Structural Violence & Militarism--Can You See Them At Work?

BEYOND INVISIBILITY~

(See the 'Structural Violence' post below!) For more information and a wonderful glossary related to 'Structural Violence' from a site dedicated to the work of Paul Farmer go to this link.

Make a meaningful effort, prior to turning in your final project to scan your work for:

• Calling out unexamined privilege in the narratives of your project
• Calling out the unexamined/normatized structural violence embedded within the systems of oppression you are researching
• Examining key aspects of militarism infecting the problem you are researching.

Good luck!
M.Tamez

P.S. (Hint: Barbara Chasin's book is required reading for answering each of these, and the definitions of structural violence embedded within the post below are essential to take these to task in your own final draft.)

Structural Violence--Beyond Invisibility

Structural Violence, is a theory which was developed by Norwegian sociologist, Johan Galtung.

This theory is a foundational analysis for serious students of critical intersectional race class gender sexuality studies, critical race studies, gender studies, ethnic studies, migration and diaspora studies, indigenous studies, queer studies, disability studies, and genocide studies.

"Organized armed conflict in various parts of the world is easily traced to structured inequalities. Northern Ireland, for example, has been marked by economic disparities between Northern Irish Catholics-- who have higher unemployment rates and less formal education--and Protestants (Cairns & Darby, 1998). In Sri Lanka, youth unemployment and underemployment exacerbates ethnic conflict (Rogers, Spencer & Uyangoda, 1998). In Rwanda, huge disparities between the Hutu and Tutsies eventually led to ethnic massacres.

While structural violence often leads to direct violence, the reverse is also true, as brutality often terrorizes bystanders, who then become unwilling or unable to confront social injustice. Increasingly, civilians pay enormous costs of war through death and devastation of neighborhoods and ecosystems. Ruling elites rarely suffer from armed conflict as much as civilian populations do, who endure decades of poverty and disease in war-torn societies."

Copyright 1999 Deborah DuNann Winter and Dana Leighton