ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the relation between affect and place within cultural studies and gender studies. Within this tradition, and following Deleuze's work on Spinoza, affect tends to be given two primary meanings. First, it refers to specific emotions and affective states characteristic of everyday life, including anger, shame, hope and fear. Second, affect is seen as something broader than emotions, as a particular manifestation of a body's power of acting, its lived force or the action potential of bodies. The chapter discusses the advantages of the concept of atmospheres as a contribution to research on violence against women as well as to social work research and practice. Exploring the affectivity of violence, in terms of atmospheres, demonstrates that domestic violence is a socio-spatial and multi-scalar matter; it is not only a 'domestic' affair but is played out in many different spaces, including the city centre, the home and the Internet.
