Constructions of Victimhood

Constructions of Victimhood PDF Author: David Clarke
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030048047
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 315

Get Book Here

Book Description
The post-war Federal Republic of Germany faced the task of addressing the plight of the victims of state socialism under the Soviet occupation of eastern Germany and in the German Democratic Republic, many of whom fled to the west. These victims were not passive objects of the West German state’s policy, but organized themselves into associations that fought for recognition of their contribution to the fight against communism. After German unification, the task of commemorating and compensating these victims continued under entirely new political circumstances, yet also in the context of global trends in memory politics and transitional justice that give priority to addressing the fate of victims of non-democratic regimes. Constructions of Victimhood: Remembering the Victims of State Socialism in Germany draws on the constructivist systems theory of Niklas Luhmann to analyze the role of victims organizations, the political system, and historians and heritage professionals in the struggle over the memory of suffering under state socialism, from the Cold War to the present day. The book argues that the identity and social role of victims has undergone a process of constant renegotiation in this period, offering an innovative theoretical framework for understanding how restorative measures are formulated to address the situation of victims. As such, it offers not only insights into a neglected aspect of post-war German history, but also contributes to the ongoing academic debate about the role of victims in process of transitional justice and the politics of memory.

Constructions of Victimhood

Constructions of Victimhood PDF Author: David Clarke
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030048047
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 315

Get Book Here

Book Description
The post-war Federal Republic of Germany faced the task of addressing the plight of the victims of state socialism under the Soviet occupation of eastern Germany and in the German Democratic Republic, many of whom fled to the west. These victims were not passive objects of the West German state’s policy, but organized themselves into associations that fought for recognition of their contribution to the fight against communism. After German unification, the task of commemorating and compensating these victims continued under entirely new political circumstances, yet also in the context of global trends in memory politics and transitional justice that give priority to addressing the fate of victims of non-democratic regimes. Constructions of Victimhood: Remembering the Victims of State Socialism in Germany draws on the constructivist systems theory of Niklas Luhmann to analyze the role of victims organizations, the political system, and historians and heritage professionals in the struggle over the memory of suffering under state socialism, from the Cold War to the present day. The book argues that the identity and social role of victims has undergone a process of constant renegotiation in this period, offering an innovative theoretical framework for understanding how restorative measures are formulated to address the situation of victims. As such, it offers not only insights into a neglected aspect of post-war German history, but also contributes to the ongoing academic debate about the role of victims in process of transitional justice and the politics of memory.

Authenticity and Victimhood after the Second World War

Authenticity and Victimhood after the Second World War PDF Author: Randall Hansen
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 1487528213
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 357

Get Book Here

Book Description
This edited collection explores memories and experiences of genocide, civilian casualties, and other atrocities that occurred after the Second World War.

The Cult of True Victimhood

The Cult of True Victimhood PDF Author: Alyson Manda Cole
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804754613
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 260

Get Book Here

Book Description
Demonstrates how the campaign against "victim politics" and the "victim mentality" has profoundly altered Americans' understanding of victimhood, and investigates the consequences of this change in politics, law, culture, and the "war against terror."

Betraying the Event

Betraying the Event PDF Author: Fatima Festić
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527561259
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 225

Get Book Here

Book Description
In gaining an instrumental part, becoming a fashion, the victimhood theme has drawn attention to its fascinatory and manipulative aspects, and has asked for a critical reconsideration. This volume makes note of an attempt to sustain a conversation about changes in the ways the processes of victimization are written out and comprehended. The contributors aim to expose some recent instances and modalities of cultural and political constructions of victimhood in various parts of the world. Our concern with the overlapping areas of victimhood and rhetoric points to the ambiguous manner in which language and images thread their way into the critical discourses of today, and even devise a vicious reversal of the victimized/victimizer positions. Although we ask: can the victim’s real ever be fully represented?, we keep holding on the simple assurance that only an attempt at representation of the real in an actual performance can bring us closer to the victimizing event, make us grasp its other contested constructions and foresee the materiality of the effects of its linguistic implications. We try to suggest a comparative approach that would link different experiences of victimization, possibly enabling a cognitive exchange, and emphasize the necessity of raising the writers’ and readers’ awareness of the narrative consequences of victimizing processes and the policies following on from them.

The Social Psychology of Collective Victimhood

The Social Psychology of Collective Victimhood PDF Author: Johanna Ray Vollhardt
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0190875194
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 471

Get Book Here

Book Description
"This book provides an overview of current social psychological scholarship on collective victimhood. Drawing on different contexts of collective victimization-such as due to genocide, war, ethnic or religious conflict, racism, colonization, Islamophobia, the caste system, and other forms of direct and structural collective violence-this edited volume presents theoretical ideas and empirical findings concerning the psychological experience of being targeted by collective violence in the past or present. Specifically, the book addresses questions such as: How are experiences of collective victimization passed down in groups and understood by those who did not experience the violence personally? How do people cope with and make sense of collective victimization of their group? How do the different perceptions of collective victimization feed into positive versus hostile relations with other groups? How does group-based power shape these processes? Who is included in or excluded from the category of "victims", and what are the psychological consequences of such denial versus acknowledgment? Which individual psychological processes such as needs or personality traits shape people's responses to collective victimization? What are the ethical challenges of researching collective victimization, especially when these experiences are recent and/or politically contested? This edited volume offers different theoretical perspectives on these questions, and shows the importance of examining both individual and structural influences on the psychological experience of collective victimhood-including attention to power structures, history, and other aspects of the social and political context that help explain the diversity in experiences of and responses to collective victimization"--

Revisiting the 'Ideal Victim'

Revisiting the 'Ideal Victim' PDF Author: Marian Duggan
Publisher: Policy Press
ISBN: 1447339169
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 378

Get Book Here

Book Description
Nils Christie’s (1986) seminal work on the ‘Ideal Victim’ is reproduced in full in this edited collection of vibrant and provocative essays that respond to and update the concept from a range of thematic positions. Each chapter celebrates and commemorates his work by analysing, evaluating and critiquing the current nature and impact of victim identity, experience, policy and practice. The collection expands the focus and remit of ‘victim studies’, addressing key themes around race, gender, faith, ability and age while encompassing new and diverse issues. Examples include sex workers as victims of hate crimes, victims’ experiences of online fraud, and recognising historic child sexual abuse victims in Ireland. With contributions from an array of academics including Vicky Heap (Sheffield Hallam University), Hannah Mason-Bish (University of Sussex) and Pamela Davies (Northumbria University), as well as a Foreword by David Scott (The Open University), this book evaluates the contemporary relevance and applicability of Christie’s ‘Ideal Victim’ concept and creates an important platform for thinking differently about victimhood in the 21st century.

Knowing Victims

Knowing Victims PDF Author: Rebecca Stringer
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134746083
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 231

Get Book Here

Book Description
Knowing Victims explores the theme of victimhood in contemporary feminism and politics. It focuses on popular and scholarly constructions of feminism as ‘victim feminism’ – an ideology of passive victimhood that denies women’s agency – and provides the first comprehensive analysis of the debate about this ideology which has unfolded among feminists since the 1980s. The book critically examines a movement away from the language of victimhood across a wide array of discourses, and the neoliberal replacement of the concept of structural oppression with the concept of personal responsibility. In derogating the notion of ‘victim,’ neoliberalism promotes a conception of victimization as subjective rather than social, a state of mind, rather than a worldly situation. Drawing upon Nietzsche, Lyotard, rape crisis feminism and feminist philosophy, Stringer situates feminist politicizations of rape, interpersonal violence, economic inequality and welfare reform as key sites of resistance to the victim-blaming logic of neoliberalism. She suggests that although recent feminist critiques of ‘victim feminism’ have critically diagnosed the anti-victim movement, they have not positively defended victim politics. Stringer argues that a conception of the victim as an agentic bearer of knowledge, and an understanding of resentment as a generative force for social change, provides a potent counter to the negative construction of victimhood characteristic of the neoliberal era. This accessible and insightful analysis of feminism, neoliberalism and the social construction of victimhood will be of great interest to researchers and students in the disciplines of gender and women’s studies, psychology, sociology, politics and philosophy.

The Rise of Victimhood Culture

The Rise of Victimhood Culture PDF Author: Bradley Campbell
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319703293
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 301

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Rise of Victimhood Culture offers a framework for understanding recent moral conflicts at U.S. universities, which have bled into society at large. These are not the familiar clashes between liberals and conservatives or the religious and the secular: instead, they are clashes between a new moral culture—victimhood culture—and a more traditional culture of dignity. Even as students increasingly demand trigger warnings and “safe spaces,” many young people are quick to police the words and deeds of others, who in turn claim that political correctness has run amok. Interestingly, members of both camps often consider themselves victims of the other. In tracking the rise of victimhood culture, Bradley Campbell and Jason Manning help to decode an often dizzying cultural milieu, from campus riots over conservative speakers and debates around free speech to the election of Donald Trump.

Guiding Principles for Life Beyond Victim Consciousness

Guiding Principles for Life Beyond Victim Consciousness PDF Author: Lynne Forrest
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780615401447
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 180

Get Book Here

Book Description
Learn 14 guiding principles to help liberater the mind from victim consciousness, by doing so let go of any resistance to life and stop fighting the future and agonizing over the past.

Complex Political Victims

Complex Political Victims PDF Author: Erica Bouris
Publisher: Kumarian Press
ISBN: 1565492323
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 225

Get Book Here

Book Description
* Reframes major events like South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the Holocaust, and the war in Bosnia to take into account the "complex victim" * Calls for a more effective and encompassing support of all types of victims, especially those not typically recognized as such Images of the political victim are powerful, gripping, and integral in helping us makes sense of conflict, particularly in making moral calculations, determining who is "good" and who is "evil". These images, and the discourse of victimization that surrounds them, inform the international community when deciding to recognize certain individuals as victims and play a role in shaping response policies. These policies in turn create the potential for long term, stable peace after episodes of political victimization. Bouris finds weighty problems with this dichotomous conception of actors in a conflict, which pervades much of contemporary peacebuilding scholarship. She instead argues that victims, much like the conflicts themselves, are complex. Rather than use this complexity as a way to dismiss victims or call for limits on the response from the international community, the book advocates for greater and more effective responses to conflict.