Violence What Is Structural Violence

¶ … Violence

What is structural violence and how can it explain international conflict? The term structural violence is relatively new to the lexicon, having been used in the 1960s by Norwegian sociologist and founder of peace and conflict studies, Professor Johan Galtung. It is a way to explain the systemic ways in which a given social organization harms people by preventing them from meeting their basic needs. It is one way to explain international conflict by helping us understand both cultural violence and the conflict that arises when broad area needs are not met in populations so revolution and war become a potential answer to actualization (Galtung, 1969)

What is the concept of relative deprivation? In political science and sociological terms, relative deprivation is the experience of being actively deprived of something to which one believes they should have -- in other words the feelings of unfairness when one group compares itself to one another and finds itself lacking (Walker & Smith, 2001, intro).

To what extent can we argue that conflict is the result of material need? Within the human condition, we can certainly argue that relative deprivation is a potential cause for social movements and deviance, and, at times those which lead to rioting, terrorism, civil war, or crime. In mild cases, one might steal to eat; in more major cases, groups might get violent over a lack of food or water (basic hierarchical needs). If enough of the population is enraged that they have little when a portion of that population has an overflow, conflict will ensue (Gurr, 1970).

Case Study -- One way to understand the violence that continues to occur in certain nations on the African Continent is to theorize as to both covert and overt causes of deprivation. For instance, violence in the country of Somalia has been ongoing since at least the late 1980s, almost three decades. Clashes between tribes were almost continual, but an actual Civil War escalated to the capital in Mogadishu in 1990, causing the world press to flee and media attention given to the area. Certainly, from the 1980s on, the willingness of the Somalis to rebel may be explained by the general conditions of poverty in the area.