Challenging Coercive Control through Participatory Theatre: A Case Study and Performance Centring South Asian Women in Blackburn

Coercive control is an urgent and pervasive social problem. It constitutes a pattern of abuse, typically taking non-physical forms, having detrimental and long-lasting impacts on victims. It includes psychological abuse, threats, humiliation, monitoring, isolating one from friends and family, and financial abuse, among others. It exerts forms of control that deeply harm victims, causing loss of confidence and potential emotional, physical, social, cultural and religious distress. It is most prevalent in the domestic sphere and is still not well understood by professional services and publics alike, yet it has been criminalised since 2015. As with other forms of domestic violence, women are disproportionately harmed. Where coercive control is reported, this is most often among white, middle-class women, yet there is every indication that the problem extends well beyond this community.
Blackburn is an urban community experiencing high levels of socio-economic deprivation. It is vibrant and diverse but has been overlooked in terms of urban regeneration. Our aim is to investigate coercive control within a disadvantaged and much neglected urban demographic where reporting of coercive control is low: South Asian women. The objectives include (1) developing a collaborative cultural network between South Asian women, researchers and community practitioner activists (S.A.S Rights), with policymakers (Lancashire’s Police Crime Commissioner, Lancashire Partnership Against Crime, Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council and Blackburn College); (2) deep listening to South Asian women’s accounts of coercive control; (3) culturally expressing those experiences through community theatre; (4) develop policy with participants and policymakers to enhance community cohesion and urban renewal in Blackburn (including new police training resources) on managing coercive control in diverse communities; (5) scaling up the project to policymakers and women beyond Blackburn.
Forum theatre enacts...