Forms of Political Violence: A Sociospatial Relational Approach

• In Event: 337 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Paper Session. Protest and Violence

Abstract

In this article, we analyze the various forms of political violence used by particular types of armed groups and categorize them on the basis of patterns of socio-spatial relationships, which leads us to ideal-typically distinguish three main forms of political violence: clandestine, semi-clandestine, and territorially-based. This is a theoretical article that draws upon past and more recent works on the spatiality of contentious politics and on the relationship between armed groups and their social constituencies. It proposes a conceptual framework which it illustrates and further develops based on four case studies of episodes of violent conflict. These case studies trace trajectories of shifting forms of political violence, from one type of armed group to the other, illustrating the patterns in which different forms of political violence are connected and shift over time and across space. In conclusion, we argue for the utility of a socio-spatial relational approach in studying types of armed groups and qualitative shifts in forms of political violence and call for empirical research that widens our understanding of how alternative socio-spatial relations between armed groups and their social constituencies originate, change and operate in armed conflict situations.

Authors

• Lorenzo Bosi, EUI

• Stefan Malthaner, Aarhus University