Qualitative Inquiry

Although the analysis of male attractiveness models is key to shed light into the prevention of gender-based violence (GBV), it is not always easy to access crucial information about these models. Research shows that inadequate data collection techniques can lead to reproducing superficial arguments confirming existing stereotypes instead of tackling with the real connections. Using communicative daily life stories and communicative focus groups, we take on the challenge of accessing the existing models of male attractiveness’ foundations. These techniques are used to collect data about the specific attractiveness models into which adolescents are socialized and their potential link to violence. We argue that the communicative orientation furthers the scientific understanding of the dominant traditional model of masculinity that socializes into GBV and the new alternative model of masculinity that socializes into its overcoming. The use of communicative techniques is showed to empower participants to question their attractive preferences.

Some prevention programs start from the assumption that romantic love triggers gender violence. This assumption has no scientific basis; no links have been found in the literature between romantic love and gender violence. This study explains how the communicative organization of research allows us to challenge discourses that claim the existence of a link between gender violence and romantic love without any evidence. Among other elements, the communicative organization of research implies the existence of an advisory committee, composed, in this case, of adolescents. In this committee, voices heard during fieldwork are contrasted with the literature, including theories on romantic love from the Middle Ages or theories on platonic love, as well as current scientific research. By so doing, examples of romantic love that refute the links to gender violence have been identified.

The mirage of upward mobility is the mistaken perception of linking the fact of having a romantic relationship with people responding to a model of dominant traditional masculinity to raising their status and attractiveness, when in fact the contrary occurs, and both status and attractiveness decrease. Investigating the phenomenon of the mirage of upward mobility as a cause of gender violence poses additional difficulty to its idiosyncrasy. To analyze this phenomenon as part of a research study, specific data collection techniques were needed and designed in dialogue with researchers and adolescents. This article involved participants from the design of the data collection techniques and the pilots carried out until the development of the research project. This dialogic design process has allowed the inclusion of true stories into the analysis of the mirage of upward mobility helping researchers and participants to advance the related knowledge.

The concept of the mirage of upward mobility, identified as one of the causes of gender violence, has been analyzed in depth through different communicative fieldwork techniques that were designed dialogically. The development of each of these techniques has been crucial to identifying the roots of the phenomenon. This article addresses the implementation of communicative focus groups comprising adolescent girls and young people (aged 14-18 and 18-25) by highlighting different parts of the research process: (a) how the groups were configured and how the participants were selected, (b) the identification of preexisting barriers to discussing the issue and the different possible reactions, (c) how evidence from the scientific community was introduced to the groups, and (d) how the barriers to identifying the mirage of upward mobility can be overcome through dialogue within the focus groups.

Communicative acts include verbal and non-verbal acts as well as the analysis of the dialogic relationships and power relationships associated to each of those acts. This article discusses data from two case studies in education, where communicative acts were analyzed to identify those that promote new alternative masculinities that help to prevent gender violence. One of the main methodological challenges was how to conduct the data collection and the analysis of the interactions and non-verbal language. Communicative methodology was used to face this challenge. Specifically, thanks to communicative organization (a) a preliminary analysis with different stakeholders was conducted to define relevant aspects to be covered in the fieldwork, (b) data analysis performed by a multidisciplinary team to guarantee that the focus would not be deviated from the communicative act, and (c) an Advisory Council was created to validate the results obtained through equal dialogue between researchers and participants.

Research has shown that some battered women have incorporated a discourse that victimizes them again as a consequence of the wrong intervention of external agents (friends, social services, legal systems). They, however, can be active subjects of their personal transformation. This study presents how women are empowered through participation in communicative daily life stories (CDLS), where their life experiences are contrasted with the main scientific contributions from violence against women research. It also discusses the way in which the victimizing discourse is made visible and re-elaborated in the dialogue between the researcher and the women being researched. CDLS do not impose a theoretical discourse that women have to accept, but rather provide the space of dialogue with them to discuss the scientific evidences about gender violence.

Gender violence in Spanish universities remains a taboo that is in the process of transformation. The first research on this issue was conducted between 2005 and 2008. The main objective was to “break the silence” about violence against women in Spanish academia. To achieve this aim, data collection was conducted through mixed communicative methods. For the interviewees, the context created by this research made it possible for the first time to establish a space to speak openly about this problem, in contrast to the existing context in which aggressors have remained unpunished. The inclusion of students’ voices together with those of administrative staff and professors allowed for the identification of situations of gender violence. This research has had a significant impact on Spanish universities’ policies. Despite some institutional barriers that make the implementation of structural changes more difficult, many offices for equality and protocols against gender violence have been created.

Rivalry and lack of solidarity among women, which exist in the social imaginary and are also reproduced in some research, are linked to the perpetuation of gender violence. The analysis of qualitative data collection in research on gender violence is essential to prevent the reproduction of stereotypes and to induce transformation through research. This article is focused on the communicative analysis, which identifies for each category analyzed an exclusionary dimension (that promotes gender violence) and a transformative one (that contributes to preventive socialization of gender violence). Although in our studies we identify rivalry among women as an element of the exclusionary dimension, at the same time, we identify solidarity among women as an element of the transformative dimension. This solidarity breaks with stereotypes of “natural” female rivalry and stands out as one key element to overcome gender violence.

Cyber harassment is considered one of the most important risks of our children and teenagers’ online daily interactions. Most existing preventive programs are designed by and for adults, not accounting for the experiences and views of the potential victims. The approach of preventive socialization emphasizes the need for the participation of minors as well as the importance of acknowledging their voices to develop successful preventive actions in this field. By the means of communicative content analysis, in this article, authors contrast the research state of the art with the voice of the very minors. From this analysis, a series of ground rules are defined to be considered in the design of actions aimed at preventing cyber harassment.

Whether it is necessary to intervene in front of violent behaviors since early childhood or not has turned out to be a highly controversial debate. While non-scientific-based discourses are well spread among families and professionals, leading to a process of naturalization and tolerance of any type of violence, research shows that permissive attitudes can lead to a socialization in which violence and gender violence are normalized, with serious and devastating long-term consequences. In this article, a dialogic recreation of knowledge performed in this area is analyzed as an example of how researchers can contribute to dismantle myths and false assumptions by engaging in dialogue with the end-users (i.e., teachers, families, professionals). As a result of this dialogue, not only scientific knowledge is enriched but also a process of thorough problematization of long-standing and embedded social practices can lead to important social transformations.

In this article, we analyze the case of a women’s group that works within a democratic adult education movement that uses some principles of the Communicative Methodology as their methodological foundation. In this group, housewives, domestic workers, women without university degrees, and immigrant women meet with researchers and academic women to engage in egalitarian dialogue and reflect together about the causes of gender violence and the strategies to overcome it. The communicative basis of the group’s organization reflects how the dialogic turn of societies has moved through diverse spaces and contexts of human interaction and knowledge creation, such as feminism. In this group, knowledge of both daily life and international research are integrated through women’s dialogue. Critical thoughts and knowledge emerge and have a transformative impact on preventing and overcoming gender violence.

The damaging consequences of school violence affect many children and society at large. An important part of it remains undetected by many professionals. Gender also significantly influences many conflicts that are perceived only as peer violence. To provide real solutions that can succeed in preventing violence, European researchers have used communicative methodology. This transformative research approach was implemented in a study conducted in three Spanish schools, two primary and one secondary. This article presents a dialogic model for school violence prevention and describes a procedure that encourages significant community involvement. We argue that this model’s dialogic approach to school violence prevention relies on some key principles from communicative methodology: overcoming an interpretative hierarchy and reaching consensus. This article demonstrates how the transformative approach of communicative methodology can be transferred to develop effective models of violence prevention.

Communicative daily life stories (CDLS) conducted with Other women (without academic background) from migrant or ethnic minority descent are contributing to dismantle existing sexist and racist stereotypes and prevent gender violence. In this article, drawing from a research focused on the effects of nonacademic mothers on learning activities, it is shown how these women’s stories on their own participation make them reflect on the intersection of discrimination and the ways in which they are active agents that are already contributing to dismantling them. Through the use of CDLS, under the communicative approach, the present article contributes to the ongoing debate about the implications of the intersectionality at the research methodological level.

This article arose out of the interests and concerns of a group of Chilean social science researchers (psychology, social work, and philosophy) who wanted to reflect upon and analyze the phenomenon of gender-based domestic violence among urban Aymara women residents in northern Chile in a critical and interdisciplinary manner. After working on two research projects funded by a Spanish state agency, whose objective was the diagnosis of indexes and forms of domestic violence among these women, the authors begin to reflect after recognizing their initial Westernized and colonized vision of the concept of violence and how this view changed during the course of the research. At the same time, we focused our thinking on clarifying ethical issues that emerged after we conducted the research, mainly concerning the question of whether “the act of investigation” could have been a way of perpetuating patterns of violence among local Andean communities, due to the Westernized approach we used as researchers.

The concept of new alternative masculinities (NAM) is an alternative to the dominant traditional masculinity (DTM) and oppressed traditional masculinity (OTM) concepts. The difference between these three concepts is that while the NAM constitutes a way to overcome gender-based violence, the OTM and DTM lead to its perpetuation. This ideal typology emerges from decades of interdisciplinary research. The three concepts were articulated in the first “masculinities and attractiveness” conference organized by the group Men in Dialogue. This group started in 2007, 1 year after the death of Jesús Gómez, who created the communicative methodology and who, through his research approach, inspired the NAM. Drawing on a personal narrative that connects friendship to methodology, this article delves into the way transformative friendship has enabled the rise of critical questions and reflection. These reflections were the prelude to what years later would be demonstrated by research on gender-based violence and sexual-affective relationships.