This document outlines Janet Bowstead's PhD research project which will map and analyze the relocation journeys of women experiencing domestic violence in England. It will interview women about their experiences of relocation and resettlement. The research also explores conceptualizing women's journeys using tools from other disciplines like Foucault's concepts of surveillance and panopticism, Deleuze and Guattari's idea of rhizomatic lines of flight, and Augé's notion of non-places. These concepts provide insights into understanding women's strategies for fleeing abuse by overcoming spatial constraints, escaping along unpredictable routes, and how refuges can counteract tendencies to be unlocated non-places.

1. Janet Bowstead
November 2010
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2. PHD RESEARCH PROJECT (ESRC-FUNDED)
The research project (2009-2012) will be:
 mapping and analysing the relocation journeys
of women experiencing domestic violence to
services throughout England – 18,812 women
in 2008-09
 53.9% had children with them, 67.4% were of White British
ethnic origin, 8.2% were disabled.
 interviewing a sample of women about their
experiences of relocation and resettlement.
 working creatively with women and domestic
violence services to explore a re-
conceptualisation of women’s journeys
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3. USING CONCEPTUAL ‘TOOL BOXES’
“All my books are little tool boxes. If people
want to open them, to use a particular
sentence, a particular idea, a particular
analysis like a screwdriver or spanner ...
so much the better!”
Foucault, Michel 1995 Dits et ecrits 1954-88 vol. 2 ed. D. Defert and F.
Ewald, Paris: Gallimard. (1995:p720)
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4. MICHEL FOUCAULT ON ‘PANOPTICISM’
 “Surveiller et Punir” - “Discipline and Punish”
(Foucault 1991)
 Jeremy Bentham’s late eighteenth century
‘Panoptican’ prison plan
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7. PANOPTICAN
 a structured system whereby “space becomes
specified and functional” enabling the easy and
effective exercise of disciplinary power
 “surveillance is permanent in its effects, even if it
is discontinuous in its action” because inmates
internalise the gaze and regulate their own
conduct
 each individual is isolated, unable to
communicate, an object of hierarchical
observation from the centre; able to be seen but
not to see.
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9. POWER AND CONTROL WHEEL
DOMESTIC ABUSE INTERVENTION PROJECT (DULUTH)
 abusive behaviours can be conceived as the
spokes of a wheel, with physical and sexual
violence holding it all together as the rim
 segments of the wheel parallel the cells of the
Panoptican - representing aspects of a woman’s
life and autonomy – home, confidence, work,
study, relationships, children, family
 the abusive man is able to exercise surveillance
over each aspect simultaneously, because of the
positioning of his power and control at the centre.
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10. INTERNALISING THE SURVEILLANCE
 many women experiencing domestic violence
internalise their partner’s demands to act, dress,
organise the household, work, and bring up
children in a particular way
 Holland et al 1998 characterise this as the “male-
in-the-head”, arguing that both men and women
live under the normalising male gaze:
 “We take the ‘male-in-the-head’ to indicate the
surveillance power of this male-dominated and
institutionalised heterosexuality”. (p11)
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11. GILLES DELEUZE AND FÉLIX GUATTARI
ON ‘RHIZOME’ (DELEUZE & GUATTARI 1988)
 contrast with dendriform concepts and actions
 open adventurous network forming ceaseless and
unpredictable new connections
 in contrast to the linearity and inflexibility of roots,
travelling along predictable routes
 tree roots or branches grow out from a centre,
rhizomes grow opportunistically in all directions,
starting up again after a rupture, and achieving
deterritorialisation along lines of flight to connect
with other multiplicities
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12. RHIZOMIC JOURNEYS – LINES OF FLIGHT
 women’s journeys to flee domestic violence - if
she can travel unpredictably in space, to
unanticipated locations, she is less likely to be
able to be followed
 escaping a regime of disciplinary power – an
abuser who knows her contacts - so power does
not simply weaken as a function of distance
 making new connections, for example by using the
network of women’s refuges, a woman is more
able to escape the operation of power over space
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13. MARC AUGÉ ON ‘NON-PLACES’
(AUGÉ 2008)
 “a space which cannot be defined as relational,
historical, or concerned with identity will be a
non-place” (p63)
 he associates non-places with certain ends,
such as transport, commerce and leisure,
rather than a concern with location
 for example holiday-makers may be largely
indifferent as to whether they travel from Gatwick,
Heathrow or Stansted, and therefore airports
become non-places.
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14. REFUGES AS NON-PLACES
 a woman fleeing domestic violence may be initially
indifferent as to where she goes for refuge, so long
as it is a place her partner does not know
 she may formally or informally change her identity
 she may sever contacts with friends and family
 she can only disclose her address as a Post Office
Box number
 the building will have the functions of a house, but
barely feels like a place of residence, let alone a
home
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15. MAKING PLACES
 refuges can attempt to counteract their
tendency to be non-places and instead
contribute to a sense of belonging and place
through considerations of
 structural positioning – challenging discrimination
 physical space – designing to feel less institutional
 emotional space – bringing women together
collectively for support and to reduce isolation
(Burman & Chantler 2004)
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16. USING CONCEPTUAL ‘TOOL BOXES’ FROM OTHER
DISCIPLINES
 Providing insights to analyse women’s
spatial strategies in fleeing domestic
violence.
 sensitising concepts to assist in identifying
patterns and processes within the empirical
data
 contextualising concepts to assist in
analysing these patterns and generalising
from the individual narratives of women’s
journeys
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17.  Foucault – on the spatiality of surveillance
 Space as constraint
 useful in understanding what women are overcoming
to leave abusive relationships
 Deleuze and Guattari – on escape along rhizomic
lines of flight
 Space as resource
 useful in understanding the journeys themselves
 Augé – on un-location and non-places
 Space as place
 useful in understanding what needs to be
counteracted to create new homes and belonging
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18. REFERENCES
 Augé, M., 2008. Non-places: An Introduction to Supermodernity – 2nd English-
language edition, London and New York: Verso.
 Burman, E. & Chantler, K., 2004. There's No-Place Like Home: emotional
geographies of researching 'race' and refuge provision in Britain. Gender, Place &
Culture, 11(3), 375-397.
 Deleuze, G. & Guattari, F., 1988. Rhizome. In A thousand plateaus. London: Athlone
Press, pp. 3-25.
 Domestic Abuse Intervention Project, Power and Control Wheel. Available at:
http://www.theduluthmodel.org/wheelgallery.php.
 Foucault, M., 1991. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (Surveiller et Punir
1975 trans. Alan Sheridan 1977), London: Penguin.
 Foucault, M. 1995 Dits et ecrits 1954-88 vol. 2 ed. D. Defert and F. Ewald, Paris:
Gallimard.
 Holland, J. et al., 1998. The Male in the Head: young people, heterosexuality and
power, London: The Tufnell Press.
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19. Janet Bowstead - Research Student
Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit
London Metropolitan University
e-mail: j.bowstead@londonmet.ac.uk
tel: 020 7133 5014
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