karate athlete. The findings suggest that in both mixed-sex and women-only classes karate practice could ‘undo’ conventional performances of gender, and in turn gendered embodiments, through asking its participants to engage in a range of sensory bodily motions that are conventionally seen as masculine – such as combative movements and aggression – and feminine – such as control, elegance, and artistic performance. These embodied ways of being held magnified gender subversive potential in mixed-sex karate practice whereby ideas of men’s inherent superiority in sport could be challenged, and ideas of distinction between women and men could be challenged. Recognition of similarity as karate practitioners through shared physical engagements side-lined the importance of gender to practitioners embodiment. Together the findings of this thesis point towards the role of the minute, mundane, and thus often overlooked or unconscious elements of our bodily practice in ‘naturalising’, reproducing, or subverting gendered arrangements of power. In this way, this thesis contributes to sociological understandings of both embodiment and gender

Making care visible at the heart of government, through successfully advocating for the adoption of a new National Outcome dedicated to Care in one country, Scotland

Governments create National Performance Framworks (NPF) to highlight the 'golden threads' they want all stakeholders to most focus on. Two years ago we presented at ICIC 2022 on the design and development of a new National Outcome for Care in Scotlands NPF, and the 11 existing outcomes in that which did not include Care explicitly, which was up for review. We can now report that the campaign was a huge success, and the Scottish Government is now creating a National Outcome on Care. This presentation will explain how the campaign worked to achieve this, what we believe to be a global first

“Abusers are using COVID to enhance abuse”:Domestic abuse helpline workers’ perspectives on the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on those living with domestic abuse

Background: Mobility restrictions enforced by the UK Government in March 2020 as a response to COVID-19 resulted in those vulnerable to domestic abuse being confined in isolation with their abusers, deprived of safe spaces and many of their usual sources of support. Domestic abuse helplines therefore became an increasingly vital avenue for victim support, seeing a substantial increase in service demand during lockdown periods. Purpose: This project examined the nature and frequency of calls received by domestic abuse helplines since the first COVID-19 lockdown period. Design and Sample: Through semi-structured interviews with 11 domestic abuse helpline workers across UK services dedicated to a diverse range of populations. Results: Key themes identified through thematic analysis were: (1) Abusers weaponising government guidelines to justify and intensify abuse, and restrictions acting as both a barrier and facilitator to leaving an abusive relationship; (2) A loss of previously accessed support, with users uncertain about what help was available and issues around engaging with new forms of support; and (3) Isolation from social support networks, with callers reporting a loss of respite, lack of emotional and practical support, removal of third-party abuse monitoring opportunities, and subsequent mental health implications. Conclusions: These findings will act as a crucial guide for policy decision-making regarding support needs emerging from the pandemic and beyond, highlighting the importance of multi-agency partnerships and clear referral pathways to share the increasing financial burden of domestic abuse amongst services. The longer-term integration of more diverse options for remote support to reduce the risk of detection will be paramount as we emerge from the pandemic, but these should serve to offer a wider range of support routes for abuse victims rather than a replacement for face-to-face provision

‘At times it’s too difficult, it is too traumatic, it’s too much’:The emotion work of Domestic Abuse Helpline Staff during Covid-19

During the Covid-19 lockdowns, domestic abuse helpline staff (DAHS) in the UK faced both a shift from working in an office to working-from-home and an increased demand for their services. This meant that during Covid-19, DAHS faced an increase in traumatic calls, and all within their own homes. This article explores the emotions work of DAHS to manage and work through their work-related emotions during Covid-19. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 11 UK-based DAHS, this article suggests that working-from-home during the Covid-19 lockdowns amplified emotions of anxiety, helplessness and guilt for DAHS alongside an evaporating emotional distance between work and home life. Engaging in leisure activities and increased online meetings with colleagues were emotion work practices that DAHS used to emotionally cope. This article demonstrates that emotion work fills in for, and masks, the structural insufficiencies of employer worker-wellbeing practices