Persistence and change: Collaborative, conceptual, and contextual global understandings of gender-based and intersectional violence

This special issue brings together scholars working across diverse contexts whose work helps to advance the concept of a contextual global sociology of gender-based and intersectional violence. Building on feminist, anti-racist, anti-colonial, and social justice traditions, the collection highlights both the persistence of violence and the possibilities for transformative change. The concept of contextual global sociology emphasises the importance of situating global phenomena within specific historical, political, social, economic, and cultural contexts, while also attending to the ways these contexts are connected across different sites and scales. Contributors examine issues such as domestic and family violence, migration, care work, homicide, and everyday forms of gendered harm, using collaborative, interdisciplinary, and intersectional approaches. Collectively, the articles interrogate how violence is conceptualised, measured, and contested; how inequalities and state policies shape vulnerability; and how women and communities resist and respond to harm. By foregrounding collaboration and contextual specificity, this special issue demonstrates the value of a contextual global lens for deepening sociological understandings of violence and for informing activism, policy, and practice.