Collective violence summary, lecture notes and literature
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Course
Collective violence (8910V002)
Institution
Universiteit Leiden (UL)
In this summary, all lectures are summarized in a convenient way. At the end of each lecture there is a summary of all the readings that went with that lecture.
It's for the course Collective Violence in the minor Violence Studies at the University of Leiden
Lecture 1: welcome and introduction
Central questions in this course:
Why would an individual join a violent group?
Which group processes contribute to collective violence (CV)?
What are the characteristics of violent groups?
How do violent episodes play out over time?
Definitions
Instrumental vs symbolic violence instrumental violence is violence
that achieves something else and is goal-oriented. Like a robbery, then
you’re engaging in violence in order to obtain money. Symbolic violence
is violence that tries to demonstrate something, then violence is a goal
itself. It is meant to make some point. The distinction is between the aims
and the achievements. But in reality the distinction is often difficult to
make, especially from the outside. It is hard to see the motivation. In
collective violence it is not always instrumental violence and here the
symbolic motivation also weighs quite heavily.
Collective violence is often a response to a threat or a conflict. It is
violence that a group engages in collectively and violence by one or a few
people on behalf of a group. It is not violence where a victim is targeted
based on group membership, like a hate crime.
It is a very broad phenomenon, but where is the cut-off point? Full and
complete definitions of these kind of broad terms are often hard to
establish. So how do we resolve this??:
Fully explain a specific case, so specialize in a specific case of
collective violence. Drawback: you never know if it is generalizable
Identify shared characteristics across different types. Drawback:
you are staying quite abstract
We will look at diverse types of collective violence and look at some of the
shared characteristics that they all share.
So we define collective violence as: violence engaged in/by groups to
achieve a practical; social; political aim. The group is broadly defined, and
can mean either spontaneous groups (crowds) or pre-existing groups, or
indeed individuals who act on behalf of groups.
Different layers of collective violence:
Individual: why an individual joins a violent group
Intra-group: processes within the group that contribute to CV
(radicalism)
Inter-group: dynamics between groups that contribute to CV
Zahn et al. 2004 (theories of violence)
,It is a very mixed picture when it comes to theories of collective violence.
Theories have lagged far behind psychological, interpersonal and even
structural theories of violence. The field is in development.
Disciplinary perspective we will draw most from and how they see
violence:
Criminology: a type of crime or transgression
Sociology: a consequence of (unfair) social organisation
Social psychology: a type of social behaviour
Criminology
Violence is seen as a type of crime. When discussing collective violence
they focus on the violence element and the event itself.
Sociology
They focus on the structural, societal and macro processes. When talking
about collective violence they focus on the collective element.
Social psychology
Violence is seen as a type of extreme social behaviour. It is between
psychology and sociology in. They focus on the interaction between the
individual and the social environment and on collective in the sense of
groups, more than institutions. Key topics in this field include dynamics
withing and between groups.
Studying collective violence
The scientific method therefore relies on using data to build theory, and
then test/validate that theory. But studying collective violence in this way
is difficult. In real cases we see that collective violence is often studied
retrospectively.
Research methods:
Quantitative: the one with the numbers
Qualitative: the one without numbers
Quantitative methodologies are deductive start with the theory and
hypothesis and then evaluate if the data fits
Qualitative methodologies are inductive start with the data and the
theory arises from that.
Reading lecture 1
Belavadi et al. (2020). When social identity-defining groups
become violent (chapter 2)
,Social identity theory: a theory of intergroup relations to explain conflict
and cooperation between groups. The focus of the theory has broadened
to include the processes through which identity and a sense of self is
derived from group membership.
Self-categorization theory: maps the social-cognitive mechanisms of
how groups are represented psychologically.
People join groups and seek social identities to construct a coherent and
positive sense of self. Two key motives for why we join a group are:
Uncertainty reduction: this means uncertainty about our sense of
self, who we are and our place in the world. This makes us thirst for
guidance and direction. The groups we identify with act as a sense-
making framework guiding our thoughts, feelings and actions.
Especially true of entitative groups, that are distinctive and clearly
defined around and unambiguous and consensual central core and
provide a coherent framework for self-definition
Collective self enhancement: this means the need to compare
ourselves with the out-group and the desire to win and be better
than them. Think about the studies where they showed that we tend
to favour our own group member over another groups member
(even if we barely know the group we’re in). This shows in-group
favouritism.
Group relative deprivation: feelings of angry resentment toward the
out-group. This can be conceptualized as a reaction to a group status
threat because the group is not perceived to be sufficiently positive and
distinct relative to the out-group. Group relative deprivation is a factor that
is commonly included in models of radicalization.
Processes that explain why high prototypicality (these members are
viewed by others as the best source of identity-related information)
increases leaders’ influence and effectiveness:
Self-categorization and depersonalization based on the group
prototype lead group members to conform to a shared group
prototype and likewise to the behaviour of group members who are
perceived to best embody group-defining attributes
High prototypical members tend to be liked more than their less
prototypical members, which increases the likelihood that others will
be influenced by them
Prototypical members embody the group’s norms, and because of
that they tend to be highly identified with the group
Delegitimization and dehumanization: when group members
undermine the human essence or uniquely human characteristics to out-
group members. Doing this allows in-group members to justify atrocities
against them.
, Zahn et al. (2004). Violence: from theory to research (page 252-
257)
Five criteria for a good theory are:
Parsimony: when there is a simple statement that offers the
greatest explanatory power. So it must be stated in a way that adds
clarity rather than confusion
Originality: when a theory offers ideas that provide an explanation
of violent activity or behaviour that advances previous theories
Testability: it must be testable if it is to be useful
Generalizability: is the theory of violence also applicable to
collective violence?
Validity: does a theory seem reasonable on its face (face validity)
There is a strong disconnect between the existing theories and the
empirical studies of types of violence. For the most part, these existing
theories treat violence as a variation of crime or deviance rather than as a
subject to be addressed on its own merits. Violence, even though some
forms may be criminal, is behaviour deserving of attention.
In developing an effective theory it is important to define violence.
Typically we think of violence as physical force used against another and
resulting in harm. Definitions of violence vary in terms of how they view
the nature and degree of force. These differential definitions challenge our
ability to integrate the theories and the research findings.
Lecture 2: groups in conflict
In this course we are primary talking about physical violence. Nearly
always when there is collective violence, there is an intergroup conflict at
the ground of that violence. Groups are constantly in conflict with each
other over various things, like resources or incompatible values. There are
two primary theories of conflict that are relevant to Collective Violence,
namely intergroup threat theory and the social control theory.
Intergroup threat theory
This is developed by Stephan et al. (2016). It says that intergroup conflict
produces threat. When two groups are in conflict they feel like the other
group is threatening them. This can also be a threat that outsiders
wouldn’t really see as a threat, so it is a perceived threat. Because of
these threats the conflict becomes more relevant and meaningful to the
group members, it triggers emotions. People are defending themselves of
the threat. In this theory they differentiate two types of threats:
Realistic threat: conflict over something tangible, like water, land
and jobs
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