International Journal of Conflict and Violence (IJCV - Universität Bielefeld)
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The Eye of the Beholder: Violence as a Social Process
Get PDFA triangular reconstruction of the social dynamics of violence offers a means to bridge the gap between research on the micro- and meso-level dynamics of violent interaction on the one hand, and theories of power and domination on the other. The origins of this approach are found in the phenomenological programme of social science violence research formulated by German sociologists in the 1990s (Sofsky, von Trotha, Nedelmann, and others). Reconsidering their arguments in the framework of social constructivism, this article reconstructs violence as a triangular process evolving between “performer”, “target” and “observer”. Disentangling the dimensions of the somatic and the social shows, however, that these are not the fixed roles of agents, but changeable modes of experiencing violence. Violent interaction uses the suffering body to stage a positional asymmetry, i.e. a distinction between strength and weakness, between above and below, which can be exploited for the production and reproduction of social order
Violence Research from North Africa to South Asia: A Historical and Structural Overview
Get PDFThis is a historical and sociological overview of violence and violence research in and on North Africa, West Asia, and South Asia, considering only studies for a global audience. The main focus is on political violence, with a brief look at religious and communal violence, youth violence, and domestic and gendered violence. These regions have been consistently affected by political violence for many decades, the main source of which seems to be the ongoing state formation process, as well as social transformation in general. The literature on violence is dominated by international debates, at times with little regard to realities in the ground. It would be highly desirable for scholars from North Africa, West Asia and South Asia to play a more active role in research and debate
Violence Research in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Literature Review
Get PDFLatin America has long been a violence-prone continent. No other region of the world knows higher homicide rates nor has such a variety of violence. Political violence, guerilla movements and civil wars, bloody revolutions, brutal dictatorships, domestic violence, criminal violence, and youth violence are all well known throughout history. This article gives an overview of the historical development of violence in Latin America and the Caribbean, examining its specificities and changes. The focus is on the recent explosion of violence and crime since the 1980s. As a literature review, it summarizes the main findings of academic research on violence in the different Latin American countries, thus providing additional insights into the major topics and research interests of Latin American and international institutions. After a short introduction and some remarks on the historical development of violence, the main part of the article deals with the recent rise of violence in the region. A special focus is on youth violence. At the end, the causes, costs, and consequences of violence for the Latin American societies are addressed
Formations of Violence in Post-Dictatorial Contexts: Logics of Confrontation between the Police and the Young Urban Poor in Contemporary Argentina
Get PDFThe increase in juvenile violence in Argentina since the 1990s results from a combination of economic and socio-structural change and the reinstatement of repressive traditions that became particularly engrained in the armed and security forces during the 1976–1983 dictatorship. Growing unemployment and poverty led to the emergence of loose webs of juvenile delinquency, while increasing public concern about violent crime led to a revival of harsh “iron fist” policing measures by security forces that are often themselves involved in crime in connivance with local politicians. Groups of young urban poor (calling themselves Pibes Chorros or Crooked Kids) and the security forces regard one another with mutual hostility, and police/civilian casualties increased over the period. The music of the Crooked Kids, Cumbia Villera, expresses their life experience. From a comparative perspective, the absence of institutionalized gangs sets Argentina apart from other countries in Latin and North America
Intergroup Conflict and the Media: An Experimental Study of Greek Students after the 2008 Riots
Get PDFWe report a laboratory experiment in the context of the December 2008 riots in Greece, after the killing of a 15-year-old student by a policeman. Our sample comprised 266 students from the University of Thessaloniki. We tested whether media reports can affect people’s willingness to harm those in opposing groups by examining the way students allocated money between themselves and others of various professions, including police, in modified dictator games. Exposure to media reports decreased giving to police, but only when choices were private. Laboratory behaviour was correlated with self-reported participation in demonstrations, supporting the external validity of our measure. Media exposure appears to have affected behaviour by different pathways than those proposed in the existing literature, including “spiral of silence” and “frame alignment” theories
Violence Research in Northeast and Southeast Asia: Main Themes and Directions
Get PDFThe study analyses research on violence in the Northeast and Southeast Asia with respect to four types: political, urban, domestic and youth violence, highlighting current research themes, tendencies and gaps in violence research on and in the region, and identifying needs for further research. Commonalities and differences between countries and subregions are examined, along with a treatment of the colonial experience that influenced political violence in postcolonial countries
“The Boys Are Coming to Town”: Youth, Armed Conflict and Urban Violence in Developing Countries
Get PDFYoung people are major participants in contemporary intra-state armed conflicts. Since the end of the Cold War there has been a trend to portray these as criminal violence for private (economic) ends, rather than politically or ideologically motivated. Hence, the perception of young people’s role has moved from “freedom fighters” to “violent criminals.” Our discursive and conceptual reconsideration based on a case study of Sierra Leone finds that the associated dichotomies (“new war/old war,” “greed/grievance,” “criminal/political violence”) are grounded in traditional modernization assumptions and/or constructed for policy purposes, rather than reflecting reality on the ground. Urban and rural youth violence in developing countries cannot be separated from its political roots. Moreover, the violent dynamics in which urban youth violence is embedded challenge our conceptions of what an armed conflict is. Including this form of violence in mainstream conflict theory would open the way for a new interpretation and more effective policy interventions. Extrapolating the experience of Latin American cities plagued by drug violence, the recent and significant increase in drug trafficking on the West African seaboard could mark the beginning of another armed conflict with high youth involvement, this time playing out in urban settings
Guest Editorial: The Nexus of Violence, Violence Research, and Development. Introduction to the Focus Section
No full textThis focus section of the International Journal of Conflict and Violence is dedicated to violence and violence research in the Global South. It examines the causes, forms, perpetrators, processes, and outcomes of violence. While the contributions go into detail on what is commonly understood as politically motivated violence, they also examine societal, criminal, urban, and gendered violence, as well as the involvement of youth. Four articles explore the significance of violence in specific regions: Africa south of the Sahara, West Asia and North Africa, East Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean. The authors describe and assess the state of research within and about the different countries. Two further articles review the body of research on the causes of civil war, which hasbeen the dominant issue in much violence-related research on the global South since the end of the Cold War
Perceptions of Everyday Interpersonal Discrimination among Young Men of Turkish Background in Cologne
Get PDFThis small-scale, qualitative study examines how five young male second-generation Turkish immigrants perceive racial discrimination by ethnic Germans and to what extent this perception influences their collective identities. The typology of interactional patterns the interviewees describe as racial discrimination has four elements: a perception of distrust, a distancing gaze, denial of belonging and rule enforcement by members of the German majority. The interviewees, particularly those who are highly educated and socially mobile, identify with a common Ausländer (foreigner) identity in response to experiences of discrimination. This identity is regarded a shared identity marker by immigrants of different backgrounds. It appears as a positive and affirmative identity of difference, which creates a unique type of social capital