VRVR: Regimes of Violence: Theorising and Explaining Variations in the Production of Violence in Welfare State Regimes (2018-2021)

The purpose of the project is to contribute to the reduction of violence in society by developing theory and better explanations of the production of violence in contemporary EU. It investigates the extent to which there are different violence regimes, comparable to welfare regimes, and generates a complex post-disciplinary theory of violence. It draws on theory and data from political science, sociology, gender studies and criminology and utilises existing EU policy, administrative and survey data in new and innovative ways. Initially, it focuses on three ideal welfare state regimes: France, Sweden and the UK.

Drawing on theory and already existing data from political science, sociology, gender studies and criminology, the project develops a new framework of violence - understood as a system - to explain variations between states in the institutionalisation and production of violence. It utilises already existing policy data, administrative data and survey data from the EU member states in new and innovative ways, and initially focuses on three ideal welfare state regimes: France, Sweden and the UK. The hypothesis is that the welfare state regime typology, as developed by Esping-Andersen (1990), and taken further by feminist research (Lewis 1992), does not translate into a violence typology, that is: when violence is introduced as a variable in mainstream social science research, the results change and new conclusions have to be drawn.  

The purpose is to contribute to the reduction of violence in society by generating better explanations of the production of multiple forms of violence in contemporary EU. The aims are to:

a) investigate the extent to which there are different and distinguishable regimes of violence;

b) explain variations in the institutionalisation and production of violence in each distinguishable regime and;

c) generate a complex yet comprehensive theory, a post-disciplinary theory of violence.  

The project brings together research from multiple disciplines to empirically and theoretically examine if and how the institutionalisation and production of violence in a given territory co-vary as to constitute a regime of violence. It tests the interconnectedness of multiple forms of violence. It seeks conclusions to explain variations in violence and policy recommendations for how to reduce the levels of violence, its consequences and its costs.