Stateva, Milena Georgieva (2009) Understanding violence: a case study of the approach of practitioners to survivors of violence. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Preview	PDF (Thesis Main Text) WRAP_THESIS_Stateva_2009.pdf - Requires a PDF viewer such as GSview, Xpdf or Adobe Acrobat Reader Download (1396Kb)
Preview	PDF (Fig. 1-2) Fig._1_and_2.pdf - Requires a PDF viewer such as GSview, Xpdf or Adobe Acrobat Reader Download (153Kb)
Preview	PDF (Fig. 3) Fig._3_Organisational_structure.pdf - Requires a PDF viewer such as GSview, Xpdf or Adobe Acrobat Reader Download (67Kb)
Preview	PDF (Fig. 4) Fig._4__Procedures.pdf - Requires a PDF viewer such as GSview, Xpdf or Adobe Acrobat Reader Download (45Kb)
Preview	PDF (Fig. 5) Fig._5_Communication_at_inter-individual_level.pdf - Requires a PDF viewer such as GSview, Xpdf or Adobe Acrobat Reader Download (35Kb)
Preview	PDF (Fig. 6) Fig._6_Communication_at_inter-institutional_level.pdf - Requires a PDF viewer such as GSview, Xpdf or Adobe Acrobat Reader Download (29Kb)
Preview	PDF (Fig. 7) Fig._7_Communication_on_a_social_and_political_level.pdf - Requires a PDF viewer such as GSview, Xpdf or Adobe Acrobat Reader Download (41Kb)
Preview	PDF (Fig. 8-12) Fig._8_-_12_.pdf - Requires a PDF viewer such as GSview, Xpdf or Adobe Acrobat Reader Download (2747Kb)

Abstract

Overcoming actual violence is the driving, although hidden force behind modern modes of thought and investigation, the conceptualisation of civil society since Hobbes, Ferguson and Rousseau, and the unprecedented global effort at preserving human dignity in non-violent politics based on human rights undertaken in the 20th-century. It can even be argued that sociology as a discipline emerged from philosophy precisely as an attempt to contain violence by means of understanding the ways in which people can peacefully co-exist in a society. And yet violence itself is a phenomenon traditionally avoided by sociology. This thesis approaches the issues related to violence through the prism of the ways in which practitioners working in support of survivors endeavour to understand the problem. It is thus a second order critical study of sociological explorations of violence. The thesis begins by mapping the field of sociological exploration of the problem and reviewing the debates related to the theorisation and research of violence. In destabilising the category, the theoretical component of the thesis reveals that the process of understanding violence is a non-linear, always incomplete, and difficult process. The empirical research looks at the approach of practitioners in dealing with the consequent contradictions and ambiguities. Its findings show that in order to link understanding violence and supporting the survivors, one needs to define violence dynamically through the concept of trauma and to build a containing framework in which a holding environment can emerge. The holding environment is presented as a concept, which in practice demonstrates that the understanding employed to address violence is not simply an activity of mind but a social and relational category. This requires re-considering the properties of understanding violence and their linkage with other activities of mind in the social realm and with the practicalities of living. The thesis finishes with a recommendation for further research into the collective aetiology of the trauma derived from violence, for the purposes of designing an approach to sociology based on understanding as a nonviolent response to violence.

Item Type:	Thesis or Dissertation (PhD)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Sociology -- Philosophy, Violence -- Social aspects, Human rights, Victims of violent crimes -- Services for
Date:	May 2009
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Sociology
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Fine, Robert, 1945- ; Fuller, Steve, 1959-
Sponsors:	University of Warwick (UoW) ; Overseas Research Student Awards Scheme ; Open Society Fund (New York)
Format of File:	pdf
Extent:	310 leaves : charts
Language:	eng
URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/2043

Request changes to a record

Actions (login required)

View Item