Summary
Proximity of Violence - Lecture notes & Summary of readings
- Course
- Institution
This document includes the lecture notes, the summary of all mandatory readings and an example Exam of the first four weeks including the answers.
[Show more]
Seller
Follow
yvankaverberne
Reviews received
Content preview
Proximity of ViolenceReadings
Week 1:
• Fiske & Rai (2015)
Chapter 1:
The passage explores the question of why people engage in violence, focusing on the moral roots of violent
behavior. It acknowledges that violence is often seen as immoral but argues that in many cultural contexts,
people perceive violence as morally justified or even obligatory. The authors introduce the concept of "virtuous
violence theory," which posits that individuals are morally motivated to use violence to create, regulate, protect,
or terminate social relationships.
1. Violence: intentional actions that inflict pain, harm, or death, with the perpetrator perceiving such
actions as necessary or desirable to achieve their ends.
2. Natural Aversion to Killing and Hurting: Despite the prevalence of violence, people generally dislike
hurting others. Engaging in violence often requires social support, training, and reinforcement of moral
motives.
3. Morality: is defined as a set of evaluative emotions and intentions concerning what should or should
not be done in relationships. It involves making relationships align with ideal models. The authors
emphasize that moral action can be self-serving or driven by instrumental motives.
4. Morality is culturally relative, with actions perceived as right or wrong varying across cultures. What
may be considered virtuous in one culture could be condemned in another. The authors illustrate this
with examples of cultural differences in moral judgments.
5. Conflicting Moral Perspectives: Within a culture, individuals may hold differing moral perspectives,
leading to conflicts in judgments. The authors argue that perpetrators are often motivated by their own
cultural norms and moral frameworks, regardless of others' judgments.
6. Post-Hoc Justifications: People may justify violence using moral language, even if their motives are
amoral. However, these justifications reveal underlying moral standards and cultural frameworks that
legitimize violence.
Overall, the passage highlights the complex interplay between cultural norms, moral motivations, and individual
actions in understanding the phenomenon of violence. The excerpt discusses the perception of pain and
suffering in various cultural and historical contexts, arguing that they are not intrinsically evil and can even be
morally commendable in certain situations. It explores the positive significance attributed to pain in medieval
European culture and discusses how pain and suffering were viewed as purifying agents in religious contexts.
Moreover, it highlights that pain and suffering are not universally perceived as morally evil and can be seen as
virtuous acts in some cultures, serving as indices of love and compassion.
Furthermore, the text introduces the concept of virtuous violence theory, which suggests that most violence is
motivated by moral sentiments aimed at realizing ideal models for social relationships. It contrasts this theory
with previous perspectives, such as Black's "pure sociology," which focuses solely on societal structures and
processes without considering individual motives. The excerpt also discusses various studies on violence,
indicating that moral motives often underlie violent actions, whether at the individual or societal level.
Additionally, the scope of virtuous violence theory is outlined, emphasizing its focus on intrinsic psychosocial
motivations and cultural valuations of violence rather than external factors. The text acknowledges the existence
of illegitimate violence but argues that most violence is morally motivated to regulate relationships according to
cultural norms.
In summary, the excerpt explores the complex relationship between pain, suffering, and violence, challenging
traditional notions of morality and providing insights into the moral motivations behind violent behavior across
different cultures and historical periods.
Chapter 2:
The text presents the Virtuous Violence Theory, which suggests that acts of violence are morally motivated
and serve to regulate social relationships. It introduces the concept of social relationships as involving
,complementarity between participants' actions, emphasizing the importance of intentions, moral judgments, and
motives in these interactions.
Relational Models Theory (RMT) is discussed, which identifies four fundamental relational models (RMs) that
people across cultures use to coordinate social activities: communal sharing, authority ranking, equality
matching, and market pricing. Each model is associated with a specific moral motive: unity, hierarchy, equality,
and proportionality respectively.
The text explores how each RM guides moral judgments and behaviors, such as how violence may be perceived
as morally praiseworthy within certain relational contexts. It discusses cultural implementations of these models
and how they shape social interactions.
Furthermore, the text outlines six constitutive phases of social relationships that may involve violence:
creation, conduct/enhancement, protection, redress/rectification, termination, and mourning. Each phase may
involve violence to establish, maintain, or end relationships, depending on cultural norms and individual
motivations.
The discussion concludes by highlighting that violence can serve various functions within social relationships,
ranging from mandatory to optional-permissive depending on cultural context. Overall, the text provides a
framework for understanding the moral motivations behind violence as a means of regulating social dynamics.
Chapter 2 delves into the concept of metarelational models and their role in motivating violence within social
relationships. It begins by explaining that violence often stems from more than just a simple dyadic relationship
between an aggressor and a victim; instead, it is influenced by the intricate web of connections among multiple
individuals. These connections create what are termed metarelational models, which encompass prescriptive or
proscriptive links among social relationships.
Metarelational models involve various entailments and prohibitions beyond violence, with each configuration of
relationships defining moral obligations imbued with regulative emotions. The chapter illustrates this concept
through graphical representations, where arrows symbolize violence within a relationship and parallel lines
represent other relationships linked metarelationally to the violent one.
The text outlines scenarios where individuals engage in violence to regulate their relationships with others. For
example, a soldier may harm an enemy to enhance their relationship with a superior officer, or an individual
may harm someone to rectify a perceived imbalance in a communal relationship. These examples demonstrate
how violence can serve as a means to regulate or constitute social bonds.
Furthermore, the chapter explores the nature of alliances and group dynamics in relation to violence. It discusses
how individuals may be motivated to engage in violence on behalf of their group against another group,
emphasizing the role of group relationships in shaping violent behaviors.
The text also highlights the recursive nature of metarelational models, where successive acts of violence may
trigger further reciprocal actions in an ongoing cycle. It underscores that violence often aims to regulate not only
the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim but also relationships with others linked to the violent
act.
Moreover, the chapter discusses how violence can have different motives and effects across various
relationships. It provides examples of how violent acts may simultaneously create, sustain, rectify, or terminate
relationships, depending on the context and individuals involved.
Overall, Chapter 2 offers a comprehensive exploration of metarelational models and their implications for
understanding the motivations behind violence within social contexts. Through theoretical discussions and
illustrative examples, it sheds light on the complex interplay of relationships and emotions that influence violent
behaviors.
Chapter 3:
,There are kinds of violence that are morally acceptable, justified, and even obligatory: protection in the form of
defence and redress in the form of punishment.
These data suggest that people are retributive. We punish harm-doers when we believe that it is fundamentally
just to do so and when we are morally outraged by what they have done – not when it is rational to do so in
terms of preventing future harm.
“Vengeance” is simply a term used to describe retributive punishment that either observers or the modern state
deem as illegitimate. Persons who perceive themselves to be the victim of a transgression often want to hurt the
transgressor in retribution. Typically, allies and other third parties also want to violently punish major
transgressors.
Protection and redress are the most common constitutive motivations for moral violence, yet it seems to be
precisely because defense and punishment are so clearly moral that they are often excluded or mischaracterized
when philosophers and social scientists define violence as the “immoral” or “illegitimate” use of force or harm.
Meanwhile, vengeance is also misunderstood when it is a priori distinguished as immoral.
• Philips & Cooney (2005)
The article discusses Donald Black’s theory of the third party and its application to conflict management. It
examines when and how third parties intervene in conflicts and whether their intervention leads to peace or
violence. The study, conducted by Scott Phillips and Mark Cooney, tested Black’s theory using data from in-
depth interviews with 100 incarcerated men involved in assault or homicide cases. The results confirm Black’s
predictions regarding third-party behavior and violence.
Black’s theory categorizes third-party behavior into partisanship (supporting one side), inaction (remaining
uninvolved), and settlement (intervening neutrally). Partisanship can escalate conflicts, while settlement can
defuse them. The theory suggests that the social ties of third parties to the conflicting parties influence their
behavior, with close ties leading to partisanship and distant ties leading to inaction or settlement.
Cooney elaborated Black’s theory by considering relational and organizational distance, predicting different
behaviors and conflict outcomes based on these factors. Close ties to one side and distant ties to the other
increase partisanship and the likelihood of violence. Distant ties predict inaction, while cross-cutting ties predict
settlement.
The study’s hypotheses confirm that close and distant ties increase partisanship, distant ties lead to inaction, and
cross-cutting ties promote settlement. Additionally, conflicts with partisan structures are more likely to turn
violent, while those with settlement structures are less likely to escalate.
Overall, the study provides empirical support for Black’s theory and suggests that considering third-party
dynamics is crucial for understanding conflict management and violence prevention.
The research strategy involved conducting face-to-face interviews with 100 male inmates imprisoned for
homicide or aggravated assault resulting from conflicts. Each inmate described both a violent conflict (leading
to incarceration) and a similar nonviolent conflict from the same period in which they were the aggrieved party.
This produced 100 matched pairs of conflicts. Third parties present during these conflicts were identified and
their behavior analyzed.
Data collection took place in two prisons, with 69% of eligible inmates agreeing to participate, despite no
financial compensation being offered. Most respondents were young minorities with prior criminal records,
primarily serving sentences for homicide.
Interviews followed a structured format, covering details of the conflicts and the parties involved. The study
focused on two questions: the influence of third-party social location on behavior, and the impact of third-party
structure on conflict management.
, For the analysis of third-party behavior, conflicts with third parties present were considered. Multinomial
logistic regression was used to analyze third-party behavior, with factors such as social ties and conflict
structure being assessed.
Regarding conflict management, the study analyzed both violent and nonviolent conflicts, treating matched pairs
as a baseline. Conditional logistic regression was employed to examine how individual behaviors varied across
different conflict situations.
Overall, the research aimed to understand the role of third parties in conflict dynamics, shedding light on their
influence on behavior and conflict resolution strategies.
The study discusses two potential limitations: the use of informants and truncated data. Regarding informants,
the study relied on inmates to provide data on third parties, raising questions about the reliability of the
information. However, the inmates' accounts of their own behavior were generally consistent with official
records, suggesting credibility. Truncated data refers to the exclusion of conflicts with missing information
about third parties. These excluded conflicts often involved large public spaces, making it difficult to gather
details about third-party characteristics. Despite these limitations, the study retained a substantial portion of
conflicts for analysis.
The findings reveal patterns of third-party behavior in conflict management. Cross-cutting ties had a moderate
impact on settlement, with a significant portion of third parties remaining uninvolved. Close and distant ties
strongly influenced partisanship, with most third parties with such ties supporting the side to which they were
connected. Distant ties predominantly led to inaction. Further analysis using multinomial logistic regression
confirmed these patterns and highlighted the influence of social location on third-party behavior.
Deviant cases, where third-party behavior did not align with theoretical predictions, were explored. Deviant
inaction was common among third parties who were expected to intervene, especially in conflicts involving
family or friends. Deviant settlement, although rare, showed gender differences, with women more likely to
engage in unexpected settlement. Conflict management by third parties significantly impacted the course of
conflicts, with partisan and mixed structures increasing the likelihood of violence. However, settlement
structures did not consistently reduce violence, indicating the complexity of conflict dynamics.
Overall, the study provides insights into the role of third parties in conflict management, highlighting the
influence of social relationships and contextual factors on their behavior and its impact on conflict outcomes.
The conclusion highlights the underrepresentation of third parties in the study of violence, focusing on factors
like individual, neighborhood, urban, and national characteristics instead. The difficulty in obtaining data on
third parties is acknowledged due to their scattering at the end of a conflict. The study relied on information
from one of the principal parties, which has limitations like faulty memory and bias. However, other data
collection methods are impractical. The study confirms four out of five hypotheses from Black's theory of the
third party. It suggests further inquiry into the reciprocal contribution of principals and third parties, the
relevance of area ties, similar patterns in other conflict settings, and the social roots of violent conflict. The
conclusion also discusses the historical decline of violence and its association with strong social ties, suggesting
that the weakening of community may not be entirely negative from a conflict management perspective.
Week 2:
• Ember & Ember (2005)
The study investigates the prevalence and potential causes of corporal punishment of children across different
cultures. They find that corporal punishment is common in many societies and explore factors that may
influence its frequency. Using data from preindustrial societies, they analyze various predictors such as social
complexity, political integration, use of an alien currency, and a culture of violence.
The findings suggest that higher levels of social stratification and political integration, as well as the long-term
use of an alien currency, are associated with more frequent corporal punishment. Additionally, societies where
nonrelative caretakers help raise children and those with undemocratic political decision-making and a culture
of violence tend to use corporal punishment more often.
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller yvankaverberne. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for $7.79. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.
Can Stuvia be trusted?
4.6 stars on Google & Trustpilot (+1000 reviews)
62555 documents were sold in the last 30 days
Founded in 2010, the go-to place to buy study notes for 14 years now