Perpetrating Violence

First issue of Violence: an international journal

Despite violence being a major theme in the humanities and social sciences, and the subject of a great deal of research, these disciplines are much less likely to tackle the issues of exiting violence and violence prevention. While knowledge on these issues does exist, it primarily comes from actors, professionals, and experts: judges and lawyers provide expertise on the related legal and judicial topics, such as transitional justice; while doctors, psychologists, or even psychiatrists shed light on what makes someone turn to violence, or help us to understand victim trauma and possible methods for overcoming it. Consultants, diplomats, political leaders, United Nations staff, NGOs (nongovernmental organizations), and community activists who have taken part in “peacebuilding” or “conflict resolution” processes, along with social workers with practical experience on the ground, are equally important sources of knowledge on these issues, to which humanities and social sciences research has thus far paid little attention.

Violence seeks to make up for this shortcoming, as well as playing a role in making violence prevention and exiting violence a full-fledged research field. It will do so by recognizing the skills and knowledge of actors, and by engaging them in dialogue. The multidisciplinarity that is so vaunted today must not be limited to the humanities and social sciences but must be open both to other academic disciplines, and to the potential contribution of actors and professionals. And it must not weaken the traditional disciplines but encourage communication between them.

Special section

What drives some people to “perpetrate violence”? Why do others, by contrast, not perpetrate violence, even under the same conditions? Do all violent acts involve a radicalization or a dehumanization and degradation of civil relations between subjects, sometimes even between neighbors or even within the same family or community, be it ethnic or national? This special theme gathers contributions from many different geographical areas (mainly Morocco, Syria, Germany, and Rwanda) and from several disciplines (literature, political science, sociology, history) in order to offer keys to understanding the factors that trigger or accelerate the perpetration of violence, but also those that curb or limit it.

Available online on Sage
(Free access until December 31^st 2020)
Co-editated by Editions de la Maison des sciences de l’homme and SAGE
Nb of pages 218 p. – ISSN : 2633-0032 online