This chapter presents findings from the ‘Stand Together’ action research project at the University of Lincoln (UOL), one of the first bystander intervention (BI) programmes designed to challenge gender based violence (GBV) in a UK university. The research accompanying this project investigated student attitudes to GBV and the potential of prevention education. The focus of this chapter is on two sites which emerged in student accounts as key spaces where acts of GBV occur, as well as where sexist and heteronormative gender norms are reinscribed, negotiated and resisted: social media and the night-time economy (NTE).

The bystander intervention model at the University of Lincoln

Based on the recognition that there is a continuum between acts of GBV and problematic gender norms, BI programmes seek to foster a community response to shifting the dominant cultural norms that underpin GBV (Banyard et al, 2007). They seek to equip men and women with the skills and confidence to recognise gendered, violencetolerant norms and situations where acts of GBV may take place, and to intervene effectively and safely (Moynihan and Banyard, 2008). US programme evaluations have evidenced attitudinal change, such as increased willingness to intervene (Ahrens et al, 2011), (self-reported) actual intervention behaviour (Casey and Lindhorst, 2009), and decreases in (reported) levels of GBV perpetrated (Potter et al, 2009). However, there remains a gap in understanding the nature, contexts and meanings of any intervention behaviour in relation to broader social norms around gender and sexuality.

The programme at UOL – funded by UOL – was implemented by academics (supported by the students’ union), who collaborated with three voluntary sector groups: Scottish Women's Aid (SWA – a charity working to prevent domestic violence), the White Ribbon Campaign (WRC – the England branch of the global campaign to ensure that men take responsibility for reducing GBV) and Tender (which uses theatre to work with young people to address GBV). All partner agencies involved in delivering the programme operated with a feminist understanding of GBV. Though relatively short-lived (although aspects continue through student activism), the BI programme at UOL involved a combination of activities, including social marketing through the dissemination of student-designed posters, peer education and a theatre project.