Defining and legitimizing violence in the modern world by Valeria Couttolenc Gonzalez

Abstract

This article aims to explore understandings of violence beyond the use of force and aggression through an analysis of the persistent and evolving nature of violence within the context of late-stage capitalism, (neo)colonialism, and imperialism, arguing that violence is not just a physical or immediate phenomenon but also a systemic, symbolic, and slow process embedded within the structures of modern global societies, The text draws on the work of decolonial and Global South scholars to propose how despite decolonization movements, colonial legacies persist in the structures of neoliberalism, albeit in a less visible manner, and in the continued exploitation of the Global South by Global North countries through new forms of colonialism and capitalism. This piece proposes defining and understanding violence through different lenses and frameworks - acknowledging socio-political, economic, and structural factors and how they interplay into systems of oppression and harm to perpetuate violence; offering criticisms on violent legacies of the past as well as violent practices of the present through imperialism and different modern-day expressions of colonialism. Moreover, discussions on the weaponization of language to inflict and legitimize violence are explored, in tandem with presenting other conceptualizations of violence such as slow violence (with an environmentalist emphasis), economic exploitation through trade, and the forcing into debt of Global South countries in the name of development/modernity. To conclude, the text invites a critical reflection of the current economic and political systems and their impacts on our everyday lives to address the constant metamorphoses of violence as it continues to permeate the world we exist in and in different manifestations of violence beyond the use of force and aggression.