Everyday peace as a theory to explain victims’ peacemaking actions in intimate partner violence situations
| Published date | 01 September 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/02697580221112677 |
| Author | Leanne M Kelly,Anthony Ware,Vicki-Ann Ware,Ellen Wachter,Rachel Hall |
| Date | 01 September 2023 |
https://doi.org/10.1177/02697580221112677
International Review of Victimology
2023, Vol. 29(3) 321 –340
© The Author(s) 2022
Article reuse guidelines:
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DOI: 10.1177/02697580221112677
journals.sagepub.com/home/irv
Everyday peace as a theory to
explain victims’ peacemaking
actions in intimate partner
violence situations
Leanne M Kelly
Deakin University, Australia
Anthony Ware
Deakin University, Australia
Vicki-Ann Ware
Deakin University, Australia
Ellen Wachter
Deakin University, Australia
Rachel Hall
Charles Sturt University, Australia
Abstract
This paper assesses the transferability of the concept of everyday peace, developed in the conflict
and peace studies literature, to practices utilised by people experiencing intimate partner violence
(IPV). The relevance of everyday peace to IPV is assessed by mapping typologies of the concept
against behaviour that victims implement to manage and survive abusive relationships. To collect
these data, experienced family violence practitioners were asked to recount practice-based
information about everyday strategies that victims use to avoid triggering or to de-escalate a
perpetrator, thereby minimising immediate harm coming to themselves or others. Theming these
behaviours against typologies of everyday peace demonstrated the significant relevance of this
theory to IPV. As such, we suggest that everyday peace is a useful conceptual framework to apply
to family violence. Our analysis finds that the everyday peace framework is particularly helpful for
exploring victim agency in these contexts, reframing mundane and everyday strategies as agentic.
Corresponding author:
Leanne M Kelly, Deakin University, 225 Burwood Hwy, Burwood, VIC 3125, Australia.
Email: kelea@deakin.edu.au
1112677IRV0010.1177/02697580221112677International Review of VictimologyKelly et al.
research-article2022
Article
322International Review of Victimology 29(3)
In addition, everyday peace offers a means for better understanding victims’ actions, which could
help develop more effective service responses supporting choice and agency in IPV situations.
Keywords
Family violence, domestic violence, intimate partner violence, everyday peace, peacebuilding,
harm minimisation, safety planning, placating strategies, domestic abuse
Introduction
Everyday peace is a concept recently developed in the conflict and peace studies literature. Key
scholars, including Ring (2006), Mac and Ginty (2013, 2014, 2021), Williams (2015), and others
(e.g. Berents, 2015, 2018; Firchow, 2018; Yoshizawa and Kusaka, 2020) explore the idea as a
means of explaining the everyday practices people enact to minimise conflict and harm in situa-
tions of communal and ethnic conflict. This theory has been used to explain what occurs at the
community level in conflicted regions, including Northern Ireland (Mac Ginty, 2013), South
Sudan, Uganda, South Africa (Firchow, 2018; Mac Ginty and Firchow, 2016), Pakistan (Ring,
2006), India (Williams, 2015), Myanmar (Ware et al., 2022b), the Philippines (Yoshizawa and
Kusaka, 2020), and Colombia (Berents, 2015; Firchow, 2018). This framework was originally
intended as a means of describing the observed behaviour of those living in intercommunal conflict
settings, and seeking nonviolent coexistence. However, emerging research is currently attempting
to utilise everyday peace as a framework for working with conflict-affected people, to explore
ways that agency might be strengthened to promote local peacebuilding and peace formation (e.g.
Ware et al., 2022a, 2022b).
This paper assesses the transferability of the theory, developed in the context of intercommunal
conflict, to practices utilised by people experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV). It analyses
new narrative inquiry data from eight experienced family violence practitioners, to consider
whether people victimised by IPV adopt practices similar to those documented in the everyday
peace literature. It does this by systematically working through the major social practices identified
by everyday peace theory, and identifying whether these are similar to strategies adopted by people
experiencing IPV.
Practices identified in the everyday peace literature best correlate with what are termed placat-
ing strategies in the family violence literature. IPV research suggests these comprise over 80% of
the strategies adopted by victims addressing violence (Irving and Chi-pun Liu, 2020). However,
we argue that simply equating these strategies with placating narrows and diminishes their value,
making them appear weak compared with resistant and help seeking strategies. We suggest that the
everyday peace framework may be helpful for rejecting soft, reductionist conceptualisations of
such practices, reframing these responses as potentially considered, deliberate acts implemented
with strength and agency.
Many papers have examined the strategies employed by people experiencing IPV and noted the
constant, strategic, and conscientious performances acted out to protect themselves and their fami-
lies (e.g. Goodman et al., 2003, 2005; Hayes, 2013; Hill, 2019; Matthews et al., 2017; St Vil et al.,
2017; Tran, 2018; Zakar et al., 2012). This paper hones in on the most mundane and everyday of
these. To date, the focus has been on more sensationalist actions, with everyday strategies only
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