For a Sociology that Moves beyond Sociology: Learning from Comparing Violent Conflicts and Reconciliation Processes

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Abstract

This paper aims at exploring how to utilize knowledge derived from various ethnic, national, state conflict situations drawing on a comparative perspective that scrutinizes alternative modes of understanding & dealing with the violent past. Such knowledge is a precondition to contemplating the potential for resolution or transformation of conflict & how reconciliation comes about in society. This requires a sociology that is by its inception interdisciplinary & open. Such as sociology is a knowledge system which possesses the conceptual & methodological frame capable bridging the gap between disciplines & specializations through which "violence" & "conflict" have so far been studied separately from "reconciliation". Political scientists, sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists, psychoanalysts, lawyers, typically study different aspects of conflicts and reconciliation processes but not how they relate to each other. Moreover, the works of art, poetry, theatre & literature provides valuable insights which traditionally have not been properly integrated within the discipline as bodies of knowledge of equal significance or value. However, in order to address such complex social problems, we need a sociology that draws on these dimensions, not in an eclectic manner; we require a knowledge system that allows for creative integration of various approaches from different disciplines into a broad interdisciplinary perspective that is theoretically sound & policy-relevant. This would allow for a sociology of reconciliation that is global as well as contextual, universal as well as particular: hence, it would have the potential for providing a frame for explaining and understanding violent conflicts & reconciliation processes as distinct modes within a single social phenomenon. This would be a sociology that moves beyond the sociology as we have known it.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationFor a Sociology that Moves beyond Sociology
Subtitle of host publicationLearning from Comparing Violent Conflicts and Reconciliation Processes
Publication statusPublished - 2010

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