Citation

Lefranc S. Int. Soc. Sci. J. 2002; 54(174): 453-461.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2002, UNESCO, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/1468-2451.00399

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The issue of the researcher's relationship with the subject of ‘extreme violence’ is approached here from the point of view not of subjective motivations, but of the scientific rule of distanc-ing which, in the absence of specific epistemo-logical recommendations, seems to apply in this case as in others. At times of ‘exit’ from violence, when a repressive authoritarian regime is replaced by a democratic government, the ‘right Distance’ of the researcher has particular consequences: it may coincide with the tenets of governmental ‘reconciliation’ policies, in particular the injunction to victims to weigh their demands against the need for pacification in the general interest. This convergence - which does not necessarily involve collusion - shows how difficult it is to find the right stance towards the subject of ‘violence’: epistemological rules cannot be dissociated from a particular political context and from a social relationship with violence, and may thus have normative implications.