Violence Situation, Speciality, Politics, and Storytelling

• Main Author: Wästerfors, David (auth)
• Format: Electronic Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis 2023
• Series: Routledge Studies in Crime and Society
• Subjects: Crime & criminology; Social theory; Violence in society; Childhood history;Gender;Institutions;Narrative perspective;Political Violence;representations of violence;Sociology;storytelling;Technologies;Violence;Violence as storytelling;Violent actors;violent politics
• Online Access: OAPEN Library: download the publication; OAPEN Library: description of the publication

This book considers how the concept of violence has been interpreted, used, defined, and explored by social researchers and thinkers. It does not provide a final answer to the question of what violence is or how it should be explained (or prevented), and instead offers a variety of useful ways of thinking about and theorising the phenomenon, mainly from a sociological standpoint. It outlines four ways of understanding violence: • Violence as situation: the tension that exists between category-driven and situational explanations. • Violence as speciality: the study of particularly violent actors, and how they may be understood by reference to childhood histories, technologies, institutions, culture, class, and gender. • Violence as politics: political violence and violent politics. • Violence as storytelling: representations of violence from a narrative perspective. Concluding with reflections on possible convergences between the four approaches and new directions for research, this book offers a unique and experimental approach to discussing and reconstructing the concept of violence. It is essential reading for criminologists, sociologists, and philosophers alike.