Political Violence and the Politics of Place

Abstract

This panel sets out to explore how places, and in particular their lived and symbolic aspects, shape – and are shaped by – political violence and responses to political violence. Different types of events, such as riots, violent state repression of dissent, and terrorist attacks, are all likely to occur at sites which are symbolically significant for at least one of the parties in a conflict. The strategic choice of a planned violent action may be related to properties of a specific site, and reactions to transgressions by an opponent can become violent specifically because the actions take place in symbolically significant locations. Yet, by not only attending to explanations of political violence and instead foregrounding outcomes, this panel will bring into attention the interaction between events and their locations. Empirical cases may range from the impact of single events on the meanings and uses of a particular place, to continuous processes such as struggles over spatial significance and/or territorial control. While the panel particularly welcomes empirical papers related to diverse forms of political violence and their impact on places, the general aim is to further develop theoretical links between political violence and concepts like ‘collective memory’ and ‘production of space’.

Title	Details
The Politics of Post-Conflict Space: The Mysterious Case of Missing Graffiti in "Post"-Troubles Northern Ireland	View Paper Details
Deviant Flat Earthers and Residual Terrorist Groups?: Understanding Contemporary Dissident Irish Republicanism in Northern Ireland	View Paper Details
The Urban Poor’s Claims over Land: Between Governmentality, Informal Repression and Assertions of Citizenship. The case of Bangalore, India	View Paper Details