Understanding sexual harassment on public transport through feminist epistemologies and intersectional rhythmanalysis

Abstract

This chapter aims to demonstrate the value of an intersectional rhythmanalysis by exploring how the feminist epistemologies of standpoint theory and situated knowledges can be used in connection with Henri Lefebvre's rhythmanalysis to progress understandings of sexual harassment on public transport. This lends itself to intersectional feminist practices in research, showing how rhythms are experienced and understood differently from varying standpoints or intersections, and encouraging a deconstruction of broad knowledge claims. The research focuses on women's experiences of victimisation within the London Underground transport network in London, UK, as well as police perspectives. The chapter argues that critically applying situated knowledges to this context permits the foregrounding of women's varied experiences within the traditionally androcentric discipline of criminology, whilst also continuing to engage with, rather than eradicate, the institutional voices of the police without essentialising them as objective or expert. The chapter demonstrates how considering the way these modes of knowing intertwine with women's experiential and often subjugated knowledges can offer an in-depth understanding of the occurrence of sexual harassment within the space of public transport, and concurrently shows how rhythmanalysis can be a valuable approach both methodologically and conceptually for intersectional feminist research agendas.