Thesis (doctoral)--Vrije Universiteit te Amsterdam, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [168]-174).

M.Sc. / The present study describes the experiences of participants on an Adventure Therapy project at the Ekupholeni Mental Health Clinic in Katlehong. It details an account of the violence, both political and everyday, that face South Africans, particularly children and youth. It also attempts to detail the reconstructive challenges facing a democratic South Africa on the road towards healing. The implicit values underlying the research process are the values of Community Psychology and the Action Research method. Themes were drawn from four taped interview (two group and two individual) sessions. These themes suggest that participants have had positive experiences of pride, dignity, control, responsibility and unity through involvement with the project. These experiences are however not without their contradictions. An attempt has also been made to report on this dialectic. The study makes recommendations regarding the improved functioning of this project and also more widely applicable lessons for working with communities. The recreation of community is a struggle better expressed as a process rather than an event. Further documentation of this project is recommended to build on this baseline data.

In its investigation of social and political violence during the Irish Civil War, this thesis tackles the diverse range of deliberate, frightening and harmful actions—largely neglected by military and political histories of the conflict—that surfaced in local communities in Ireland during 1922–23. Through a three-county study of Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford, in the province of Munster, this thesis examines and explains violence perpetrated alongside and away from armed encounters between the anti-Treaty republican army and Free State forces. It identifies three main categories of violence: arson (the burning of houses, crops and infrastructure), intimidation (including boycott, damage to property, verbal and written threats, animal maiming, cattle driving and land seizure) and violence against the person (bodily damage or death through physical contact or the use of weapons). The thesis charts, where possible, the frequency of the violent act and, in exploring the symbolism and strategies involved in arson, intimidation and violence against the person, identifies two key functions of social and political violence. For one, targeted violence was used, during the Irish Civil War, to regulate community relations: state-sanctioned ethnic cleansing did not take place, but the religious and political minority (Protestants, ex-Servicemen and other British Loyalists) were deliberately persecuted, resulting in their flight from Munster. Land is another powerful motif in the thesis; the second key function of violence was to challenge attitudes towards rural issues and force redistribution outside the official channels. The thesis also places the Irish Civil War in perspective: the prolific bloodshed, sexual violence and gruesome torture witnessed in Central Europe, after World War I, did not become the norm in Ireland. Animals and private property bore the brunt of the severest actions in the three Munster counties. By bringing to light victims’ experiences of violence recorded in largely unexplored compensation claims, this thesis captures the complex questions of loyalty and identity—facing armed actors and officials, as well as civilians—that beset the violent and chaotic establishment of independent Ireland.

M.A. / All transitional stages have their moments of crises, but there is no stage so complicated and confusing as the adolescence. Not surprisingly, many researchers refer to this stage as a period of storm and stress. Many studies conducted on young people and violence have concentrated on their psychological, emotional, and physical development. Hence, the psychosocial development did not receive much attention from the psychological fraternity. Therefore, the aim of this study is three fold: (1) to investigate how political violence affects the psychosocial development of adolescents.(2) to investigate how political violence affects their outlook on life, and (3) how do they view the youth=s role in political struggle. The qualitative research method was used in this study. The process of inquiry involves interviews. Individual face-to-face interviews were conducted with 30 research participants. The process of analysis involved thematic content analysis. Generally, the results of the study indicate that exposure to political violence has negative effects on the psychosocial development of the adolescents. Many of them experience psychosocial problems in some areas of their development, while very few show signs of psychosocial resilience in other areas and function well despite exposure to political adversity. In conclusion, these adolescents are neither shattered by exposure to political violence to be considered Apsychosocially dysfunctional@, nor they are resilient enough to be considered Auntouched@ by these experiences. Furthermore, the results of the study indicate that the effects of political violence are relative rather than absolute and are bound to change with circumstances.

ABSTRACT This thesis investigates political violence between the United Democratic Front and Inkatha in Mpumalanga township, Natal. In the early 1980s and early 1990s Mpumalanga was one of Natal’s townships most gravely affected by political violence. I ask and answer four questions: 1. Why and how did the conflict between political organisations in Natal become violent? 2. What forms did the violence take? 3. Why, as a result of the violence did ordinary people with little prior history of political activity come to identify with either the UDF or Inkatha? 4. How were these political identities produced? In order to answer these questions the thesis explores three primary arguments. The first argument is that 1987 represents a severe rupture in the politics of Natal. This rupture is captured in the violent form of political conflict that gripped the province. To understand this rupture the thesis looks back at a complex set of processes that interlocked over space and time. A second major argument of the thesis is that an aspect of the distinctiveness of the violence was its profoundly spatialised form in combination with gendered and generational forms. There were two major shifts in the spatialised form of the violence. The first shift occurred when instead of only attacking individuals, the household and its members also became targets. And then the second shift was when the purpose of the violence was about the pursuit of territory. Boundaries between territories identified who was ‘in’ and who was ‘out’ and all aspects of everyday life became politicised. The third major argument of the thesis is that there was a strong relationship between space/place and political identity. The re-territorialisation of space - iv - during the violence was central to the production of these new identities. Political violence created new spatialities, with space itself acquiring political meaning and identity. The political meanings of these spaces were intense markers of their identity and overrode all other meanings and identities. As the spatial form of the violence shifted it forced people to question their political identities. The lived experience of the politicisation of everyday life by the violence shaped the production of political identities.

La décennie des années 1970 est caractérisée en Italie par un « cycle de protestation » et des mobilisations politiques et sociales de grande ampleur, qui s'accompagne – sans s'y limiter – d'une vague de violences politiques de natures très diverses, des attentats à la bombe mis au point par l'extrême-droite aux attentats ciblés de la lutte armée d'inspiration marxiste-léniniste, en passant par les débordements occasionnés par des manifestations ou des agressions. Ces violences s'inscrivent dans des stratégies d’intimidation qu'il s'agit de replacer précisément dans des cultures politiques qui se donnent comme objectif d'utiliser, parfois explicitement, la peur comme outil d'intervention politique, occasion de replacer les différents « terrorismes » dans la perspective de trajectoires de radicalisation. Quels sont les résultats socio-politiques de ces manœuvres visant à généraliser la guerre psychologique ? Au fil de la décennie et en comparant, sans les confondre, les différentes formes de « terrorisme » et leurs effets, se dessine une géographie et une chronologie de l'imprégnation de la peur : au-delà de l'effet de terreur qui dure peu, la violence « terroriste » installe un climat de peur durable, un sentiment de menace qui devient, à partir de 1978, un fait incontournable et que nombre de sources contemporaines permettent de saisir. Se pose alors la question de la représentation de la peur dans l'espace public et politique, son instrumentalisation éventuelle dans des stratégies propres au gouvernement ou à l'opposition, et l'absolue nécessité de rassurer, y compris au prix d'une mise en tension des mesures de sécurité avec les valeurs de l'État de droit. / The 1970s in Italy are characterized by a new “cycle of protests” and a dramatic rise in social and political mobilization. These movements were accompanied by – although not limited to – a wave of political violence of various types, from right-wing bombings to targeted attacks by armed underground Marxist-Leninist organizations, and a great number of outbursts of collective violence during demonstrations and street fights. Not all of this violent activity falls under the heading of “terrorism”, rather it should be considered within the broader context of a political climate where intimidation tactics were on the increase and fear was, sometimes explicitly, used as a political tool. The political culture facilitated the use of violence in a process of radicalisation. What are the socio-political results of such a strategy of intimidation and psychological warfare? Analysis of the different strategies and their effects reveals a propagation of fear through the decade, resulting in a sustained climate of terror and the sense of a pressing threat, particularly from 1978 onwards. This raises the question of the effects of repetitive terrorist attacks, and the representation of fear in the public and political sphere: at the same time a destabilizing factor and a tool for legitimising political activities.

Entre 1979 et 1989, la région des Antilles et de la Guyane, et plus particulièrement la Guadeloupe, ont connu une décennie de violence. 284 attentats à la bombe ont été commis dans ces pays, soit un peu plus de 10 % des 2616 attentats perpétrés sur le territoire français de 1973 à 1980. Ces actes de violence ont été revendiqués par deux organisations “terroristes“ successives : le Groupe de libération armée (G.L.A) et l’Alliance révolutionnaire caraïbe. Cette “lutte armée“ avait pour objectif de “pousser“ le gouvernement français à accorder l’indépendance nationale à ses dernières possessions des Antilles et de l’Amérique du Sud. Cette thèse intitulée : “le traitement, dans la presse écrite, de la violence politique en Guadeloupe de 1979 à 1989“ s’attache à interroger la stratégie discursive des journaux nationaux et régionaux pour rendre compte des violences dans un pays où est à l’œuvre une théorie politique de l’assimilation. En se fondant sur le schéma actanciel, ce travail, dans sa première partie, s’emploie à dégager les grandes étapes de la formule “départementalisation“ qui s’est imposée au fil du temps comme cadre politique de régulation de la vie publique des départements d’outre-mer. Dans sa deuxième partie, il s’attarde à mettre en lumière le long processus historique qui a conduit aux événements de violence précités. Ceux-ci sont analysés, dans la troisième partie, par la technique de mise en relation contrastive du quotidien de “référence“ le “Monde“ et du journal “nationaliste“ le “Journal Guadeloupéen“, et par celle de l’analyse de contenu. Les résultats de ce travail sont de deux ordres : 1) le phénomène de la violence politique est saisi dans son fonctionnement pratique et théorique ; les premières vérités, à la suite d’une enquête approfondie, apparaissent sur cette période troublée. 2) la mise en relation contrastive, les analyses lexicale et thématique révèlent avec quel substrat les journaux construisent leurs dires. / Between 1979 and 1989, the region covering the French West Indies and Guyana, and in particular Guadeloupe, experienced a decade of violence. 284 bomb attacks were committed in these countries, i.e. slightly more than 10% of the 2,616 attacks carried out throughout French territory between 1973 and 1980. Two “terrorist” organizations successively claimed responsibility for these acts of violence: the Liberation Army Group (G.L.A.) and the Caribbean Revolutionary Alliance. The aim of this “armed struggle” was to “incite” the French government to grant national independence to its last strongholds in the West Indies and South America. This dissertation, entitled “How the written press dealt with the political violence in Guadeloupe between 1979 and 1989”, focuses on questioning the discursive strategy implemented by national and regional newspapers for reporting the violence in a country where a political theory on assimilation was brought into play. In its first part, this work, which is based on the actantial model, concentrates on highlighting the major phases in the “departmentalization” formula, which imposed itself over time as the political framework that would be used to regulate public life in overseas departments. In its second part, it emphasizes in detail the long historic process which led to the aforementioned violent events. These are analyzed in the third part through a contrastive study of the reference daily – Le Monde, with the nationalistic newspaper – the Journal Guadeloupéen and by analyzing the content. The results of this work are twofold: 1) the phenomenon of political violence is addressed in its theoretical and practical functioning; following an in-depth enquiry, the basic truths are brought to the fore for this troubled period. 2) the contrastive relationship, the lexical and thematic analysis uncovers the “substance” used by the newspapers for establishing their claims.

DR Congo has experienced more than two decades of conflict and profound political upheaval, sparking humanitarian crises which have seen large-scale relief efforts to alleviate them. Aid workers and UN staff working there have been caught up in the violence, sometimes with deadly results and major disruption to aid operations. Nonetheless there has been a tendency to assume that most security incidents involving aid workers are a result either of pure criminality, or because the victims happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Is that really the case however, or are humanitarian workers perceived as political actors, and thus vulnerable to politically motivated violence? This dissertation conducts an empirical data study of attacks against humanitarian actors, UN workers and peacekeepers between 2006-2018, mapping them against political developments. Following previous work by Hoelscher, Mikllian & Nygard, this research tests what impact the nature of the conflict or the change of peacekeeping mandate has on both aid-worker and UN personnel security, as well as exploring the different risks faced by national and international staff working for international NGOs. It also, using an interpretivist lens first proposed by Labonte & Edgerton, explores the role of the Congolese state in aid-worker security, testing whether relations between the host government and aid providers can impact individual aid-worker security on the ground. The results indicate that both conflict intensity and elections cycles could impact on rates of attacks against aid-workers, as well as clearly demonstrating that national staff are far more exposed to risk of attack, and that fatalities of UN staff since the peacekeeping mission (MONUSCO) in DRC received its more aggressive mandate in 2013 have risen sharply. The research also raises questions about the potential threat posed by the Congolese state to aid-worker security, given the nature of statehood in DRC, its motives and perceptions of aid operations, and the state’s role as both the main belligerent and security provider in zones where humanitarian workers chiefly operate.

<p>The first of the dual purposes of this work has been to describe the research that has been done regarding the root causes of terrorism and second, using a general causal theory and examining the political dimensions of it, to discuss whether or not general causal theories (grand-theories) are helpful for researchers and policy-makers when reacting to social developments in the form of terrorism. The essay is a qualitative literature analysis and I have based my studies on mostly new books treating root causes of terrorism. I have concentrated on discussing international terrorism and how political dimensions may impact the occurence of this form of political violence. The conclusions I have made is that there is no widespread consensus among researchers and scholars as to what really causes terrorism. Neither can the general model examined in chapter 5 be used to predict when and where terrorism will occur next. The author of the model says that different types of political systems may act as catalysts for terrorism, although some democracys are targeted by terrorists and some are not. That strongly indicates to me that there is no strong causality between type of political system and terrorism, at least not between type of political system and international terrorism.</p><p>The above leads me to believe that there is no way of constructing a grand-theory that can explain all occurence of terrorism. There will always be factors that cannot be charted and that no one can predict. If one were to continue mapping the political factors that catalyst terrorism one would do well by looking at the relationship between policy and the occurence of terrorism. What political factors do the countries that have been attacked have in common?</p><p>Instead of trying to manufacture grand-theories explaining why terrorism occurs I conclude that researchers and scholars studying the political causes of terrorism ought to approach terrorismstudies in an intense empirical way, analyzing specific cases in depth. Policy-makers would also be better off analyzing the specific political factors of their time and geographical location rather than trying to adopt a view that all terrorism can be charted and prevented in a universal way.</p>

This project explores the intersection of postwar German history, visual art, and left-wing terrorism. More than thirty years have now passed since the German Red Army Faction’s (1970-1998) most spectacular violent campaign—the so-called “German Autumn” of 1977—and yet the organization continues to elicit a variety of cultural responses from many artists. Interestingly, many films, texts, and visual artworks featuring the Red Army Faction (RAF) as their subject focus heavily on the group’s charismatic founders and on the German state’s vigorous efforts to suppress them and their successors, and yet these works pay comparatively scant attention to the individuals whom the RAF murdered. In light of this observation, I argue that the German Left’s cultural memory of the RAF was and still is marked not only by a significant ambivalence concerning the RAF (especially the founders) and the German state, but also the victims. As a means of elucidating this ambivalence, I offer close “readings” of two works of visual art that debuted at different moments in the years following the German Autumn. Gerhard Richter’s October 18, 1977 (1988) is a photorealist series that invites viewers to consider the lives and especially the deaths of the RAF’s principal members, while Hans-Peter Feldmann’s photo compilation The Dead 1967-1993 (1998) presents a sobering chronology of individuals killed either directly or indirectly as a result of the German leftist counterculture, including terrorist violence, without making an immediate distinction between perpetrators and victims. Within the framework of the larger RAF cultural memory, the works of Richter and Feldmann thus help clarify some of the causes and effects of the German Left’s suspended resolution regarding RAF terrorism. / text