Control of Violence: Historical and International Perspectives on Violence in Modern Societies

Wilhelm Heitmeyer; Heinz-Gerhard Haupt; Stefan Malthaner; Andrea Kirschner

ISBN 10: 1441903828 / ISBN 13: 9781441903822

Published by Springer, 2011

About this Item

Oversized hardcover, xvi + 622 pages, NOT ex-library. Book is clean and bright throughout with unmarked text, free of inscriptions and stamps, firmly bound. Issued without a dust jacket. Weight: over 1 kg. -- Contents: Part I Introduction -- Control of Violence: An Analytical Framework / Andrea Kirschner & Stefan Malthaner; Part II Mechanisms and Strategies of Violence Control -- An End to Violence / Michel Wieviorka; Cross-National Homicide Trends in the Latter Decades of the Twentieth Century: Losses and Gains in Institutional Control? / Steven F. Messner; Self-Control and the Management of Violence / Charles R. Tittle; Self-Control, Conscience, and Criminal Violence: Some Preliminary Considerations / Helmut Thome; Reading Religious Violence in Terms of Theories of Social Action / Hans G. Kippenberg; Religion and Control of Violence / Levent Tezcan; Gun Violence and Control in Germany 1880?1911: Scandalizing Gun Violence and Changing Perceptions as Preconditions for Firearm Control / Dagmar Ellerbrock; Controlling Control Institutions: Policing of Collective Protests in 1960s West Germany / Klaus Weinhauer; Part III The Micro-level: School Shootings -- School Violence and Its Control in Germany and the United States Since the 1950s / Dirk Schumann; School Shooting: A Double Loss of Control / Nils Böckler; Explaining and Preventing School Shootings: Chances and Difficulties of Control / Rebecca Bondü & Herbert Scheithauer; Masculinity, School Shooters, and the Control of Violence / Ralph W. Larkin; Media and Control of Violence: Communication in School Shootings / Glenn W. Muschert & Massimo Ragnedda; Part IV The Meso-level: Terrorism -- Terrorism as Performance: The Assassinations of Walther Rathenau and Hanns-Martin Schleyer / Bernd Weisbrod; Party Politics, National Security, and Émigré Political Violence in Australia, 1949?1973 / Mate Nikola Tokic; Control of Terror: Terror of Control / Jitka Maleckova; Terrorism: Conditions and Limits of Control / Friedhelm Neidhardt; Fighting for the Community of Believers: Dynamics of Control in the Relationship Between Militant Islamist Movements and their Constituencies / Stefan Malthaner; Baseless Jihad / Khaled Al-Hashimi & Carolin Goerzig; Part V The Macro level: Violence in States in Crisis -- Ethnic Riots in Situations of Loss of Control: Revolution, Civil War, and Regime Change as Opportunity Structures for Anti-Jewish Violence in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Europe / Werner Bergmann; Control and Chaos: Paramilitary Violence and the Dissolution of the Habsburg Empire / Robert Gerwarth; Failed States in Theoretical, Historical, and Policy Perspectives / Jean-Germain Gros; Putting Out the Fire with Gasoline? Violence Control in 'Fragile' States: A Study of Vigilantism in Nigeria / Andrea Kirschner; Concluding Remarks / Heinz-Gerhard Haupt & Wilhelm Heitmeyer; Subject Index -- Modern societies are increasingly confronted with forms of violence that appear unpredictable and uncontrollable. Are the existing control regimes such as police, state surveillance institutions, and legal systems able to effectively contain phenomena such as school shootings, terrorism, or violence in fragile states, and what would help them become more effective? What is the relationship between state rule and self-control in limiting violence? Taking an historically and internationally comparative perspective, the contributors to this innovative book examine these violent phenomena as well as the preconditions and mechanisms of their control. Taking into consideration the fundamentally ambivalent character of control, they explore how institutions and strategies of control retroact on and thus re-shape societies. Moreover, they address general aspects of violence control in modern societies such as the concept of individual self-control, the impact of changing social institutions and the role of religion.

Seller Inventory # 007862

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Control of Violence: Historical and International Perspectives on Violence in Modern Societies
• Publisher: Springer
• Publication Date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1441903828
• ISBN 13: 9781441903822
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Near Fine

About this title

Synopsis

The Control of Violence in Modern Society, starts from the hypothesis that in modern society we will face an increasing loss of control over certain phenomena of violence. This leads to unpredictable escalations and violence can no longer be contained adequately by the relevant control regimes, such as police, state surveillance institutions, national repression apparatuses and international law. However, before investigating this hypothesis from an internationally and historically comparative perspective, the terms and "tools" for this undertaking have to be rendered more precisely. Since both "control" and "violence" are all but clear-cut terms but rather highly debatable and contested concepts that may take multiple connotations. The main question is whether an increase in certain forms of violence can be explained by the failure or, in turn, "overeffectiveness" of certain control mechanisms. It is asked, for instance, which contribution religion can make to limit violence and, in turn, which destructive potential religion might have in its fundamentalist form. Moreover, the concept of individual self-control as well as social institutions and strategies of collective disengagement and de-radicalization are investigated with regard to their potential for controlling violence.

The Control of Violence in Modern Society concludes with a re-examination of the hypothesis of a loss of control by specifying in what cases and under which circumstances we can speak of a loss of control over violence.

About the Author

Wilhelm Heitmeyer (Dr. phil.) is Professor of Socialization and Director of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence at Bielefeld University. His research interests concentrate on violence, social disintegration, right-wing extremism, and ethnic-cultural conflicts. His publications include International Handbook of Violence Research (co-edited with John Hagan); Rechtsextremistische Orientierungen bei Jugendlichen [Right-Wing Extremism Among Young People] (1987); Gewalt [Violence] (1995); Bedrohte Stadtgesellschaften [Urban Societies Under Threat] (co-edited with Reimund Anhut) (2000). He is Editor-in Chief of the International Journal of Conflict and Violence (with D. Massey et al.). He is organizer of the international research group "Control of Violence" at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF), Bielefeld University (with Heinz Gerhard-Haupt/ Bielefeld, Florence). Heinz-Gerhard Haupt (Dr. phil.) is Professor of Social History at Bielefeld University and Head of the department of history and civilization at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. His work focuses on social History and political History of Modern Europe, Methodology of Comparative History. His current research projects encompass History of Political Violence in 19th and 20th Century Europe, History of Consumption in 19th and 20th Century Europe, History of Social Movements and Classes: The First of May in Europe after 1945, Comparative History of European Nationalism: Nation and Religion in 19th and 20th Century. Recent publications include Neue Politikgeschichte [New political history](with Ute Frevert, eds.) (2005); Exklusion und Partizipation [Exclusion and particpiation] (with C. Gusy, Eds.); Terrorismus in der Bundesrepublik: Medien, Staat und Subkulturen in den 1970er Jahren [Terrorism in the Federal Republic ofGermany: Media, state, and subcultures] (with K. Weinhauer and J. Requate, Eds.) (2006). He is organizer of the international research group "Control of Violence" at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF), Bielefeld University (with Wilhelm Heitmeyer/ Bielefeld).