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Title:The (in)visible subject: women's normative strategies in eastern Congo
Author:Jean-Bouchard, Évelyne
Year:2014
Periodical:Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law (ISSN 2305-9931)
Volume:46
Issue:3
Pages:357-373
Language:English
Geographic term:Congo (Democratic Republic of)
Subjects:women's rights
empowerment
women's organizations
conflict
External link:https://doi.org/10.1080/07329113.2014.986947
Abstract:Women in the Democratic Republic of Congo are still suffering the effects of the many conflicts that have ravaged the country. But paradoxically, Congolese women are also able to mobilize norms within various semi-autonomous fields and networks as a means of securing their day-to-day survival. Using a multisite methodology, the author retraced the path of normative reconstructions initiated by women at the international, transnational, national and local levels. What the author observed was that women were using (in)visibility strategies as a means of challenging oppressive social orderings while also making sure to remain a part of the social game. The author argues the politics of visibility are a fundamental aspect of the public-and-private dynamic, where the spatialization of power takes shape. Because women have historically been the subject of these regulatory mechanisms, they have had to develop a specific type of agency. This has been facilitated by the post-colonial and post-conflict context peculiar to eastern Congo, where fragmented power structures are only able to exert partial hegemonies on individuals. Bibliogr., sum. [Journal abstract]
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