Conflictualization

Theorizing how relations, societies, and issues come to be formed by the logic of conflict

Dados Bibliográficos

ID8912367
AutoresIsabel Bramsen (0000-0002-7534-1075, autor correspondente), Ole Waever (0000-0002-9053-5855)
Ano2025
Volume60
Fascículo4
Páginas978-1004
Data de publicação2025-11-27
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoCooperation and Conflict (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0010-8367 • E-ISSN: 1460-3691
EditoraSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/00108367251382794
OpenAlexW4416773857
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas2
Referências citadas50

This article presents a Luhmann-inspired theory of conflictualization, that is, how objects, relations, and societies come to be defined by the logic of conflict. This article presents a Galtung- and Luhmann-inspired theory of conflictualization, that is, how objects, relations, and societies come to be defined by the logic of conflict. The article conceptualizes conflictualization as a threefold process of (1) forming social relationships, (2) displacing the focus toward “winning” the conflict, and (3) making an increasing number of issues into objects of contestation. It positions the concept of conflictualization in relation to contemporary (Nordic) peace research, securitization, politicization, and polarization, showing the added value of the theory in terms of teasing out how conflict “does something” and should therefore not be reduced to its causes or effects, but understood distinctly as conflict. To illustrate this, the article discusses three examples of how a society, a relationship, and an issue, respectively, are conflictualized: (1) how the Danish-Greenlandic relationship has been conflictualized, (2) how the war in Gaza has shaped social relations and conflictualized other issues like climate activism and LGBTQ+ rights across the Nordic countries, and (3) conflictualization of the Colombian society post-accord. Moreover, we discuss how conflictualization relates to agency and change, that is, the degree to which conflictualization can be seen as a deliberate process and calls for strategies of conflictualizing and de-conflictualizing issues

Agency (philosophy · Focus (optics · Process (computing · Relation (database · Social conflict · Social theory · Value (mathematics · Global Security and Public Health · Peace and Human Rights Education · Peacebuilding and International Security