Structural Violence and cultural violence(1) (2)

Definition: Physical and psychological harm resulting from exploitative and unjust social, political, and economic systems.
- Not necessarily carried out by individuals but is embedded within structures that restrict individual potential.
Historical Significance: Introduced by Johan Galtung in 1969; remains a vital theory in understanding violence today.
Galtung’s Violence Triangle:
- Explains the relationship between direct, structural, and cultural violence.
- Rejects the need for a universal definition, emphasizing important dimensions for research and activism.

Galtung (1969) states that violence is evident when individuals' actual states fall short of their potential states.
- Illustrations include suffering from diseases like tuberculosis, HIV, and COVID-19 due to systemic failures.
- Distinction:
  - Indirect Violence (Structural Violence): No specific perpetrator; results from oppressive structures.
  - Direct Violence: Deliberate acts, such as destruction of resources.
Example Cases:
- Institutional racism identified within the Metropolitan Police following the murder of Stephen Lawrence as a form of structural violence.

Inequalities manifest in resource distribution, education, food security, income, and healthcare.
Legislative Dilemma:
- Accountability in a capitalist structure raises questions about justice and guilt among bystanders.
- Discussion of if and how the criminal justice system contributes to structural violence.

Galtung’s model scrutinizes the interplay of actors (like nations) in preserving structural violence.
- Different levels of actors exist (territories, organizations, associations).
- Value exchanges in interactions determine distributions of power and resources, maintaining inequalities.

Structural conditions can lead to extreme deprivation for lower-ranking actors:
- Resulting in morbidity, lack of voting power, and bargaining power.
Direct violence against these groups becomes justified through structural conditions.
- Notable historical incidents include the responses to the murders of Stephen Lawrence, Rodney King, and Emmett Till.

Those benefiting from structural violence work to maintain existing structures when threatened:
- Observable behaviors include calling on police or military to suppress disturbances without confronting the structural issues openly.

Galtung asserts that peace equals the absence of violence and equates social justice with an egalitarian distribution of power and resources.

Wealth disparity highlighted during the pandemic:
- The ten richest men's wealth soared, starkly contrasting with widespread poverty.
- Women disproportionately affected in vulnerable sectors and unpaid care, reflecting systemic inequalities.
Solutions proposed:
- Fairer taxation, investments in public services, and ensuring fair wages to reduce inequality.

Inaction can also constitute an act of violence:
- Moral implications reflect on responsibility for harm caused by omission.
Distinctions in types of inactions:
- Omitted vs. Omitting.
- Negative causation vs. negative action.
- General accountability in violence by omission debated.

Various authors discuss the moral weights of omissions versus actions:
- Foot: Omissions have moral weight, less serious than acts.
- Glover: Failure to act can be considered less severe than negative acts.
- Harris: No moral difference between omissions and actions with identical consequences.
- Honderich: Ordinary omissions carry significant moral weight.

Classification of police, courts, and prisons as actors or structures; exploring their interactions and distributions of power.
Examination of who benefits or suffers from existing systems, facilitating social justice or injustice.

Direct violence, structural violence, and cultural violence each play roles in normalizing aggression:
- Direct violence is an event response to needs deprivation.
- Cultural violence legitimizes inevitable structures of oppression.

Six domains legitimizing violence:
- Religion, Ideology, Language, Art, Empirical Science, and Formal Science.

Cultural violence leads to structural violence, which can elicit direct violence, presenting a vicious cycle.
- Historical context illustrated through the slave trade's evolution of violence over time.

The narrative of violence in society requires constant analysis of underlying structures, cultural norms, and the implications of action versus inaction.