Daniel Bultmann

Das Buch liefert die erste deutschsprachige Einführung in aktuelle Bürgerkriegstheorien der Sozial- und Politikwissenschaften. Als es im Anschluss des Kalten Krieges entgegen aller Erwartungen nicht zu einem Ende der bewaffneten Konflikte und Bürgerkriege kam, sondern in weiten Teilen sogar zu ihrem Erstarken, wurde nach Ursachen der Gewalt gesucht. Und auch heute können sich viele Beobachter nicht des Eindrucks erwehren, dass ganze Regionen im Bürgerkrieg versinken und die Welt von einer Krise in die nächste stürzt. Syrien, Kongo, Ukraine, Zentralafrikanische Republik, Philippinen, Afghanistan, Irak und die Ausbreitung des IS – Kriege scheinen präsenter und gefährlicher denn je. Das Buch liefert einen Überblick über aktuelle Theorien, wie Bürgerkriege entstehen, warum sie fortdauern, wie sie sich mit der Zeit wandeln und warum dabei die Gewalt gegen Zivilisten immer brutaler zu werden scheint. Darüber hinaus führt es in die neueste Forschung zur internen Organisation und Struktur bewaffneter Gruppen ein.

Bürgerkriegstheorien

There are many different types of power practice directed towards making soldiers obedient and disciplined inside the field of insurgency. While some commanders punish by inflicting physical pain, others use re-educative methods. While some prepare soldiers by using close-knit combat simulations, others send their subordinates immediately into battle. While these variations cannot fully be explained by the ideological set-up of different groups or by their political orientation, the basic assumption of the study is that they nevertheless do not emerge at random. This book puts forth that the type of power being utilised depends on the habitus of the respective commander and, as a result, becomes socially differentiated. Furthermore, power practices are shaped by the classificatory discourse of commanders (and their soldiers) on good soldierhood and leadership. The study found multiple ’habitus groups’ inside the field of insurgency, each with a distinctive classificatory discourse and a corresponding power type at work. While commanders shaped the dominating power practices (such as military trainings, indoctrination, systems of rewards and punishments, etc.), low-ranking soldiers took active part in supporting or undermining power according to their own habitus formation. This book helps professionals in this area to understand better the types of power practice inside insurgencies. It is also a useful guide to students and academics interested in peace and conflict studies, sociology and Southeast Asia.

A Sociological Perspective on Civil Wars and Conflict

Inside Cambodian Insurgency

Benjamin Baumann

Challenging the assumption that the capitalist transformation includes a radical break with the past, this edited volume traces how historically older forms of social inequality are transformed but persist in the present to shape the social structure of contemporary societies in the global South. Each social collective comprises an interpretation of itself – including the meaning of life, the concept of a human person, and the notion of a collective. This volume studies the interpretation that various social collectives have of themselves. This interpretation is referred to as social ontology. All chapters of the edited volume focus on the relation between social ontology and structures of inequality. They argue that each society comprises several historical layers of social ontology that correspond to layers of inequality, which are referred to as sociocultures. Thereby, the volume explains why and how structures of inequality differ between contemporary collectives in the global South, even though all of them seem to have similar structures, institutions, and economies. The volume is aimed at academics, students and the interested public looking for a novel theorization of social inequality pertaining to social collectives in the global South.

Daniel Bultmann

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