LEC 1 - Introduction

Question 1

What is the WHO definition of Collective Violence?

Answer 1

“Collective violence may be defined as: the instrumental use of violence by people who identify themselves as members of a group […] against another group or set of individuals, in order to achieve political, economic or social objectives.” - WHO, 2002

Question 2

What are the elements of Collective Violence according to the Britannica and WHO definition?

Answer 2

Shared Elements of both definitions:
1. Groups & group membership
2. Response to threat/conflict
3. Functional component
a. Vs senseless

Question 3

What is the difference between Instrumental and Symbolic/Performative violence?

Answer 3

Instrumental Violence is Goal-oriented and as a means to an end (to reach a goal)

Symbolic or Performative is violence is expressive in nature and violence as goal itself (it is meant to make a point).

The distinction between instrumental and symbolic violence is about the aims that people are trying to achieve through the violent act. Instrumental violence is violence for instrumental reasons; violence that achieves something else (robbery, engaging in violence in order to obtain money) → using violence to achieve something. Symbolic violence is a scenario where violence is an aim in its own right → violence is a goal in itself, it is meant to make a point, show something symbolic

Question 4

What is the Cut-off debate?

Answer 4

CV = Violence that a group engages in collectively (e.g. riot)

AND violence by one or a few people on behalf of a group(e.g. terrorism)

NOT violence where a victim is targeted based on group membership (e.g. hate crime)▸Where is the cut-off

Course Focus
- Phenomenon Level
o Identify Shared features
- Individual and Group level processes
o No focus on political violence (war)
- Focus on perpetrator

Question 5

What are the Levels of Collective Violence?

Answer 5

Individual: why an individual joins a violent group

Intra-group: processes within the group that contribute to collective violence (radicalization, polarization of the attitude of the group)

Inter-group: dynamics between groups that contribute to collective violence (group conflicts)

Question 6

What is the role of media in Violence?

Answer 6

Violence as a “Spectacle”(Martschukat & Niedemeier,2013)

• “Culture of shock and awe” (Mehran,2019)
• 24/7 News
• Appeal to a strong narrative

E.g. Lynching in Pakistan and 9/11

Question 7

What is violence?

Answer 7

What is violence?
- Criminology: a type of crime or transgression
- Sociology: a consequence of (unfair) social organization
- (Social) psychology: a type of social behavior (considers violence on a spectrum of social behavior)

 
Criminology
Violence as a type of crime (Tittle, 2009)
When discussing collective violence: focus on the violence element
- The event itself (step- by step analysis; stages of riots)
- Weapons used?
- Intervention/prevention

Sociology
Focus on structural, societal, ‘macro’ processes
- E.g. which social conditions contribute to collective violence
- E.g. how should social institutions deal with collective violence
When talking about violence
- As a (problematic) outcome of macro-level social relationships
When talking about collective violence
- Focus on the collective element

Social psychology
Violence as a type of (extreme) social behavior
In between psychology and sociology
- Focus on interaction between the individual and the social environment
- focus on collective in the sense of groups, more than institutions
Focus on violence?
- No - instead conflict, aggression, prejudice, discrimination
Key topics
- Dynamics within and between groups
- How individuals perceive and act out those dynamics

Broad Phenomenom
- Sliding Scale vs Discrete ‘types’
- “Full and complete” definitions hard to establish…
Can be resolved through fully explain a specific case and identifying shared characteristics across types

Question 8

How to study collective violence?

Answer 8

Researching
Studying collective violence
- The scientific method relies on using data to build theory, and then test/validate that theory
- BUT, studying collective violence in this way is difficult; because violent events are nearly always studied in retrospect, you cannot really generate data on collective violence, you have to wait for the data/events to occur naturally
- The scientific method: real cases of collective violence are often analyzed retrospectively/descriptively
- In hindsight, you are always right - you can tailor the theory

Research methods
Quantitative vs. qualitative
Quantitative methodologies are “deductive”
- Start with the theory and hypotheses and data arises from that
- Experiments
- Surveys
Qualitative methodologies are “inductive”
- Start with the data and theory arises from that
- Interviews
- Narratives
Both
- Observation
- Text

Question 9

How was Collective Violence over the years?

Answer 9

CV IN HISTORY
- Basic idea: the past was more violent!
o Both interpersonally and in terms of small-scale wars
- Why?
o People less“civilised”
o Police etc did not exist to control violence
- Hobbes (1651): before “the state” developed, life was extremely violent
- Elias (1968) “the civilising process”
o Public violence (including collective) brought under control by
 Legal institutions
 Police
 Social Norms
 Corresponding Psychological Changes
- Meyer et al. (2018)
o Studied 5500 BCE NL-region
o Long term cooperation between communities but around 5000 BCE breakdown with excessive violence
o
Collective violence has declined strongly over the centuries