The significance of space in the fight against gender-based violence. Spatial and political practices in the government of Ahora Madrid.

Abstract

Introduction.The article highlights the spatial dimension in the deployment of practices and policies for the fight against gender-based violence. The importance of the city, as a space of everyday life, places the local institution in a privileged position for intervention in this area. The main objective of this work is to explore the potential of local governments in the fight against male violence. For this purpose, the analysis of four initiatives developed by the Madrid City Council in the 2015/2019 legislature under the government of Ahora Madrid is presented. The main methodology used is the Critical Discourse Analysis through a complementarity in the methodological corpus. For which a series of interviews conducted with the Delegate of the Gender and Diversity Area of the Madrid City Council are analyzed, in relation to the documents and campaigns issued by the government in the fight against male violence and the implementation of two intervention devices, the Crisis Centers against Sexual Violence and the Crisis Committees before each murder of gender-based violence. The main results of the work show that local administrations, especially large cities due to their broader competency framework, have enormous potential in the design and implementation of measures, mainly in the field of awareness raising and care and reparation for women survivors, although not only. Discussion Conclusions. Cities have the obligation to actively intervene in the fight against gender-based violence, being also a privileged place to do so, since the dynamics of spatialization of the gender device confers them particular elements for this performance.