Making sense of violence in civil war

Challenging Academic Narratives Through Political Ethnography

Bibliographic Data

ID5682249
AuthorsJean‐françois Ratelle (Wilfrid Laurier University, corresponding author), Jean-François Ratelle (0000-0002-5442-383X)
Year2013
Volume1
Issue2
Pages159-173
Publication date2013-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCritical Studies on Security (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2162-4887 • E-ISSN: 2162-4909
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/21624887.2013.824654
OpenAlexW2165379608
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited38

This article seeks to assess the role of political ethnography in the study of civil war, and more particularly research which focuses on the micro-dynamics of violence. By focusing on the representations put forward by econometric and structural research about civil war, this article underlines the importance of fieldwork research and political ethnography in deepening and broadening our understanding of violence in civil war. By using the author's personal immersion experience in the conflict zone of the North Caucasus, this article highlights how structural variables, such as political grievances and marginalization, depict an incomplete image of participation in rebellion by focusing on the onset of violence and not on its sustaining factors. This article argues that in order to complete a micro-dynamic turn in the study of violence, one has to theorize the commonalities of life trajectories amongst individuals who decide to rebel against their marginalization by focusing on the role of nonphysical violence in civil wars. Keywords: civil warpolitical ethnographymicro-dynamics of violenceradicalizationNorth Caucasus Acknowledgments The author would like to thank Angela Franovic, Jacob Mundy, and two anonymous reviewers for their feedback and comments on the earlier versions of this article. Notes 1. In the case of my research, I use the concept of participant observation into violence as I immersed myself into the practices of ethno-religious profiling – a form of nonphysical violence. My participation, or maybe I should say my firsthand experience, into nonphysical violence offered me a way to understand the impact of nonphysical forms of violence into the process of radicalization in civil war. Although I was not directly involved with the physical form of violence such as insurgent activities or torture, except from minor physical abuse committed by police forces, I was still immersed and participating in the process of violence in itself

Criminology · Ethnography · Narrative · Participant observation · Political science · Political violence · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · Structural violence · Anthropology · Law · Peacebuilding and International Security · Political Conflict and Governance · South Asian Studies and Conflicts

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