The Making of Terrorism

In this innovative study, Michel Wieviorka applies interventionist sociology to a comparative analysis of Italian, Peruvian, Basque, and Middle Eastern terrorist groups. Through staged confrontations between terrorists and their targets, and extensive interviews with both parties, he throws new light on the terrorists and their relationships both to the movements they represent and the social institutions they attempt to destroy.Wieviorka demonstrates that the truly terrorist actor has become alienated both from the collective movement and society. The actor turns to the blind violence when he finds himself cut off from the very ideology which legitimates his actions. Pure terrorism, Wieviorka concludes, is more than simply a break between those who use it and those it targets; it is also a relationship—between the individual and the collective he represents—which has been rendered unrealistic or artificial. Thus, terrorist violence should be understood not as the desperate act of a faltering movement but as a substitute for a movement which has fallen away from the ideology in which it was forged.For the revelations it offers on the roots and motivations of terrorism, for its innovative methods, and for its useful comparative analysis of terrorist groups in recent history, The Making of Terrorism will be an important resource across many disciplines for anyone interested in terrorism or political violence.

Politics & Social Sciences

Wieviorka, Michel

Social Sciences

University of Chicago Press

Revised and reissued in light of recent events, this classic and now increasingly important book is an exception in the literature on terrorism. Based on complex observations of actual movement participants, Wieviorka's book addresses a broad spectrum of terrorist activity—from Italian left-wing terrorists to Basque nationalist groups to the international terrorism of Palestine and the Middle East. The result is an incisive analysis of what terrorists believe and what they hope to achieve through their actions. For this new edition, Wieviorka adds new material that remaps the state of terrorism after the events of 2001.

History

Americas

This 1983 book records a fascinating analysis of the Solidarity movement in Poland. Alain Touraine here proposes an understanding of the place of social movements in contemporary society, and a fresh means of analysing them through 'sociological intervention'. In 1981 he and a team of researchers applied these research methods to the Solidarity movements. Groups of Solidarity activists were involved in a discourse over the nature and aims of their political and economic struggle. What emerges is a record of exceptional value in understanding the movement which transformed Polish society, placed firmly in the terms of the Solidarity activists' own understanding of their role, but equally relating this role to a broad analysis of the social structures of eastern Europe. This reflection on forty years of Communist regimes in Europe will appeal to a wide readership interested in Solidarity and Poland.

Solidarity: The Analysis of a Social Movement: Poland 1980–1981

TOURAINE, ALAIN

Dubet, François

Strzelecki, Jan

Cambridge University Press

Evil

In contrast to traditional systems of thought which regarded evil as a  supernatural force that explained human misfortune, Michel Wieviorka  develops a sociological analysis of evil phenomena. His aim is to  explain evil, to reveal its social, political, and cultural sources, and  to clarify the processes through which the present-day forms of evil -  terrorism, violence, racism, and active hatred - are constituted. A synthesis of the author's detailed studies of these forms of evil,  this book offers a fresh approach to the understanding of the darker  regions of human behaviour. If we wish to live in an open, democratic  world in which each individual constructs his or her own experience and  leads his or her own life in a spirit of respect for and solidarity with  others, then we must understand the processes that lead in totally  different directions, negating the individual's subjectivity and moral  and physical integrity. Michel Wieviorka invites us to do just that in  this highly topical and engaging book.

Polity

In contrast to traditional systems of thought which regarded evil as a supernatural force that explained human misfortune, Michel Wieviorka develops a sociological analysis of evil phenomena. His aim is to explain evil, to reveal its social, political, and cultural sources, and to clarify the processes through which the present-day forms of evil - terrorism, violence, racism, and active hatred - are constituted. 
A synthesis of the author's detailed studies of these forms of evil, this book offers a fresh approach to the understanding of the darker regions of human behaviour. If we wish to live in an open, democratic world in which each individual constructs his or her own experience and leads his or her own life in a spirit of respect for and solidarity with others, then we must understand the processes that lead in totally different directions, negating the individual's subjectivity and moral and physical integrity. Michel Wieviorka invites us to do just that in this highly topical and engaging book.

The Arena of Racism (Published in association with Theory, Culture & Society)

In this vital addition to the sociological literature on racism, Michel Wieviorka presents a detailed and revisionary analysis of the vocabulary of racism (prejudice, discrimination, segregation and violence), arguing that racism is not reducible to these elementary forms. He shows how the experiences of institutionalized racism in America and anti-Semitism in Europe can be analyzed to provide an understanding of the complex transition from race to racism. As cultural identities are more fragmented in our societies, as the social relations defined by industrial capitalism are in decline, so too are ideas of progress and universality. It is in this context of postmodern social and economic flux that Wieviorka puts forward a

Sage Publications Ltd.

Violence: A New Approach

Violence is an ever-present phenomenon - obstinately resistant to interpretation. This text offers new tools to understand and analyze violence, presenting a new approach based on the subjectivity of the actor, and on the relation between violence and meaning. The relationship between conflict and violence; the place of victims, and the role of the media all shape new forms of violence. This text is an engaged response to these new forms that presents a convincing interpretation and new tools that will be essential for researchers in the social sciences.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Wieviorka, Michel. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Wieviorka, Michel

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Wieviorka, Michel. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Making of Terrorism

The Making of Terrorism

The Making of Terrorism

Solidarity: The Analysis of a Social Movement: Poland 1980–1981

Evil

Evil

The Arena of Racism (Published in association with Theory, Culture & Society)

The Arena of Racism (Published in association with Theory, Culture & Society)

Violence: A New Approach

Violence: A New Approach