Citation

Lau U, Seedat MA, Suffla S. Afr. Safety Promot. 2010; 8(2): 1-19.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Institute for Social and Health Sciences, University of South Africa)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In contemporary South Africa, collective violence remains a fundamental feature of the sociopolitical landscape. Sharing common characteristics with other forms of violence, collective violence is driven by specific social factors and is explicitly underpinned by a gendered dimension. In this article, we examine the dominant explanations that have come to define the phenomenon in South Africa, namely collective violence: (i) as a manifestation of social inequality and poverty; (ii) as a manifestation of a "culture of violence" entrenched by a history of militarism; and (iii) as "symptomatic" of historical trauma cultivated by the legacy of apartheid. We argue for a multidimensional analysis of collective violence that considers not only these macro-level explanations, but also their interplay with micro-level processes. In so doing, we also consider the intermediate elements that connect "individual minds" to collective or social processes. In proposing this view, we grant cognisance to an interactive and "continuum" notion of collective violence as a form of participatory citizenship.

Language: en