Violence

<p>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. </p><p>It outlines four ways of understanding violence:</p><p>• Violence as situation: the tension that exists between category-driven and situational explanations. </p><p>• 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. </p><p>• Violence as politics: political violence and violent politics. </p><p>• Violence as storytelling: representations of violence from a narrative perspective.</p><p>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.</p>