Enacting Entangled Practice: Interagency Collaboration in Domestic and Family Violence Work

Abstract

Interagency collaboration in domestic and family violence (DFV) work is generally assumed to be good practice. This article questions this assumption, suggesting caution in adopting an uncritical pro-collaboration stance, arguing the need to trace the effects of working together on victims/survivors. Employing an innovative sociomaterial approach, this ethnographic study of interagency practice unravels its complexity, showing that not all ways of working together serve the interests of victims/survivors equally. Conceptualizing interagency DFV work as two distinctive, yet entangled, modes of collaboration, the findings have important implications for interagency DFV practice and policy.