Ways out of Violence. An Outstanding Work for the Human and Social Sciences

Abstract

The analysis of violence is a broad field of human and social sciences in which almost all of their paradigms can be differentiated, and are even opposed. Together with the paradigm of religion –which in fact is not precisely strange to violence-, it constitutes a central epistemic register, one of the main concerns of research in these areas. Leaving violence is far less examined than violence in itself. It constitutes a political, juridical and ethical concern, almost always practical and concrete, even applied. Examining the way out violence demands working simultaneously in several domains. This article focuses on the analysis of the ways out of social or political violence –even geopolitical- when it has been extremely deadly, mainly expressed as genocide, mass massacres, civil war or terrorism. We shall leave aside symbolic violence, criminal or delinquent violence –though often all may be embedded or may seem indistinguishable- usually favored by civil war, guerrilla or terror contexts, so that in many contemporary experiences it has become impossible to sever organized crime from political violence.