Widespread Violence Research Articles

Between Pacifism and Militancy: Socialist Women in the First Austrian Republic, 1918–1934

ABSTRACT The expansion of citizenship rights for women in the largely democratic Successor States followed the collapse of the Habsburg Empire and the end of the First World War in 1918. Many women’s rights activists hoped that the participation of women in the political sphere would now lead to a more peaceful future. However, during the post-war period, revolutionary movements and persistent violent conflicts dominated Central and Eastern Europe. Some socialist women supported – and participated in – the region’s widespread violence. This analysis explores the tension between pacifism and militancy within the First Austrian Republic through an investigation of how this friction shaped socialist and feminist women’s political activism and writings. The question of political violence shaped gendered identities, distinguishing between the configurations of the “peaceful woman” and the “female revolutionary”.

Militarización y debilidad institucional de la seguridad pública en México / Militarization and institutional weakness of public security in Mexico

La seguridad pública es uno de los principales problemas que enfrenta el gobierno mexicano en la actualidad. El problema es central al funcionamiento de la democracia en tanto incide en la confianza social, socava el desarrollo social sostenible y puede eventualmente afectar su estabilidad política. El objetivo principal de este trabajo es analizar las estrategias de política de seguridad pública implementadas por el Estado mexicano en el periodo 2006-2020, a través del método descriptivo-analítico que permite realizar un recorrido de la narrativa en torno al uso las fuerzas armadas en la lucha contra el crimen organizado y brindar protección a la población, a fin de comprender el alcance de sus resultados en el país ante la militarización de la seguridad pública. Esto permite establecer la hipótesis de que la debilidad institucional en materia de seguridad pública en México hace que el Estado tenga como principal instrumento al poder militar para reponer la autoridad e imponer la ley en el país. La violencia generalizada es el resultado de las estrategias de política cuya narrativa de la seguridad pública se funda en el control punitivo estatal a través del incremento de las fuerzas armadas en labores policiales de seguridad, pero que no contemplan la previsión primaria, ya que el problema estructural es la cuestión social: empobrecimiento, desempleo, marginalidad, entre otras. De ahí, la idea de que el Estado mexicano ha incumplido con su obligación de garantizar la seguridad de las personas, por la existencia de un débil sistema institucional de seguridad. Public security is one of the main problems facing the Mexican government today. The problem is central to the functioning of democracy insofar as it affects social trust, undermines sustainable social development and may eventually affect its political stability. The main objective of this work is to analyze the public security policy strategies implemented by the Mexican State in the 2006-2020 period, through the descriptive-analytical method that allows us to carry out a narrative journey around using the armed forces in the fight against organized crime and provide protection to the population, in order to understand the scope of its results in the country in the face of the militarization of public security. This allows the hypothesis to be established that the institutional weakness in matters of public security in Mexico means that the State has as its main instrument the military power to restore authority and impose the law in the country. Widespread violence is the result of policy strategies whose public security narrative is based on punitive state control through the increase of the armed forces in security police tasks but which do not contemplate primary provision, since the social is the structural problem: impoverishment, unemployment, marginality, among others. Hence the idea that the Mexican State has failed to fulfill its obligation to guarantee the security of people due to the existence of a weak institutional security system.

‘Me Too’ and the ‘List’ – Power Dynamics, Shame, and Accountability in Indian Academia

In October 2017, Raya Sarkar, a law student of Indian descent, posted a crowdsourced list on Facebook of male academics who allegedly harassed women. India’s academic world splintered and the #MeToo movement became a student movement emerging from campuses resisting a culture of widespread sexism, abuse, and violence which is rife in Indian academia. Some academics criticised the List for leaving out the names of accusers and specific details of the alleged incidents, raising questions about anonymity and accountability. However, the List also received extensive support as for decades survivors have tried unsuccessfully to get justice through the system following informal and formal complaint mechanisms, and it became a manifestation of years of frustration against institutions. Keeping the List at its core, this article explores ideas of due process, the need for intersectional approaches to fight sexual and gender-based violence in academia, and finally the ideas of institutional accountability.

Askeri, Politik ve Stratejik bir Araç Olarak Kültürel Mirası Silahlaştırmak

Kültürel mirası hedef alan çatışmalar küresel bir sorun haline gelmiştir. ABD Başkanı Donald Trump’ın İran’ı kültürel miras alanlarını vurmakla tehditleri yeni bir aşamaya gelindiğini göstermiştir. On dokuzuncu yüzyıldan itibaren yerle ve mekânla ilişkili fikirler etnik ulusalcılıkla birlikte düşünülmüştür. Kültürel çeşitlilik toplumsal açıdan kabul etme ya da reddetme şeklinde tezahür etmiş ve çatışmalara neden olmuştur. Buna karşılık kültür mirasını koruma anlayışının son yıllardaki gelişimiyle kültür mirasının özel olmaktan çıkarak, bütün insanlığa ait olduğu ve herkesin ortak mirası olduğu fikirlerini güçlendirmiştir. Savaşlar askeri ve politik savaşlar olarak tasnif edilebilir. Askeri savaşlar kültürel mirasın kısa sürede büyük hasarlar almasına neden olmaktadır. Politik savaşlar genellikle psikolojik, diplomatik, teknolojik ya da kültürel düzeyde gerçekleşmekte; bazen de ticari, finansal, hükümet politikaları gibi çeşitli politikalarla toplulukları yerinden etme şeklinde gerçekleşmektedir. Kültürel mirası çeşitli düzeylerde fiziksel ya da ruhsal olarak fakat dolaylı şekilde ve daha uzun bir zaman dilimi içeresinde etkileyebilmektedir. On dokuzuncu yüzyılın son çeyreğinden başlayarak kültürel miras yapılarını ve tarihi kentleri hedef alma gerekçeleri ve yöntemleri kültürel mirasa yüklenen anlamlarla ilişkili olarak değişmeye başlamıştır. Yakın tarihli çatışmalar kültürel mirasın kimlik ve belleği silmek üzere nasıl silahlaştırılabileceğini göstermektedir. Yirminci yüzyıla kadar büyük imparatorluklar tarafından yönetilen, egemen güçlerin sömürge mücadelelerinin ardından otorite boşluğunun ortaya çıktığı Balkanlar, Afrika, Ortadoğu ülkeleri gibi bölgelerde çatışmalar bir anda patlar ve sıklıkla tekrar eder. Devletlerarası savaşlara göre daha uzun sürer. Çatışmalar, yeterli kaynaklar olduğu sürece ve taraflardan biri ötekine üstünlük sağlayana kadar devam eder. Güç kullanımı devlet tekelinden çıkmıştır. Örgütlü ve yaygın şiddet ortamı yaratan bu türden iç karışıklıklar ya da çatışmalar uluslararası hukuk normlarının dışına çıkmaktadır. Yeni savaşlarda saldırılar toplumların kimlik ve belleğini temsil eden kültürel imgelerini yok etmeye ya da çeşitlilikleri bir araya getiren tarihi kentlere odaklanmıştır. Bu makalede yeni savaşlar konusu kültürel miras bakımından değerlendirilmiştir. Silahlı çatışmalarda ya da savaşlarda kültürel mirasın neden hedef alındığı tarihsel ve yakın örneklerle incelenmiştir. Bu bağlamda kültürel miras için yeni savaşlar gerçekten yeni midir; kültürel mirasın ve kentlerin geçmişteki ve günümüzdeki savaşlardaki/çatışmalardaki rolü ne olmuştur; kültürel miras hangi eylemlerle ve neden hedef alınmıştır gibi sorulara cevap aranmaktadır.

Micah’s shepherd-king (Mi 2:12–13): An ethical model for reversing oppression in leadership praxis

The exposition attempts to use Micah’s metaphor of shepherd-king (Mi 2:12–13) as a heuristic ethical model for reversing oppression and violence in leadership praxis. Given the reality of widespread oppression and violence perpetrated by the powerful, Micah 2:12–13 is interjected into the oracle as a means of accentuating the hope of those who are marginalised and dispossessed. Although Micah’s shepherd-king metaphor interrupts the foregoing context of the oracle of condemnation and doom, the unit logically balances the general rhetorical pattern of judgement, and afterward salvation. Such a canonical and ideological reading presents a window through which informed ethical models are constructed for the reversal of oppression and violence in the readers’ socio-economic and religious context. Micah’s shepherd-king metaphor imagines a restoration of fortune under the leadership of a coming eschatological shepherd-leader allows one a positive construct of a visionary leader, who is a passionate agent of restoration rather than one who is an agent of exploitation, oppression and bondage. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: As a rhetorical literary production, there are seemingly noteworthy ideological and theological intentions in the Book of Micah. Consequently, this exposition brings together biblical, literary, exegetical and theological discourses into dialogue with ethics, ethical demands and practical theology. Granted that leadership affects every aspect of community life, Micah’s beautifully harmonised, biblical shepherd-king in time and context generates insightful alternative and viable components of the process of conveying its life-giving and instructive power for contemporary leadership praxis, both within the ecclesia community and larger human society.

Sexual violence in the border zone: the EU, the Women, Peace and Security agenda and carceral humanitarianism in Libya

Abstract The last decades have seen a striking increase in international policy seeking to protect against conflict-related sexual violence. Norms of protection are, however, unevenly applied in practice. In this article, I address one such situation: the significant and growing evidence of widespread sexual violence at detention sites in Libya where migrants are imprisoned after interception on the Mediterranean Sea. Drawing on policy documents, human rights reports, interviews with advocates and officials, and an analysis of debates in the EU Parliament and UNHCR's humanitarian evacuation scheme in Libya, I examine how abuses have been framed, and with what effects. I argue that decisions about protection are shaped not only by raced and gendered categorizations but also by a demarcation of bodies in the border zone, where vulnerability is to some degree acknowledged, but agency and responsibility also disavowed by politicians, diplomats and practitioners. The wrong of sexual violence is thus both explicitly recognized but also re-articulated in ways that lessen the obligations of the same states and regional organizations that otherwise champion the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. The combination of mass pullback and detention for many migrants with evacuation for a vulnerable few is an example of carceral humanitarianism, where ‘rescue’ often translates into confinement and abuse for unwelcome populations. My analysis highlights the importance of the positionality of migrants in the Libyan border zone for the form of recognition they are afforded, and the significant limits to the implementation of the EU's gender-responsive humanitarian policies in practice.

To counter the rationality of sexual violence: existing and potential policies against the genocidal use of rape as a weapon of war in the Democratic Republic of Congo

The population in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been terrorized by widespread sexual violence for decades. Local armed groups, including the government army, continue to systematically rape civilians for strategic reasons. This paper argues that the discussed genocidal functions of rape as a weapon of war in the DRC can be neutralized or ‘de-functionalized’ by providing victims and targeted communities with safe abortion, anti-retroviral medication, reconstructive surgery and awareness programmes, thereby both responding to short-term humanitarian needs of victims and the need for long-term solutions to preventing further sexual violence.

Evolving Trends in the Post-Arab Spring Era: Implications for Peace and Stability in the MENA Region

The uprisings connected to the Arab Spring have thus far failed to produce social change. The dynamics of these uprisings instead generated a number of trends that are likely to continue to destabilise the Arab world and prevent peace and development. Prevailing trends in the post-Arab Spring era include the prevalence of counter revolutions, widespread violence and armed conflicts, new patterns of alliances, external interventions and thriving proxies, raising sectarian politics, ineffective governance, terrorism, and migration. While these trends have a negative impact on people’s basic demands for socio-economic and political stability and development, they will provide and shape the foundations for other revolutions in the future. To avoid future revolutions and civil wars and stimulate peace and development in the MENA region, those driving patterns of instability will need to be altered.

From Grace to Violence: Stigmatizing the Medical Profession in China

This study examines how the once prestigious medical profession in China has become criticized to the point of inducing widespread violence by patients. Drawing on archival documents, media article...

Membangun Kerukunan Melalui Konsep Esoterisme dalam Teks Tutur Jatiswara (Studi Filsafat Perennial)

<p><em>Religion is one of the sub parts that becomes the ‘spotlight’ when there is widespread conflict and violence. This is due to the displacement of spirituality-esoteric aspects in modern human life, so that in reality it is often found distortions of human values. In addition, the dynamics of community understanding are also still doctrinal and filled with the content of exclusivity in responding to plurality, as well as the erosion of respect for responding to horizontal conflicts. For this reason, the concept of esotericism in the text of Tutur Jatiswara is believed to be able to provide a theo-philosophical solution and build an inclusive-pluralist paradigm, and can be one of the guidelines for realizing a harmonious, peaceful and mutual assistance in helping joy and sorrow.</em><em></em></p><em>Perennial Philosophy is seen as able to explain all the events that are essential, concerning the wisdom needed in carrying out the right life, which seems to be the essence or core of all major religions and traditions of human spirituality. This fact is the basis for the statement that all religions are the same in the esoteric area. There is no superior religion among other religions, because basically all religions are accommodating the “Truth and Absolute” of the One.</em>

‘Disenchanted with the state’: confronting the limits of neoliberal multiculturalism in Colombia

ABSTRACT The Colombian government’s embrace of multicultural policies in the 1990 s had far-reaching implications for black and indigenous struggles for self-determination and autonomy. In the context of widespread violence, multicultural policies seemed to offer a semblance of protection. However, after nearly three decades of multicultural reforms, black and indigenous communities continue to face disproportionate violence and dispossession at the hands of the state, multinational corporations, drug traffickers, and other armed groups. This article explores the autonomy/inclusion dialectic in order to understand why some black and indigenous social movements are turning away from the state’s recognition policies.

Justice for Community: Political Perspective of Michael Sandel’s Communitarianism

The ideals of justice are failing, with the widespread violence and discriminatory acts against various communities in Indonesia, despite what Michael Sandel's view that the community's view of good and fair was formed based on the community's beliefs about what is considered as good and fair. Community has an important role in communal living, since each community has a range of values ​​and concepts of good. As such, the concept of a good society cannot simply be derived from the general principle but need to be obtained through the exploration of the community’s values ​​and beliefs. For this reason, this study aimed to review the communitarianism-style of justice in the philosophical perspective of Michael Sandel. Using descriptive and documents analysis methods, as well as qualitative approaches, the results of the study showed that justice can be created from the promotion of value. Through a consensus, it is hoped that the government can explore the community’s value to be a mutual guideline in community living. This value can be accepted as a common good. Justice in society can only be sensibly created if it starts with the agreed and shared insights. Therefore, justice, according to Sandel, can only be created by using shared community values.

The Poetics of Narrativity: Understanding Trauma, Temporality, and Spatiality Forty Years after the Birmingham Pub Bombings

Abstract This article explores the social history of the Birmingham Pub Bombings (UK). In addition to individual losses and injuries, the bombings triggered widespread anti-Irish prejudice and violence, wrongful convictions and community tensions. The resultant disharmony within the city of Birmingham lasted for generations, while the voices of communities not directly involved in the events of November 21, 1974, have mostly remained silent. This article offers new lessons in the historical construction of trauma and how we make sense of traumatic events. Using original oral history interviews and witness seminars, it explores the layers of trauma that have been transmitted socially, politically, spatially, and intergenerationally. It begins by first focusing on the temporal and spatial dimensions of this local history, which reveal how the reconfiguring of temporalities can be used to locate an inner voice for British postwar, urban, social history. Then, it contextualizes individual and collective experiences of the Birmingham Pub Bombings in order to reveal the ways in which traumatic experiences are placed within a narrative form that orders and facilitates the integration of past trauma within the present. As such, we argue that the poetics of narrativity—or the narrative framing of how and when trauma memories are told, heard, and negotiated—has the potential to pull together a richer, more inclusive, community history.

A presença policial no cotidiano das escolas públicas

O presente artigo apresenta os resultados de pesquisa, inicialmente expostos de modo parcial em evento nacional, tendo-se o objetivo de saber se os conflitos que ocorrem nos estabelecimentos de ensino do município de Cáceres exigem a presença da Polícia Militar (PM) no seu cotidiano. Neste estudo foram utilizados fonte documental, sites de jornais de circulação estadual e local, sites oficiais do governo do estado de Mato Grosso e dados quantitativos da Policia Militar sobre as ocorrências/chamadas policiais pelas escolas da rede pública de Cáceres. Caracterizam-se as principais manifestações que ocorrem no interior e no entorno das escolas, com base nos autores Aquino (1998); Camporez (2018) e Zaluar (1997). Não existe um quadro de violência generalizado nas escolas mato-grossenses e muito menos na rede pública de ensino do município de Cáceres que imponha a presença da polícia militar nas escolas.

Reframing Xenophobia in South Africa as Colour-Blind: The Limits of the Afro Phobia Thesis

Many scholars and South African politicians characterize the widespread anti-foreigner sentiment and violence in South Africa as dislike against migrants and refugees of African origin which they named ‘Afro-phobia’. Drawing on online newspaper reports and academic sources, this paper rejects the Afro-phobia thesis and argues that other non-African migrants such as Asians (Pakistanis, Indians, Bangladeshis and Chinese) are also on the receiving end of xenophobia in post-apartheid South Africa. I contend that any ‘outsider’ (White, Asian or Black African) who lives and trades in South African townships and informal settlements is scapegoated and attacked. I term this phenomenon ‘colour-blind xenophobia’. By proposing this analytical framework and integrating two theoretical perspectives — proximity-based ‘Realistic Conflict Theory (RCT)’ and Neocosmos’ exclusivist citizenship model — I contend that xenophobia in South Africa targets those who are in close proximity to disadvantaged Black South Africans and who are deemed outsiders (e.g., Asian, African even White residents and traders) and reject arguments that describe xenophobia in South Africa as targeting Black African refugees and migrants.

Crimes of the Wehrmacht: A Re-evaluation

Of the up to eighteen million men who served in the Wehrmacht during the Second World War, ten million were deployed at one time or another between 1941 and 1944 in the conflict against the Soviet Union, a theatre of widespread and sustained mass violence. In order to determine how extensive complicity in Nazi crimes was among the mass of the regular German soldiers, it is necessary first of all to define what constitutes a criminal undertaking. The sheer brutality of the German conduct of war and occupation in the Soviet Union has overshadowed many activities that would otherwise be rightly held up as criminal acts.

Health care practitioners' responsibility to address intimate partner violence related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

KEY POINTS On Mar. 27, 2020, the United Nations issued a statement warning that rates of widespread intimate partner violence (IPV) will increase owing to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, including intimate partner femicides.[1][1] Measures to minimize the spread of severe acute

Are migration routes disease transmission routes? Understanding Hepatitis and HIV transmission amongst undocumented Pakistani migrants and asylum seekers in a Parisian suburb

Drawing on hospital-based interviews and fieldwork in a deprived Parisian suburb, this paper analyses the spatio-temporal dynamics of risk, exposure, and mobilities in individual stories of undocumented Pakistani male migrants, and asylum seekers—receiving treatment for single and combined diagnoses of HIV, and Hepatitis C and B. Inviting alignments with the ‘sexual’ turn in mobility studies, it prioritises the interface of all-male undocumented migration, mobility, sexuality, and homosociality in circumscribing disease transmission geneaologies. It questions the extent to which illegal migration routes are transmission routes, and risk environments assume different levels of intensity in everyday life in Pakistan, during the journey, and in France. It emphasises inadequately addressed epidemics of HIV and hepatitis in Pakistan, the significance of unequal routes to migrant healthcare in France, and the transnational adaptation of homosocial and sexual behaviours, including MSM. These factors interplay with intensified vulnerabilities relating to childhood sexual abuse, family traumas, sexual risks related to illegal migration and undocumented status in France, chronic stresses leading to depleted mental and physical health, and restrictions on heterosexual sex facing marginalised migrants. Further, temporal vulnerabilities relate to the colonial criminalisation of homosexuality in Pakistan, widespread sexual violence—and forms of contemporary exclusion and hostility regarding Muslim migrants in Europe. Particularly, we emphasise the paradox, and need to sensitively address, a complex confluence of hidden risks that are deeply embedded in ethnic communities of solidarity and support. The findings trouble the tendency to partition global hepatitis and HIV prevalence rates by ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ country variation.

Iranian Nurses' Experiences of Workplace Violence in Prehospital Emergency Care

Prehospital emergency care nurses experience severe workplace violence. However, despite the widespread violence they experience, this phenomenon has not been well studied among these nurses. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of Iranian nurses working in prehospital setting regarding workplace violence with a focus on the factors leading to such violence. In this qualitative descriptive study, 23 prehospital nurses participated purposefully. The data were collected by individual face-to-face semistructured interviews and analyzed using content analysis methodology. Data analysis led to the identification of 4 main themes, including job competency mismatch, inadequate resources, criticality of the situation and circumstances, and inadequate awareness and misplaced expectations of society. These nurses have not completed specialized training courses, work in a system that is in a critical situation, and face many barriers and deficiencies in terms of intra- and interorganizational coordination. On the other hand, people in the community do not have sufficient awareness about the duties and services provided by prehospital nurses and thus have unrealistic expectations to receive services. The results showed that there was a deep gap between the prehospital emergency realities and public expectations, leading to workplace violence. Therefore, efforts to improve the working conditions of nurses with an emphasis on teaching specialized prehospital emergency courses, especially violence control courses, promoting intra- and interorganizational coordination, and increasing the equipment and personnel of ambulances for special missions, as well as raising the public awareness and outlining more realistic expectations, may reduce the prevalence of violence against prehospital nurses.

Public Confidence in Mexican Institutions

Ciudad Juárez is one of the most important cities in Mexico and one of the most affected by widespread violence in the country during the period 2008-2010. The main objective of the article is to analyze the perception of citizen confidence in Mexican public institutions, collected through a survey called "trust in institutions" that was applied in Ciudad Juarez under the coordination of the academic group "Government, Polítics and Society of the Autonomous University of Chihuahua. The results of the longitudinal study presented a change in perception due to the challenge of the crisis in public security that destabilized the region since 2008, specifically the variable of violence was the determining factor in the change.