In this website you’ll find relevant information on two intertwined academic research projects: ‘Healthy, Secure and Gender Just Cities – Transnational Perspectives on Urban Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) in Rio de Janeiro and London and the project that follows its developments Resisting violence, creating dignity: negotiating Violence Against Women and Girls through community history-making in Rio de Janeiro.

The research Transnational Perspectives on Urban Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) is an interdisciplinary project led from 2016 to 2018 that examined the localised and transnational dynamics of VAWG experienced by women in Maré, a favela community in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), and among Brazilian migrant women in London.

It explored the nature, causes and consequences of VAWG from a multi-scalar approach that acknowledges the linkages between the cities of the Global South and North through complex geographies of globalisation and international migration.

The research led to the development of further study in the Maré community with Resisting violence, creating dignity project (2019 – 2022), which explores how Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) can be more effectively reduced and prevented through harnessing the formal, informal and creative resistance practices developed by women and for women to build dignity through community history-making. In this way, it addresses resistance to Violence Against Women and Girls which engenders dignity through capturing and visibilising the community institutional and creative histories, as a form of community heritage.

Transnational violence research:

Key Findings from London

Transnational violence research

Key Findings in Rio de Janeiro

Although the vast majority of those surveyed (76%) stated that VAWG occurs in the research area, only 28% openly stated that they had suffered it.

However, when asked about reporting such violence 38% stated they had experienced VAWG

As for the types of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) stated, physical violence emerged as the most important (51% of women), followed by psychological/emotional violence (42%) and sexual abuse (7%)

Intimate partners committed a third of all GBV stated, with only 15% perpetrated by strangers.

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Recent News & Articles

NEW REPORT: Body-territory, mapping women’s resistance to violence

Click on the link below to read the latest report, part of the research Resisting Violence, Creating Dignity: negotiating Violence Against Women and Girls through community history-making in Rio de Janeiro (2019-2021) CLICK HERE TO READ REPORT

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Em Português: Relatório – Práticas de resistência para enfrentar a violência urbana de gênero na Maré (Rio de Janeiro/Brasil)

Clique no link para ler o relatório completo e o resumo com os resultados qualitativos da pesquisa “Resistindo às violências de gênero: construindo dignidades de mulheres através da resiliência comunitária no Rio de Janeiro.” Acesse aqui o relatório completo Acesse aqui o resumo e recomendações de políticas públicas

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Watch: We still fight in the dark – Assista: Lutamos no escuro

(EN) The audiovisual performance/installation We still fight in the dark was created as a response to the research We can’t fight in the dark – led by Professor Cathy McIlwaine between 2016-2018 in partnership with Latin American Women’s Rights Service (LAWRS) (funded by the ESRC) – as one of the first research projects to gather

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