The greatest of evils: sociology of civil wars

The Greatest of Evils: Sociology of Civil Wars

Contrary to the widespread belief that confines them to countries of the Global South, civil wars are a universal phenomenon. By challenging the apparent normality of social routines, they reveal the foundations of social order reproduction. Drawing on field research, the author develops a comparative and qualitative approach to contemporary civil wars as violent confrontations between social orders, based on three hypotheses.

First, civil wars are far from being purely internal processes; they are transnational phenomena whose dynamics depend on the constraints, resources, and norms of the international system. Second, the formation of an insurgent social order involves the establishment of new institutions that transform society in its most essential aspects: gender relations, property rights, and group hierarchies. Finally, civil wars create conditions for a transformation in the relationships between habitus, strategy, and reflexivity. The possibilities for establishing strategies are limited due to a high degree of uncertainty, resulting in a proliferation of short-term strategies aimed at avoidance, adaptation, or survival.

Guest Speaker: Gilles Dorronsoro
Gilles Dorronsoro is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and a specialist in contemporary Afghanistan and Turkey. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Sociology from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. He is also co-founder of the European Journal of Turkish Studies and the South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal.