Political Violence in Context

Context is crucial to understanding the causes of political violence and the form it takes. This book examines how time, space and supportive milieux decisively shape the pattern and pace of political violence. While much of the work on political violence focuses on individual psychology or radical ideology, this book takes a fresh and innovative look at the importance of context in generating mobilisation and shaping patterns of violence. The cases dealt with in the book range widely across space and time, from Asia, Africa and Europe to the Americas, and from the Irish rebellion of 1916 through the Marxist insurgency of Sendero Luminoso to the ‘Invisible Commando’ of Cote d’Ivoire. They encompass a wide range of types of violence, from separatist guerrillas through Marxist insurgents and Islamist militants to nationalist insurrectionists and the distinctive forms of urban violence that have emerged at the boundary between crime and politics. The book offers new theoretical perspectives on the decisive importance of the spatial and temporal contexts and supportive milieux in which parties to conflict are embedded, and from which they draw strength.

Author Biography

Lorenzo Bosi is Assistant Professor at the Scuola Normale Superiore. His research interests include social movements and political violence. He has published in several academic journals and is co-editor of Dynamics of Political Violence (Ashgate, 2014), and co-author of The Dynamics of Radicalization: A Relational Comparative Perspective (Oxford University Press, 2015). He is chair of the standing group on Political Violence of the European Consortium of Political Research. Niall O Dochartaigh is Senior Lecturer in the School of Political Science and Sociology at the National University of Ireland Galway. He worked previously as a research officer with the International Conflict Research Centre of the University of Ulster and the United Nations University. He has published on conflict, negotiation, territory and new technologies in a range of journals and is the author of two books: From Civil Rights to Armalites: Derry and the birth of the Irish Troubles (Cork 1997; Palgrave 2005) and Internet Research Skills (Sage 2002; 2007; 2012) and co-editor of Political Violence in Context: Space, Time, Milieu (ECPR Press 2015, in press). He is convener of the Specialist Group on Peace and Conflict of the Political Studies Association of Ireland and a founding convener of the ECPR Standing Group on Political Violence. Further information is available at niallodoc.wordpress.com. Niall O Dochartaigh is Senior Lecturer in the School of Political Science and Sociology at the National University of Ireland Galway. He worked previously as a research officer with the International Conflict Research Centre of the University of Ulster and the United Nations University. He has published on conflict, negotiation, territory and new technologies in a range of journals and is the author of two books: From Civil Rights to Armalites: Derry and the birth of the Irish Troubles (Cork 1997; Palgrave 2005) and Internet Research Skills (Sage 2002; 2007; 2012) and co-editor of Political Violence in Context: Space, Time, Milieu (ECPR Press 2015, in press). He is convener of the Specialist Group on Peace and Conflict of the Political Studies Association of Ireland and a founding convener of the ECPR Standing Group on Political Violence. Further information is available at niallodoc.wordpress.com. Daniela Pisoiu is Researcher at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy (IFSH) at the University of Hamburg. She is the author of Islamist Radicalisation in Europe: An Occupational Change Process (Routledge, 2011) and editor of the forthcoming book Arguing Counterterrorism. New Perspectives (Routledge 2014). She currently researches on subcultural aspects of radicalization and political violence in a comparative perspective and is more broadly interested in social movement theory, terrorism and political violence, critical terrorism studies, political extremism and EU and US security policies.