LSE Latin America and Caribbean Centre (LACC) researcher Susanne Hofmann has been awarded a three-year Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellowship for Horizon 2020. The fellowship is funded by the European Commission. The project will be conducted in collaboration with the Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (CIESAS - Unidad Golfo), Mexico.
The research, entitled ‘Gender Violence and Security in the Interoceanic Industrial Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec: A Critical Examination of Policies and Practices’, addresses the ways in which organised crime and securitised local resource conflicts impact on the insecurity and violence that women experience in the interoceanic industrial corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Mexico.
Focusing on the protection of women from the risk of becoming a victim of violent crime, Susanne’s study examines the co-production of security through state, corporate and community actors. It scrutinises how different community actors respond to gendered forms of insecurity, paying particular attention to citizen-led security efforts, or “security from below”.
The study’s methodology is based on a participatory “security from below” approach, which, departing from agreed norms and shared values, and the contextualised needs of particular communities, aims to contribute to democratising security provision.
An intersectional analysis, will allow conclusions regarding sustainable security measures and crime prevention in the Isthmus corridor, broken down according to factors of race, ethnicity and class. The findings will generate insights into what specific measures could diminish individual vulnerability and prevent re-victimisation, as well as reveal possible gaps in victim services, and helping to improve these in the future.
Photo credit: A exposition on feminicide in Mexico featuring a series of labels with the names of victims. United Nations Women, Orange the World 2017, Mexico, Alfredo Geurrero.