Exiting violence – SoV

Since September 11, 2001, “radicalization” has become a category and major topic of public and scientific debate in the Anglo-Saxon world. The same applies to France, particularly since the January and September 2015 attacks. But as soon as we turn our attention towards political and geographical areas less concerned by radical Islamism, the very term “radicalization” does not seem to fit anymore. Hence we will consider extreme violence in other contexts and with other political and religious features.
Violence, in all its shapes and outcomes, has always been a major field of social science research. This, however, does not apply to exiting violence, even more if we give this notion a wider meaning that goes beyond the simple ending, definite or temporary, of a process of violence and includes collective (e.g. State related) as well as individual (e.g. the healing of psychological traumas) dimensions. Just as violent radicalism must not be reduced to jihadism, exiting violence is not limited to the process of “de-radicalization”.
As part of the platform Violence and exiting violence, the Observatory of radicalization and the Observatory of exiting violence are collaborating since 2015 to understand radicalization not simply as self-inflicted deterioration, but rather as a process involving numerous factors and configurations external to the radicalized subject. In a dynamic, multidimensional and transversal approach, this project seeks to compare experiences of extreme violence and of exiting violence located in different geographical areas, in order to put forward an understanding of contemporary developments by combining multidisciplinary approaches (political sociology, anthropology, law, diplomacy) and by avoiding “methodological nationalism” and the usual theoretical and geographical compartmentalization.
The team will work in an effort to converge issues, fields and tasks determined beforehand. Various fields (Latin America with the guerillas and cartels; Africa with the militias, civil wars and genocides, Europe with terror attacks, jihadist radicalization but also the Basque independence movement; the Middle East with Daesh) will be compared according to the identified thematic approaches and a common methodology (individual interviews, participants’ observations, analysis of official reports, video and social media analysis, etc.), leading to a deeper understanding of the patterns of and reasons for radical and violent mobilization. This multi-level typology will range from the individual to the global level without under- or overestimating the protagonists’ national and local peculiarities, and will be complemented by cross-cutting research on other armed conflicts. This comparative perspective and original methodology across geographical contexts, analytical levels and stakeholders is intended to bring forward useful insight for policy makers, researchers and experts.
Four cross-cutting issues have been identified:
1/ From subjective experience to collective commitment
2/ From radicalization to violent action
3/ How to exit violence (or avoid it right from the start) ?
4/ Kinship and social networks