Violence: Situation, Speciality, Politics, and Storytelling

By David Wästerfors

This book considers how the concept of violence has been interpreted, used, defined, and explored by social researchers and thinkers. It does not provide a final answer to the question of what violence is or how it should be explained (or prevented), and instead offers a variety of useful ways of thinking about and theorising the phenomenon, mainly from a sociological standpoint.

It outlines four ways of understanding violence:

- Violence as situation: the tension that exists between category-driven and situational explanations.

- Violence as speciality: the study of particularly violent actors, and how they may be understood by reference to childhood histories, technologies, institutions, culture, class, and gender.

- Violence as politics: political violence and violent politics.

- Violence as storytelling: representations of violence from a narrative perspective.

Concluding with reflections on possible convergences between the four approaches and new directions for research, this book offers a unique and experimental approach to discussing and reconstructing the concept of violence. It is essential reading for criminologists, sociologists, and philosophers alike.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1032204389
• ISBN13: 9781032204383
• Release Date: August 2022
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.5" x 8.5"