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VIOLENCE AND VIOLENCE AND AGENCY FOR SOCIAL AGENCY FOR SOCIAL
CHANGECHANGEOXFAM
30 November 2011Professor Jenny Pearce, Peace
Studies,Bradford.
Why focus on Why focus on Violence?Violence?• ‘It was without doubt the most murderous century of
which we have record, both by the scale, frequency and length of the warfare which filled it, barely ceasing for a moment in the 1920s, but also by the unparalleled scale of the human catastrophes it produced, from the greatest famines in history to systematic genocide’ (Hobsbawm, 1994: 13)
• Pinker argues that we are far less likely to die violently than any previous generation. Even 20th-century atrocities such as the second world war pale into insignificance when death rates as a proportion of the population are compared with events such as China's An Lushan revolt and civil war in the eighth century, which killed 36 million people (the proportional equivalent of 429 million in the mid-20th century).(The Better Angels of Our Nature:The Decline of Violence in History and its Causes , 2011)
• Why can’t we build the conditions to live without violence?
Structure of Structure of PresentationPresentation
Violence/Chronic Violence as a Development Issue: The Where and Who of Violence
Which Violence(s) Matter?
Defining Violence...Very Briefly
The Meaning of Violence
Are We Born Violent?
Desanctioning Violence
Social Agency and Violence
Violence as a Violence as a Development IssueDevelopment Issue
• According to 2011 Global Burden of Armed Violence, more than 526,000 people are killed directly or indirectly from armed violence/lethal violence—both conflict and criminal violence—each year. 1 in 10 occurs in conflict settings or through terrorist acts. The majority are in non conflict settings: 396,000, 17% of which are women.
Type of Violence Number (nearest 100)Rate per 100 000 population (age standardised)
Proportion of total(%)
HomicideSuicideWar-related
520 000815 000310 000
8.814.55.2
31.349.118.6
Total* Low - middle income countriesHigh income countries
1 659 000 1 510 000
149 000
28.832.1
14.4
100.091.1
8.9
Source: WHO Global Burden of Disease project for 2000, Version 1.
Violence as a Violence as a Development IssueDevelopment Issue
Not just about armed conflict (20-30%)
Increasing recognition that violence takes place in multiple dimensions and domains
Most recent exploration of relationship between violence and development is a study by Geneva Declaration, preliminary findings September 2010‘More Violence, Less Development’
Violence as a Development IssueViolence as a Development Issue
‘Countries that report lower levels of human development feature, in proportional terms, more violence’ ‘Higher homicide rates drag countries towards lower HDI rankings’ (p.10)
70% of countries categorised as low human development and about 50% of countries with medium human development register homicide rates above the average global rate of 7.24 per 100,000 population(p.10-11).
More than 30% of all countries reporting low human development report a very high homicide rate (above 18 per 100,000)
Violence as a Violence as a Development IssueDevelopment Issue
Central and South America, Southern Africa and particular areas of Asian
Conflict affected countries are highly concentrated in Africa and Asia
Violence as a Violence as a Development IssueDevelopment Issue
The lower the income registered by a given country, the higher the reported level of homicidal violence (but a very few countries with high homicide rates and high levels of income)
Direct relationship between homicide and poverty levels (13)
Higher rates of homicidal violence are statistically correlated with lower levels of (specific) MDG attainment
• In 2000, there were an estimated 520 000 homicides, for an overall age-adjusted rate of 8.8 per 100 000 population (see Table 1.2). Males accounted for 77% of all homicides and had rates that were more than three times those of females(13.6 and 4.0, respectively, per 100 000) (seeTable 1.3).
• The highest rates of homicide in the world are found among males aged 15–29 years (19.4 per 100 000), followed closely by males aged 30–44 years (18.7 per 100 000).
The Who of Violence?The Who of Violence?
ChronicViolence and Perverse State FormationChronicViolence and Perverse State Formation ‘Chronic violence’ is a situation in a number of countries where violence appears to be diffusing and reproducing across multiple domains of socialisation and time.
My working definition (Pearce, 2007) is three dimensional across space, time and intensity:‘where rates of violent death are at least twice the average for high and low income countries respectively; where these levels are sustained for five years or more and where frequent acts of violence, not necessarily resulting in death, are recorded across several socialisation spaces, including the household, the neighbourhood, the school, inter community and the nation state public space’
State in chronic violent contexts is often on a ‘perverse’path
But...this is the end of the ‘easy’ bit!
Which Violences Matter?Which Violences Matter?
The intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment or deprivation (WHO 2002)
(physical, sexual, psychological, deprivation/neglect)
A Working Definition A Working Definition of Violenceof Violence
The Meanings of The Meanings of ViolenceViolenceGradual recognition that violence is many faced
and takes place across all the socialisation spaces.
Homicides are only one aspect
There are mechanisms of reproduction of violence (eg Inequality, Forms of Masculinity, Perverse State Formation Processes)
Violence is different to Aggression: It is Meaning Laden
Cultures sanction and de-sanction violences
Multiple and Complex Explanations
The Meanings of Violence: The Meanings of Violence: Implications for our AssumptionsImplications for our Assumptions
• ‘Our minds emerge and our emotions become organised through engagement with other minds, not in isolation’ (S. Gerhardt, ‘Why love Matters, How Affection Shapes a Baby’s Brain 2009: 15)
Violence, Power and Violence, Power and Social AgencySocial Agency
Violence and Power: Embedded in our Social Relationships
Violence as the opposite of (non dominating) Power
Violence as one end of the spectrum from dominating Power
Violence inhibits participation; lack of voice fosters violence
Imagining a World of Non Dominating Power and Enhanced Agency for Change
ConclusionConclusionHigh Levels of Violence are statistically correlated with poverty, low human development, and poor MDG performance
Statistics do not convey the multiple impacts and effects of violence
Nor the interconnectedness between violences
Violence has meanings and is rooted in socialisation processes which can reproduce and diffuse violence
Violence can be desanctioned through human action
Effective non dominating power could enhance agency for change and reduce violence
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