Search

Based on case studies of seven (attempted) lynchings in Pakistan, we argue that they can be considered lynching rituals, which are instrumental in a context of political strife. 'Shrpsnd anasr' (agitators) play an important role as ritual engineers; they assemble crowds by spreading rumours and vocalizing accusations, use rhythmic chanting and slogan repetition to generate a shared vengeful mood and focus the crowd's attention on the (fabricated) encroachment of a moral imperative (notably blasphemy). We conclude that the vengeful effervescence generated in lynching rituals strengthens the clientelistic interdependency networks of religious–political leaders. The contribution of our study lies in demonstrating the importance of bodily practices in lynching rituals and their instrumental political value for both masses and political leaders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The causes of riots have been extensively researched. Comparatively, little is known about how they are prevented from occurring. We address this gap with a qualitative study of the role of formal and informal guardians in Amsterdam in January 2021, when public disorder was widespread across the Netherlands after the government had announced a curfew to curb the spread of the Covid−19 virus. We used CCTV footage of two gatherings that had elements of disorder and two that occurred without them. We also rely on interviews with 40 so-called "intimate handlers" who were present during these gatherings to understand how they managed them. We find that the presence and actions of intimate handlers collaborating with the police during the gatherings, effectuated through frequent affiliative contacts with the crowd, had direct de-escalatory effects, operative because of their well-developed social community bonds: participants in gatherings avoided jeopardizing these bonds of attachment, which also created a more positive image of the police through citizen-police collaborations. Our findings thus stress the importance of social bonds for the effectiveness of riot prevention and we consider practical implications for public disorder and large-scale crowd management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article compares Dutch rural and non-rural adolescents' delinquent behavior and examines two social correlates of rural delinquency: communal social control and traditional rural culture. The analyses are based on cross-sectional data, containing 3,797 participants aged 13-18 (48.7% females). The analyses show that rural adolescents are only slightly less likely to engage in delinquent behavior. Furthermore, while rural adolescents are exposed more often to communal social control, this does not substantially reduce the likelihood that they engage in delinquent behavior. Concerning rural culture, marked differences appeared between rural and non-rural adolescents. First, alcohol use and the frequency of visiting pubs were more related to rural adolescents' engagement in delinquent behavior. Second, the gender gap in delinquency is larger among rural adolescents: whereas rural boys did not differ significantly from non-rural boys, rural girls were significantly less likely to engage in delinquent behavior than non-rural girls. However, the magnitude of the effects of most indicators was rather low. To better account for the variety of rural spaces and cultures, it is recommended that future research into antisocial and criminal behavior of rural adolescents should adopt alternative measurements of rurality, instead of using an indicator of population density only. (Contains 3 tables.)

The past decades saw a rise in internationalised education in Europe. Based on case studies at Dutch schools, I argue that the introduction of this type of education can be understood by the increased need for schools to adapt to the social reproduction strategies of privileged social classes. School managers regard internationalised streams as a way to counter a decline of pupils or as a strategy to improve an already secure position. In both cases, they resisted protesting staff in their efforts to establish an exclusive image of their internationalised stream. I argue that school managers' inclination to emphasise the exclusive and "high-quality" profile of their internationalised streams and their propensity to celebrate the abilities of their pupils stem from their competitive engagement with local education markets. (Contains 2 tables.)

This articles deals with the question why Dutch upper-middle-class parents resort to fee-paying private education, a tiny, recently developed sector of the Dutch educational system. The research is based on interviews with 37 parents and 20 students attending private schools, and on a survey among 376 parents involved in private schooling. From the data is concluded that 'lack of discipline' is the main reason for parents and students alike to choose a private school. Failing to succeed in secondary school lessens the chances of reproduction of parental class position. Analysis of the interviews shows that the parental style of upbringing, marked by negotiation and mutual consent, can make it difficult to acquire the discipline that is needed to follow a successful educational career. Moreover, parents criticize the regular schools for their lack of discipline on the one hand, attention to individual needs on the other. The private schools, characterized by strict rules, permanent supervision, and intense engagement with students, take over the discipline neither parents nor regular schools can provide. In that way, students are able to qualify for tertiary education, needed to ward off future downward mobility.

Situational Breakdowns: Understanding Protest Violence and Other Surprising Outcomes By Anne Nassauer (Oxford University Press, 2019) Anne Nassauer has embarked on an ambitious project: to identify the causal pathways that lead up to collective interpersonal violence in normally peaceful protest marches. The "missing information path" generates this emotional state via spatial incursions, escalation signs and communication problems between protesters and the police. Here Anne Nassauer identifies three interactional trajectories toward violence, which primarily revolve around the arousal of tension and fear - the central concept of the book. [Extracted from the article]

This contribution offers a new theory of vigilante violence: vigilante rituals theory. We argue that vigilante violence originates from fear, righteous anger, and retaliatory punitive desire that stems from violations of moral imperatives, which are Durkheimian sacred values. We argue that morally outraged people transform their fear and anger into violent action through mobilization and bodily alignment in vigilante rituals. These rituals can restore the integrity of moral imperatives and generate the unity of the in-group. Further, we propose the following variable socio-legal conditions that affect the likelihood for vigilante rituals to occur: legal legitimacy, an exposure to violence, and authorities' encouragement of (violent) self-help. We conclude by noting how the theory advances prevailing explanations and how it can be used in future empirical research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We seek to understand collective third-party intervention in violent incidents. Based on analyses of 131 video clips captured on mobile phones, we argue that bodily alignment between bystanders creates situational groups that encourage collective de-escalatory action. Qualitative analysis reveals that third parties generate situational groups when they create circular formations, providing greater opportunities to notice each other's monitoring of the situation while separating those focused on the incident from others just passing by. Statistical analysis shows that the formation of situational groups facilitates the collectivization of de-escalatory action. In contrast to popular but outdated ideas about the dangerous influence of assemblies on individual behaviour (allegedly leading to disorder or apathy), our findings emphasize the self-regulatory, defusing capacity of gatherings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This study investigates the experiences of social workers with tense and threatening situations in homeless shelters of the Salvation Army in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Clients intimidated and threatened social workers verbally, damaged property and, in some cases, physically assaulted them. The study is based on qualitative analyses of 18 interviews. Findings: Social workers reported that such situations have intense emotional, bodily and mental impact. Their main concern is to manage overwhelming bodily manifestations of fear and tension to maintain work-related comportment. We demonstrate that social workers use emotion/body work in their attempts to control their own and their clients' emotions. We also found that social workers' emotion/body work is informed and supported by feeling rules that revolve around their identity as professionals. Being a professional social worker means to be in control of the situation and to regard the aggression and violence of clients from a distanced, sociologized perspective. Finally, social workers note the longer term emotional consequences of their experiences, but also of their emotion/body work, in the sense that some of them become habituated to violence. Applications: The study concludes that more systematic attention should be given to the 'emotion/body' work of social workers who are exposed to tense and threatening situations, in both academic studies and current prevention policies and practices. While the former tend to offer a disembodied view of work place violence, the latter do not give sufficient attention to sharing and reflection on the emotional and bodily experiences among social workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the interview in this article, Randall Collins discusses various aspects of his oeuvre. First, he considers why interaction rituals (IRs) in religion are special emotional transformers. This is followed by a discussion of IRs in the digital age and the symbolic and economic power that is required to orchestrate IRs in politics and revolutions. Then comes a discussion of social scientific research into violence, in the past and more recently. The interview continues with a reflection on the notion of attention space, a concept which Collins has applied in analyses of violent interactions and the intellectual struggles between philosophers. Finally, the article considers the state of the art of sociology and its future prospects, evaluating its potential for rapid discovery and its position on the abstraction-reflexivity continuum. As the interview demonstrates Collins’s insightful sociological craftsmanship, it provides social scientists with a strong and optimistic lead in how to do social theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]