Our violent world : terrorism in society / Kevin McDonald.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McDonald, Kevin, 1955-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Terrorism--Social aspects.

Terrorism.

Violence--Social aspects.

Violence.

Physical Description:

ix 214 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

Summary:

What can the analysis of violence and terror tell us about the modern world? Why is violence often used to achieve religious, cultural or political goals? Can we understand the search for the extreme that increasingly shapes violence today? From 1960s student movements to contemporary global jihad, this text explores the factors and debates shaping violence and terrorism in contemporary society. Each chapter confronts examples of disturbing terrorist acts and events of mass violence from recent history and uses these to examine key questions, theories and concepts surrounding this sensitive and controversial topic. In particular, the book: identifies core tools for the analysis of public violence, explores the processes that mutate social movements into violent groups, describes the cultural, embodied, experiential and imagined dimensions of violence, highlights different periods and varying forms of terrorist violence, examines the role of globalization, media, technology and the visual in violence and terror, Our Violent World shows how the social sciences can contribute to an understanding of violence and responses to terror, as well as the construction of a social world less dominated by fear of the other. It is essential reading for students and citizens. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part 1 Questions and Frameworks

Death in the morning

Terrorism: Key Debates

Part 2 Transitions to Terrorism

The Student Movements of the 1960s

The Palestinian Intifada: from movement to war

Birth of the Jihad

Part 3 Transformations

Globalizing the Jihad: The al-Qaeda mutation

Grammars of Violence: The Mask, Horror and the Extreme

Religious Violence? Christian Identity, Aum Shinrikyo

Mediated Worlds: The Martyrs Video

Part 4 The New Terrorism

A New Paradigm of Violence?

Responding to Terror Today.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780230224735

0230224733

0230224741

9780230224742

OCLC:

502410383