LECTURES05/06

authorisation

incidental space

SPACES OF VIOLENCE

MOMENTS OF VIOLENCE

LICENCE

direct order

institutional spaceinvisible space exhortation

breakdown

of order

violent outburst 2

authority

experimentscatalyst

MODERNITY

obedience

zimbardo

milgram

hofling

L05-06 L07L04

perpetrators

agency

structure

bystanders

heroic helpers

case-study 1:

ottomans & armenians

L08

authoritarian personality

authorisation

incidental space

SPACES OF VIOLENCE

MOMENTS OF VIOLENCE

LICENCE

direct order

institutional spaceinvisible space exhortation

breakdown

of order

violent outburst 3

authority

experimentscatalyst

MODERNITY

obedience

zimbardo

milgram

hofling

L05-06 L07L04

perpetrators

agency

structure

heroic helpers

case-study 1:

ottomans & armenians

L08

bystanders

authoritarian personality

authorisation

incidental space

SPACES OF VIOLENCE

MOMENTS OF VIOLENCE

LICENCE

direct order

institutional spaceinvisible space exhortation

breakdown

of order

violent outburst 4

authority

experimentscatalyst

MODERNITY

obedience

zimbardo

milgram

hofling

L05-06 L07L04

perpetrators

agency

structure

bystanders

heroic helpers

case-study 1:

ottomans & armenians

L08

authoritarian personality

LICENCE

5

/ L05

6

LICENCE as CATALYST

STEREOTYPES PREJUDICESAG

GRAV

ATIO

N

CATALYST

/ L05

LICENCE: agency v structure

7

Types and functions: an overview

AUTHORITY

ORDER EXHORTATION

DELEGATIONAPPROPRIATION

ESCALATIONnon-hierarchical environmenthierarchical environment

OPEN-ENDED v MANAGEDINDIVIDUAL &

COLLECTIVE AGENCY

/ L05

8

AUTHORITY

Who (and when) is an ‘authority figure’?

/ L05

AGENCY & STRUCTURE

10

AGENCY v STRUCTURE

Agency: human capacity for

independent reflection and action

Structure: the complex environment of

values, relations, and practices in which we

live

/ L05

‘ordinary people’ or brutal perpetrators?

12

‘authoritarian personalities’

Theodor Adorno, author of the book based on the F-scle study

Are there people more prone to the allure of authority than others?

/ L05

13

The ‘Goldhagen-Browning’ debate‘Police battalions’ in the Nazi-occupied areas: ‘ordinary’ or not?

/ L05

14

The auxiliary police in the Nazi-occupied east

Nazi recruitment from the local population in the Soviet Union (1941-43)

/ L05

RECRUITMENT PARTICIPATION IN ATROCITIES

BRUTALITY BEYOND DUTY

15

BABI YAR, KIEV (1941)In September 1941, in the outskirts of Kiev, Ukraine, Nazis organised a ‘cleansing action’ against the city’s Jews. In the course of a few days, 33000 Jews were brutally murdered. Local paramilitary formations played a crucial role in the operation

/ L05

16

The attack on jews in ww2 romania

“...This is the hour when we are masters on our territory. Let it be used! I do not mind if history judges us barbarians. ... If need be, shoot with machine guns, and I say that there is no law. We shall make special laws but in no way desist in the face of legal dispositions which we could introduce today and be the first to violate tomorrow. Therefore, without any formalities, complete freedom! I take full legal responsibility and I tell you, there is no law...”

ION ANTONESCUDictator of Romania, 1941

/ L05

17

BERLIN WALL1961-1989Military guards carrying ‘orders’ - are they responsible for their victims?

/ L05

18

SABRA & SHATILA, beirut, lebanon

/ L05

WALTZ WITH BASHIRanimated film chronicling the events of the massacre in the sabra & shatila refugee camps in beirut, 1982

MassakerINTERVIEWS WITH THE MARONITE MILITIA THAT TOOK PART IN THE OPERATION IN SABRA & SHATILA, BEIRUT

THE ‘BANALITY OF EVIL’?

ADOLF EICHMANN

/ L05

Adolf Eichmann at his trial in Jerusalem in 1961. He was sentenced to death and executed in 1962.

THE ‘PRISON EXPERIMENT’

Philip Zimbardo, the man behind the Prison Experiment 23

The much-debated example of the Guantanamo Bay US camp is also

extremely relevant in this discussion. Notice how Guantanamo is ‘exceptional’

both as a detention facility and as location (on the island of Cuba)

Abu Ghraib prison made headlines in 2006, when a group of US soldiers was caught on video subjecting the

Iraqi prisoners to dehumanising treatment and torture.

/ L05

24

THE PRISON/ L05

/ L05-06

SUMMARY

Structure matters: long-term prejudices, emotions, cultural practices can make the difference

Violence erupts in the short term - there and then -, and the catalysts can be found in these precise spaces and moments

‘Ordinary people’ can become perpetrators (and they often do), depending on the circumstances. Very few are ‘born’ violent and brutal. The rest join in having negotiated a state of ‘cognitive dissonance’. In these circumstances, ‘licence’ is crucial. 25