Tackling violence in intimacy: Interacting power relations and policy change

Abstract

The aim of the article is to discuss interacting power relations and policy change. Children’s exposure to intimate partner violence and policy change in Sweden is the empirical case in point. It is argued that to understand the shift in Swedish policy as regards exposure to intimate partner violence it is important to recognize, on the one hand, the social order shaping policy and practice, and, on the other hand, the role of collective and individual actors in the field as well as the opportunity structure that enables social change. Furthermore, subordinating children to adults comes across as a particularly potent way of challenging gendered inequality in the form of men’s violence against women in intimate relationships. Possibilities for social change thus seem to be greater in relation to gender, than age. An empirically sensitive and actor-centred intersectional analysis must be sophisticated enough to grasp complexities such as these if we are to be able to fully understand agency and policy change within a complex social order.