Contentious Locations and Spaces of Violence

Abstract

This panel examines local spaces as crucial sites of struggle and contention in situations of political violence. National projects and state power often face locally-concentrated resistance while locally-concentrated solidarities and symbolically important locations can provide resources and a focus for militant opposition. This panel examines the interplay between local spaces, local identities and local forces on the one hand and sources of state authority on the other in explaining patterns of violence and the dynamics of struggles to claim and master local spaces.