{"id":9149,"date":"2025-06-25T08:26:04","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T06:26:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/academy.grainesdepaix.org\/ressources\/structural-violence\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T15:51:47","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T13:51:47","slug":"structural-violence","status":"publish","type":"ressource","link":"https:\/\/academy.grainesdepaix.org\/en\/ressources\/structural-violence\/","title":{"rendered":"Structural violence"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"parent-fieldname-text\">\n<p><b>Examples of structural violence:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>institutionalized or widely practiced discrimination of a racist, nationalist, religious, sexist, sexual, generational or economic nature&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>stigmatization<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>social, economic or political marginalization,&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>domination<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>operation<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>oppression&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Origin of the term<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The notion of structural violence was introduced in 1971 by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.grainesdepaix.org\/fr\/ressources\/sinspirer\/auteurs\/galtung_johan\" target=\"_self\">Johan Galtung<\/a> and Tord Hoivik in their article Structural and direct violence: A note on operationalization.<br \/><i>Journal of Peace Research, 8, pp. 73-76<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>According to Galtung, structural violence occurs when politico-economic structures prevent individuals or groups from realizing their spiritual or somatic potential.<\/p>\n<p><i>Source: Wolfgang Dietrich*, Peace: A propos de l&#8217;histoire difficile d&#8217;un mot-cl\u00e9 culturel, Sept. 2005.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>* Director of the Master of Arts program in peace and development,  <\/i><br \/><i>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;security and international conflict transformation, University of Innsbruck.<\/i><br \/>&nbsp;<br \/>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Definitions from other sources:<\/b><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Physical and psychological damage resulting from unjust and exploitative social, political and economic systems.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><i>Source: Robert Gilman, Structural violence, Context, chapter 4, p. 8, 1983<\/i>.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>By structural violence we mean everything that destroys people&#8217;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. <\/p>\n<p><i>Source: Roy Preiswerk, What do we mean by peace research? GIPRI; 1980 <\/i><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p><i>Source: Structural violence and systemic violence. La violence ordinaire des rapports sociaux en AfriqueJacky Bouju and Mirjam De BruijnAPAD Bulletin, n\u00b0 27-28, Violences sociales et exclusions. Le d\u00e9veloppement social de l&#8217;Afrique en question, June 20, 2008.    &nbsp; <\/i><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Examples of structural violence: institutionalized or widely practiced discrimination of a racist, nationalist, religious, sexist, sexual, generational or economic nature&#8230; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","tags":[],"ressources-theme":[],"category-ressources":[275],"class_list":["post-9149","ressource","type-ressource","status-publish","hentry","category-ressources-dictionary"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Structural violence - Academy Fondation Graines de Paix<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/academy.grainesdepaix.org\/en\/ressources\/structural-violence\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Structural violence - Academy Fondation Graines de Paix\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Examples of structural violence: institutionalized or widely practiced discrimination of a racist, nationalist, religious, sexist, sexual, generational or economic nature&#8230; 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