Civilian Agency in anti-Civilian Violence

Abstract

This panel aspires to draw on the overlap between the literature on communal violence and broader political violence approaches. Recent work has focused on the strategic logic of insurgent targeting of civilians, emphasising competition for resources, territorial control and pre-existing cleavages. Arguably such approaches fail to sufficiently account for civilian agency both as victims and perpetrators of political violence. Inter-ethnic and sectarian riots are often carried out by civilians at the behest of armed groups or states. The downplaying of civilian agency in the perpetration of anti-civilian violence bolsters the interpretation of defenceless civilians when numerous instances of civilian mobilisation to counter armed groups or pre-empt collective violence confirm that civilian agency can serve as a counter-veiling force to violence. This panel will address a number of key questions: How can we understand the status of civilians in instances of insurgent and communal violence? Are insurgent – civilian distinctions useful in disaggregating collective violence? At what point does civilian resistance to or participation in armed groups and militias render them no longer civilians? Under what conditions can civilian mobilisation – violent or non-violent – prevent or inhibit violence against civilians?

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