The Sociology of War and Violence

by Sinisa Malesevic

Overview

War is a highly complex and dynamic form of social conflict. This new book demonstrates the importance of using sociological tools to understand the changing character of war and organised violence.

The author offers an original analysis of the historical and contemporary impact that coercion and warfare have on the transformation of social life, and vice versa. Although war and violence were decisive components in the formation of modernity most analyses tend to shy away from the sociological study of the gory origins of contemporary social life. In contrast, this book brings the study of organised violence to the fore by providing a wide-ranging sociological analysis that links classical and contemporary theories with specific historical and geographical contexts.

Topics covered include:

violence before modernity

warfare in the modern age

nationalism and war

war propaganda

battlefield solidarity

war and social stratification

gender and organised violence

The new wars debate

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521731690
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	08/31/2010
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	376
Product dimensions:	6.80(w) x 9.60(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Siniša Malešević is Senior Lecturer in the School of Political Science and Sociology at the National University of Ireland, Galway. He has written and edited many books, chapters and journal articles including Ernest Gellner and Contemporary Social Thought (with Mark Haugaard, Cambridge, 2007), Identity as Ideology: Understanding Ethnicity and Nationalism (2006) and The Sociology of Ethnicity (2004).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments x

Introduction: war, violence and the social 1

The cumulative bureaucratisation of coercion 5

Centrifugal idcologisation 8

The plan of the book 11

Part I Collective violence and sociological theory

1 War and violence in classical social thought 17

Introduction 17

The 'holy trinity' and organised violence 18

The bellicose tradition in classical social thought 28

The contemporary relevance of bellicose thought 45

2 The contemporary sociology of organised violence 50

Introduction 50

The sources of violence and warfare: biology, reason or culture? 51

Organisational materialism: war, violence and the state 70

From coercion to ideology 79

Conclusion 84

Part II War in time and space

3 War and violence before modernity 89

Introduction 89

Collective violence before warfare 90

War and violence in antiquity 92

War and violence in the medieval era 102

The institutional seeds of early modernity: war, violence and the birth of discipline 109

Conclusion 116

4 Organised violence and modernity 118

Introduction 118

Modernity and violence: an ontological dissonance? 119

The cumulative bureaucratisation of coercion 120

The centrifugal ideologisation of coercion 130

War and violence between ideology and social organisation 141

Conclusion 145

5 The social geographies of warfare 146

Introduction 146

The old world 147

The new world 165

Conclusion 174

Part III Warfare: ideas and practices

6 Nationalism and war 179

Introduction 179

Warfare and group homogeneity 180

The structural origins of national 'solidarity' 191

Conclusion 200

7 War propaganda and solidarity 202

Introduction 202

War propaganda 203

Killing, dying and micro-level solidarity 219

Conclusion 232

Part IV War, violence and social divisions

8 Social stratification, warfare and violence 237

Introduction 237

Stratification without collective violence? 238

Stratification through war and violence 242

Warfare and the origins of social stratification 252

Justifying social hierarchies 264

Conclusion 273

9 Gendering of war 275

Introduction 275

The innate masculinity of combat? 276

Cultural givens? 284

The patriarchal legacy? 288

Gender, social organisation and ideology 295

Conclusion 307

Part V Organised violence in the twenty-first century

10 New wars? 311

Introduction 311

The new-wars paradigm 312

The sociology of new warfare 315

Warfare between the nation-state and globalisation 319

The objectives of contemporary wars 324

What is old and what is new? 329

Conclusion 332

References 336

Index 359

Editorial Reviews

"With its combination of theoretical acumen and historical insights, this book is a significant step forward in the reintegration of war into the sociological canon. Both students and experienced scholars will appreciate Malesevic's perspectives on how war made us who we are."
Miguel A. Centeno, Professor of Sociology and International Affairs, Princeton University

"This is a major contribution, at once a survey of key intellectual fields (sociological theory, the history of war understood in comparative terms and an analysis of the key social variables involved) and a major piece of innovation, based a powerful appreciation of ideological and bureaucratic development. There is no better book on the subject."
John A. Hall, James McGill Professor of Sociology, McGill University

"An incisive examination of the theoretical literature on warfare and violence. Lucid and wide-ranging, this will be an invaluable guide to scholars and students."
John Hutchinson, Reader in Nationalism, Department of Government, London School of Economics and Political Science

"Malesevic ranges with authority and intelligence over the major debates concerning war in human societies past and present, arguing powerfully and provocatively for a theory centred on social organization and ideology. This is easily the best general account of the Sociology of War."
Michael Mann, Professor of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles

"...at once powerful social theory and excellent comparative-historical sociology." - Liliana Riga, University of Edinburgh; Canadian Journal of Sociology

"Siniša Malešević's comprehensive work combines an impressive collection of theoretical insights with a sweeping review of violence, warfare, and coercion throughout the ages." -Erica Chenowet, Perspectives on Politics

From the Publisher