Examples of structural violence:
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institutionalized or widely practiced discrimination of a racist, nationalist, religious, sexist, sexual, generational or economic nature…
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stigmatization
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social, economic or political marginalization,…
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domination
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operation
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oppression…
Origin of the term
The notion of structural violence was introduced in 1971 by Johan Galtung and Tord Hoivik in their article Structural and direct violence: A note on operationalization.
Journal of Peace Research, 8, pp. 73-76.
According to Galtung, structural violence occurs when politico-economic structures prevent individuals or groups from realizing their spiritual or somatic potential.
Source: Wolfgang Dietrich*, Peace: A propos de l’histoire difficile d’un mot-clé culturel, Sept. 2005.
* Director of the Master of Arts program in peace and development,
security and international conflict transformation, University of Innsbruck.
Definitions from other sources:
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“Physical and psychological damage resulting from unjust and exploitative social, political and economic systems.”
Source: Robert Gilman, Structural violence, Context, chapter 4, p. 8, 1983.
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By structural violence we mean everything that destroys people’s psychic, physical and spiritual being anonymously and without their being personally attacked by weapons (for example, a gifted child who is deprived of an education because of his or her race; a man who dies of hunger in the midst of a world abundant in food). This violence creates a considerable gap between an existing reality (illiteracy, hunger) and a possible reality (education, health). Reducing structural violence, which is a prerequisite for establishing positive peace, is based on concepts such as social justice, equity, emancipation, participation, freedom, responsibility, human rights and well-being. It is also concretely linked to a broad conception of the fight against underdevelopment and authoritarianism.
Source: Roy Preiswerk, What do we mean by peace research? GIPRI; 1980
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Symbolic violence is the cultural or communal dimension of structural violence, and rules out any alternative solution, leaving only the possibility proposed by the local social order as self-evident and the only valid one.
Source: Structural violence and systemic violence. La violence ordinaire des rapports sociaux en AfriqueJacky Bouju and Mirjam De BruijnAPAD Bulletin, n° 27-28, Violences sociales et exclusions. Le développement social de l’Afrique en question, June 20, 2008.