Nonviolent Research Articles

Nonviolent Modes of Resistance in Susan Abulhawa's Mornings in Jenin and Against the Loveless World

The paper explores the theme of non-violent resistance in two powerful novels by the American-Palestinian writer, Susan Abulhawa: Mornings in Jenin (2010) and Against the Loveless World (2020). Both novels provide poignant narratives of Palestinian women navigating the complexities of life under occupation, and their journeys reveal various forms of non-violent resistance as a response to oppression and adversity. In Mornings in Jenin, the characters' resilience is showcased through acts of cultural preservation, cultural expression, and the “ethic of love”. Despite enduring the harsh realities of displacement, the protagonist Amal and her family cling to their Palestinian identity and heritage as a form of non-violent resistance. Additionally, the novel portrays the power of storytelling and memory in preserving the Palestinian narrative, thus countering the erasure of their history. Similarly, Against the Loveless World delves into the life of Nahr, a Palestinian woman whose journey from refugee camps to prison is marked by several forms of resistance to oppression. Nahr's resistance is manifested in recreating and rediscovering the self, celebrating traditions, finding genuine love, and teaching resistance to others. Both novels emphasize the importance of women's voices and agency in the Palestinian struggle, highlighting the role of women as key agents of change and resilience. The paper draws from the works of Edward Said, Ghassan Kanafani, Gramsci, Michel de Certeau, Stuart Hall, Bell Hook among others.

Cultural Encounters and Ethical Resistance: A Hermeneutical Study of Satyagraha in South Africa

Introduction: This research presents a hermeneutical study of Mahatma Gandhi's Satyagraha during his period in South Africa. It examines the complex cultural encounters he faced within colonial South Africa, marked by racial segregation and discrimination, and how these shaped his philosophy of Satyagraha, a principled, nonviolent resistance grounded in truth and love.Methods: A close reading of Gandhi's autobiography Satyagraha in South Africa from this period forms the methodological basis. This approach allows for in-depth exploration of Satyagraha's ethical dimensions as a response to injustice.Results: The analysis reveals how Gandhi's South African experiences profoundly influenced his understanding of injustice and commitment to nonviolent resistance. Satyagraha challenged prevailing power structures and cultural norms by offering an alternative resistance mode emphasizing ethical principles and nonviolent action's transformative potential. The study highlights the interconnectedness of truth, love, and self-suffering as core tenets, informing Gandhi's approach to social and political change. It also illuminates Satyagraha's lasting legacy in South Africa and its influence on subsequent movements.Conclusion: Satyagraha, born from specific cultural encounters in South Africa, provides a profound framework for understanding and engaging in ethical resistance against oppression in various contexts. It offers enduring lessons for contemporary struggles for social justice and nonviolent change

How do authoritarian cultures contribute to democratic backsliding?

ABSTRACT Bangladesh was a promising case of democratic institutionalization after a successful nonviolent resistance movement in the 1990s and subsequent free-fair elections during 1991–2008. However, in the last decade, the country has been experiencing democratic backsliding and has now become a one-party-dominated authoritarian country. The article addresses this puzzle – why democracy in Bangladesh fails to consolidate even after having democratic prospects. The congruence theory contends that an alignment between the socio-political culture and the nature of the political system is necessary. A democracy slides back when political elites and citizens resort to authoritarian values and practices. This article explores the reasons for democratic backsliding, considering Bangladesh as a non-congruent case – a mismatch between the existing socio-political culture and the political system. While the existing literature argues institutional factors as the core causes of democratic backsliding, this article emphasizes cultural dimensions. Historical evidence and interview data reveal that authoritarian cultural dynamics obscure the democratic potential and cause democratic backsliding in Bangladesh. The article concludes that elitist political culture – not citizens per se – poses a fundamental threat to democracy in the country.

Inner Peace as the Seed of Global Peace: Unveiling the Link Between Zhuangzi’s Mysticism and Nonviolent Resistance

This paper delves into the connection between Zhuangzi’s mystical philosophy and its potential application to nonviolent resistance movements. It argues that the cultivation of inner peace, as advocated by Zhuangzi, can serve as a powerful foundation for individuals to engage in peaceful social change. Zhuangzi, a prominent figure in ancient Chinese thought, emphasized the importance of achieving harmony with Dao, the natural order of the universe. His mystical teachings centered on concepts like the “Pu 樸” (perfect natural state), “Xiao Yao You 逍遙遊” (Free and Easy Wandering) and “Qi Wu Lun 齊物論” (Equalizing Things and Equalizing Theory), as well as “Xin Zhai 心齋” (Fasting of the Mind) and “Zuo Wang 坐忘” (Sitting and Forgetting). This paper explores how these mystical concepts can be interpreted as a call for inner peace and tranquility. The paper then examines how inner peace, as envisioned by Zhuangzi, can empower individuals to participate in nonviolent resistance. It suggests that achieving inner peace allows individuals to transcend feelings of anger, resentment, and violence, fostering a sense of compassion and understanding towards their opponents. This inner peace, in turn, can fuel the courage and determination necessary to engage in peaceful protests and civil disobedience. By exploring the connection between Zhuangzi’s mysticism and nonviolent resistance, this paper aims to shed light on an alternative approach to social change. It argues that inner peace, cultivated through mystical experience, can be a powerful tool for individuals seeking to create a more just and peaceful world.

Breathing the Earth: Bodily Exploration of Relationality in Eco-rituals and Dances

This video article is on the body movement, bodily exploration to make relationality with earth. On the body movements in environmental activism, rituals, and dances this article focuses. In spring 2003, the author attended a penance and walking called Samboilbae. Ever since, Samboilbae has been revered as representative, bodily, non-violent resistance in Korea. It has been recognized as highly sincere quest for resilience in human beings with more-than-human world, This video article tries to tell the participants’ bodily efforts and exploration toward embodiment of ecosomatic relationality between body and earth. At the second case, an invented ritual & performance based on old custom Maehyang, this article tries to tell ecological relationality embodied through the immersive or embedded matter and bodies in earth. At the last case, an invented ritual & performance based on old custom, Gaetje, the participants’ dances, ritual behaviors and materials were focused on. Bodily exploration into the forest and ocean for reciprocity, sensing and being sensed between human selves and earth, this article tries to tell.

Memorializing (violent) resistance to authoritarianism: challenges and tensions at Portugal’s Aljube Museum - resistance and freedom

ABSTRACT Museums play a critical role in constituting and communicating narratives about historical violence and connecting them to contemporary and future concerns. In this paper, we examine the memorialization of resistance movements, especially resistance to authoritarianism and state violence, as exemplified at the Aljube Museum – Resistance and Freedom in Lisbon, Portugal. We offer a methodological and theoretical discussion on storytelling and autoethnography in understanding the narratives of historical violence and war, focusing on representations of historical resistance movements and their uses of violence. We argue that the museum has avoided grappling with armed resistance as a method of effecting change and challenging authoritarianism by crafting a coherent and unitary narrative about oppression and non-violent resistance that downplays violent opposition to authoritarianism. After outlining some silences noted in the museum’s representations of resistance, we offer a counter-memory that discusses the role of non-state armed actors and shows multiple ways in which historical authoritarianism has been resisted and fought.

Candles of Change: Nonviolent Resistance in Sudan

Overthrowing dictatorial regimes presents a formidable challenge, as these governments often maintain tight control over state mechanisms and media narratives; this paper explores the concept of nonviolent resistance, particularly within the context of the Sudanese revolution, utilising a qualitative research methodology and gathers qualitative data through interviews and focus groups with key participants in the Sudanese nonviolent movements. These include secondary data from online reports from civil society organisations of members of Resistance Committees and women activists. It also examines the tactics and strategies employed by nonviolent movements, including sit-ins, media campaigns, and the strategic use of the “butterfly effect,” demonstrating how small, coordinated actions can lead to significant societal change. The paper concludes with recommendations to strengthen civil society, enhance the capacity of Resistance Committees, and ensure women’s continued participation in the political process. These measures are essential for preserving the revolution’s achievements and supporting Sudan’s transition towards a more democratic and peaceful future.

Contentious politics in the borderlands: How nonviolence and migrant characteristics affect public attitudes

New political issues and opportunities lead new actors into contentious politics. This article studies one such case: transnational migrants making claims and engaging in collective action when traversing state borders. As global migration flows and accompanying political backlash has grown since the mid-2010s, borders have increasingly become sites of contention between groups of migrants seeking entry and state agents attempting to refuse it. Media coverage and elite discourse also has focused on contentious border crossings, with implications for public attitudes toward migration. In this setting, public attitudes toward migrants should vary based on the migrants’ tactics and characteristics. We expect migrants engaging in nonviolent resistance to security forces will win more public support than those engaging in violence. Migrant characteristics – claims or motives for migration and ethnic identity – should also affect support. Survey experiments in the United States and Mexico containing fictionalized vignettes of a contentious event at the countries’ shared land border show strikingly similar results: migrant nonviolent resistance, compared to violent confrontations, reduces support for deportation and increases beliefs that migrants contribute to society. These effects are consistent across party lines and border proximity. Neither migrants’ claims nor migrants’ ethnic identity affect public support in the context of a contentious event.

From Spectators to Participants: Rhetorical Approaches to Digital Nonviolent Resistance in Social Media Video

ABSTRACT This article contributes a rhetorical approach to nonviolent resistance that is enacted in short-form social media video environments. By examining how three viral videos on the platform TikTok reimagine the nonviolent resistance tactics of sabotage, disruption, and civil disobedience, this article considers the similarities, differences, aptitudes, and constraints of digital nonviolent resistance in social media video compared to fully offline counterparts. Consideration of three short-form social media videos that involve sabotaging an antiabortion group’s web portal, disrupting a Donald Trump campaign rally, and enacting civil disobedience by dancing without a headscarf in Iran showcase digital nonviolent resistance in social media video to more rapidly coordinate ad-hoc social networks, be more intensely calibrated for mediation, be more global and lighthearted, and be comparatively limited in scale, scope, efficacy, and risk to participants while still rhetorically generating meaningful consequences.

Pansy asses and terrorists: Sensibilities of anti-environmentalist toxic speech against Extinction Rebellion Finland

Hate speech against environmental activists has been on the rise globally, alongside a forceful criminalization of the climate movement in Western Europe. This article analyses anti-environmentalist speech and actions against Extinction Rebellion (XR) Finland, an environmental movement that employs non-violent direct action and civil disobedience to persuade individuals and institutions to address the ongoing ecological emergency. The materials consist of online commenting evoked by the news coverage of XR Finland’s protests in October 2022 and May 2023, and ethnographic data from the protest sites. The data ranges from scorn and stigmatizing insults to fantasies of violence and physical assaults at the demonstration sites. The article discusses this data through the concept of toxic speech and explores the different sensibilities of such speech: (1) the ironic and dismissive sensibility, (2) the emotionally invested sensibility and (3) the punitive, resentful sensibility. This article highlights how these sensibilities and related affective practices are embedded in and compounded by gendered, class-based, ageist and ableist systems of power and argues that anti-environmentalist toxic speech contributes to environmental activism’s delegitimization and stigmatization. It suggests that toxic speech normalizes violence towards activists and can ultimately violate activists’ civil and political rights.

Social Reforms and Political Activism Unpacking the Dual Role of Khudai Khidmatgar Movement

This article examines the Khudai Khidmatgar Movement, led by Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan popularly known as Fakhr-i-Afghan Bacha khan, which played a pivotal role in social reform and political activism in colonial India. Founded in 1929, the movement adopted non-violent resistance to British rule while also addressing deep-rooted social issues within Pashtun society, such as factionalism, illiteracy, poverty, social and gender discrimination and blood feuds. Implying indegounious values, knowledge and tools, Ghaffar Khan promoted education, unity, and peaceful coexistence among his people, challenging the British narrative of Pashtuns as inherently violent. The article explores how the movement, initially focused on socio-educational reforms, evolved into a powerful force advocating for Indian independence, aligning with other non-violent movements like those led by Gandhi. Despite significant obstacles from the British and local elites, the Khudai Khidmatgar gained mass support, with over 100,000 members at its peak. The article highlights the movement’s transformative impact on Pashtun society and its contributions to the broader anti-colonial struggle, positioning it as a significant yet underappreciated chapter in South Asian history. This articles has relied on both primamry and secondary data for qualitative analysis, with most reliance on primary sorces of data collection. For this purpose, extensive interviews were conducted.

Antisoviet proclamation, letter and writings

The article reviews the non-violent resistance of Lithuanian youth during the Soviet era in the Šiauliai region in the 1960sand 1980s, its expression and forms.

Deconstructing Orientalist Representation of The East in Yasmina Khadra’s Sirens of Baghdad

Because of the blatant, direct persecution, and misrepresentation of all Iraqis, which comes from an Orientalist’s ignorant perception of the Orient (Iraqi), this study will be conducted to show the different misrepresentations of Arabs and Iraqis by the American tropes in a novel entitled The Sirens of Baghdad written by an Algerian novelist, Khadra Yasmina. The current study explores orientalists’ misrepresentation and the Western gaze towards the Middle East, especially the Iraqi character. Khadra portrays the complex life of Iraqis during the invasion of 2003, in the context of us versus them. Drawing on the critical framework of Orientalism theory by the theorist Edward Said, this paper examines how Sirens of Baghdad deconstructs Orientalist representations by giving voice to marginalized perspectives and resisting the erasure of local knowledge and agency. Khadra's narrative subverts simplistic depictions of “Islamic extremism”, highlighting the multifaceted social, political, and psychological factors that shape an individual's path towards violence and, ultimately, the possibility of redemption and nonviolent resistance. The study emphasizes the importance of embracing nonviolent resistance which represents a powerful alternative to the spiral of violence, gesturing towards the possibility of reconciliation and moral progress.

Interview: Reflections on Three Decades of Islamic Nonviolence

Abstract This article comprises a discussion with Prof. Mohammed Abu-Nimer, a trailblazer in the field of Peace Studies focusing on Islam and Muslim communities. It explores Prof. Abu-Nimer's reflections on the development of this field over the past three decades. It focuses in particular on methodological, institutional, and inter-cultural challenges and developments during that time. Like Prof. Abu-Nimer's long career, it is international in scope and explores convergences and divergences in the experiences and discourses surrounding Muslim-led nonviolent resistance, peacemaking and peacebuilding initiatives in the Middle East and North Africa, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa. It also includes discussion of the role played by cultural difference and hybridity in translating the distinct peace and nonviolence repertoires of Western and non-Western cultural and political contexts.

Bombs and Banners: Battlefield Dynamics and Armed Groups’ Use of Nonviolent Tactics in Civil War

Under what circumstances do armed insurgents divert scarce resources to nonviolent tactics? Despite extensive research on the causes and consequences of civil wars and resistance campaigns, our understanding of when rebel organizations add nonviolent tactics to their repertoire is limited. Moving beyond traditional explanations of nonviolent resistance campaigns, we hypothesize that rebel organizations use nonviolent tactics–such as strikes and protest–to capitalize on successes on the battlefield. Rebels have many incentives to use nonviolent tactics, but their opportunity to do so typically depends on their ability to mobilize civilians. Military successes help pave the way for mobilization by shifting civilians’ expectations about the prospects for victory and repression. Using cross-national data on rebel nonviolent contention, including original data on nonviolent tactics in struggles for control over the central government, we find robust support for our argument. Probing potential scope conditions, we show that the association is strongest among rebel organizations with civilian wings and for rebels fighting for control over the government. Our findings provide new insight into the full array of tactics that insurgents deploy, beyond variations in armed activity. They contribute to our understanding of the many forms that contentious action can take, even amidst a backdrop of violence.

Jézus törvényértelmezésének hermeneutikai kulcsai a Máté 5 néhány tételében

Jesus did not come to dissolve or abolish (καταλυσαι) the Law but to complete (πληρωσαι) it. This fulfilling process is illustrated by six examples. However, while fulfilling the Law, Jesus did not lower the norm level; instead, he raised it to a much higher level. The analyzed sentences of Jesus set unrealizable expectations. He does not at all provide a more effective method of keeping the Torah but paralyzes the person in order to realize the futility of his efforts and that the only way to God is through the grace of Christ. Through the last three cases, the method of non-violent resistance is introduced. Hostile reactions lead to an escalation of violence, whereas evil can be stopped by wisely applied non-violent opposition. Interpreting the text with appropriate hermeneutic keys, the words of Jesus analyzed here no longer seem very radical, and the feasibility of following him is also much more realistic.

Divine Violence Suffered: Another Reading of Walter Benjamin’s Toward the Critique of Violence

Abstract Benjamin’s essay Toward the Critique of Violence has often irritated readers. This is even more true of his concept of divine violence, which is defined as “law-annihilating” and goes against legally sanctioned state sovereignty. In this paper, I present a new reading of both Benjamin’s essay and divine violence. Against an apocalyptic tendency of Benjamin, I argue that divine violence can only be an instrument of justice if it is understood as violence suffered rather than perpetrated. This is especially the case where people suffer persecution – imprisonment, torture, death – as a result of nonviolent resistance to an oppressive political regime. Only where such resistant suffering occurs, can violence properly be called divine. Only then does it offer a perspective beyond the never-ending atrocities of human history.

Making Space for Peace in Contexts of ‘Non-war’ Violence: Challenging War-Peace Binaries Through Feminist, Spatio-Temporal, and Decolonial Approaches

ABSTRACT Peace is often represented as a matter of time, as a political state that happens after war. This special issue contests this linear and binary view by giving an account of being and thinking between the boundaries of peace and war. It challenges mainstream ideas, political discourses, and collective imaginaries about the location of violence, peace, and peacebuilding. It does so by providing empirical and theoretical arguments as to why Peace and Conflict Studies and Geographies of Peace should widen their scope of empirical sites to include contexts of non-war violence, such as military urbanism, counterterrorism, police violence, migration, environmental struggles, and continued everyday violence and peacebuilding in different locations such as Bosnia-Herzegovina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Kenya, Lebanon, and Northern Ireland. To do so, the special issue presents four theoretical lines of inquiry: 1) spatiality; 2) temporality; 3) feminist phenomenology and; 4) decolonial thought. Collectively, the articles make a strong case, epistemologically, theoretically, and methodologically, about peace as a complex embodied experience that should be analysed in time and space. The special issue concludes by calling for ‘making space for peace’ through in-betweenness, care, and non-violent resistance.

Forging Alternative Resistance Through Empathy in Sahar Khalifeh's Wild Thorns

Until recently, Palestinian nonviolent resistance has historically been overshadowed by the narrative of armed and violent resistance. This article contends that the reality of Palestinian resistance is relatively nonviolent and explores alternative nonviolent approaches drawing on Sahar Khalifeh's novel Wild Thorns. Originally published in 1976 and translated into English in 1985, Khalifeh's novel serves as a blueprint for nonviolent resistance, emphasizing empathy. This research demonstrates how interethnic connections between antagonistic groups, particularly in workplace settings, can mitigate violence by humanizing the face of the perceived enemy. Through documenting the violence of imperial imposition and scrutinizing the means by which a nation can resist its occupier nonviolently, Khalifeh creates a readership that is ready to empathize by acknowledging the trauma experienced by the Other.

Dictators and Dissidents: Nonviolent Resistance in Authoritarian Regimes

Dictators and Dissidents: Nonviolent Resistance in Authoritarian Regimes