742
Safety and Risk of Harassment and Violence in the Public Sphere
Safety and Risk of Harassment and Violence in the Public Sphere
Abstract Submissions Closed
Tuesday, 23 February 2021: 17:45-19:15
Location:
TG04 Sociology of Risk and Uncertainty (host committee)
Language: English
Session Type: Oral
In this session, the focus is on safety and risk of harassment and violence in public environments. Violence and harassment that are present in everyday public spaces. The safety of the public environment was highlighted in 2015 when reporting of unwanted touching by unknown people surfaced in mass media. The highlighting of harassment in the public spaces was followed by the #MeToo movement, which gave a new insight into a crime perpetrated within the entertainment industry and rarely publicly voiced before. The movement gave the silent sufferers a voice to talk about and protest against unwanted encroachment of private spaces. Harassment and violence are not just historical occurrences, but current in the present-day society. Even if the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that all humans have the same rights to exist in local and global societies, thus, entailing the right to be safe in the public sphere. In truth, equal rights are in its interpretation ambiguous as it depends on the political ideology, the legal framework, social, cultural, and faith doctrines of the society. The session focuses on sociological risk discourses and research exploring harassment and violence in the public environment. Harassment people experience in their everyday actives outside the home environment, travelling to work on public transport, walking during day or night in the cities, or visiting social places, hence, exploring democratic rights, rights to the public environment, gender inequality in the public sphere and threats to intersectionality in present-day societies.
Session Organizer: