Enduring Violence

"A rare and groundbreaking contribution to the study of everyday violence. Richly textured by the experiences of Ladino women in eastern Guatemala, Enduring Violence is not only informed by, but serves to inform, cutting-edge theoretical debate which links multiple aspects of personal abuse and rights violations with broader structural and institutional factors. Menjívar's scholarly and sensitive monograph makes a profoundly persuasive case for an holistic conceptualisation of violence that positions women's human rights at the centre of development in 'post-conflict' and other developing states. A 'must read' for all interested in issues of gender, ethnic and other forms of social, economic and political injustice."—Sylvia Chant, London School of Economics and Political Science "Violence in Guatemala can be a mind-numbing, though urgent and necessary, topic of study. Horrific data mount—from state sponsored genocide in the 1980s, to feminicide, lynchings and shadow state violence today—but clarifying analysis does not always follow. This insightful and beautifully crafted monograph is a welcome exception. Rather than recognizable interpersonal or overtly political acts, Menjivar focuses on the mundane insults and indignities that women endure, violence so 'normalized' that it often fades from view; she then turns standard causal reasoning on its head, arguing that these 'misrecognized' processes of daily dehumanization are profoundly diagnostic, an unexamined key to why the horrific data keep mounting. Though somber in content, Menjivar's book offers inspiring confirmation that innovative, engaged scholarship on intractable social problems can make a difference."—Charles R. Hale, University of Texas at Austin "Enduring Violence is of great scholarly importance as it fills a gap in the literature about Guatemala and allows for a nuanced understanding of the ways that women live with violence in their everyday lives. Menjivar's focus on women's discourses of illness, surveillance and endurance is particularly insightful since these narratives symbolize the multiple levels of violence in women's lives and the often imperceptible practices through which a daily life with violence is mediated."—M. Gabriela Torres, Wheaton College "Menjivar's deep commitment to shedding light on the many forms of violence that women experience is evident throughout her book. She effectively shows how the violence faced by women goes beyond physical violence and has structural origins as well in various forms. This is a great and informative work that needs to be read to understand the structural causes that bring injury to Guatemalan women."—Nestor Rodriguez, University of Texas at Austin "In Enduring Violence, Cecilia Menjivar presents a perceptive and powerful account of the multiple and entwined layers of violence that permeate the lives of diverse women in Guatemala. The book offers both a valuable theoretical lens and a textured ethnographic analysis, which brings into sharp focus not only the most egregious forms of gender-based physical violence, but also a range of invisible injurious practices rooted in pervasive structures of inequality. Written with empathy, while retaining a critical edge, this accessible and insightful volume sheds light on complex political, economic, and social processes shaping the violent realities of many women in Latin America."—Barbara Sutton, author of Bodies in Crisis: Culture, Violence, and Women's Resistance in Neoliberal Argentina "So much has been written about the spectacular agony of Central America's recent history. In Enduring Violence, Cecilia Menjivar seeks to understand the structures that gird no only the publicly visible violence but also the unspectacular, slow, often silent suffering that defines so many lives in the region. Her moving ethnography may explore the painful particulars of gendered existence in eastern Guatemala, but it also does so in such a way that reveals how deeply embedded inequalities can contort all human relations."—Ellen Moodie, author of El Salvador in the Aftermath of Peace: Crime, Uncertainty, and the Transition to Democracy

The Third Edition of Violence: The Enduring Problem offers an interdisciplinary and reader-friendly exploration of the patterns and correlations of individual and collective violent acts using the most contemporary research, theories, and cases. Responding to the fear of pervasive violence in the world, authors Alex Alvarez and Ronet Bachman address the various legislative, social, and political efforts to curb violent behavior. They expertly incorporate a wide range of the most current cases to help readers interpret the nature and dynamics of a variety of different, yet connected, forms of violence. While most texts of this type simply cover individual acts of violence, this book offers readers a broader perspective, covering more collective violence activities such as terrorism, mob violence, and genocide.

Drawing on revealing, in-depth interviews, Cecilia Menjívar investigates the role that violence plays in the lives of Ladina women in eastern Guatemala, a little-visited and little-studied region. While much has been written on the subject of political violence in Guatemala, Menjívar turns to a different form of suffering—the violence embedded in institutions and in everyday life so familiar and routine that it is often not recognized as such. Rather than painting Guatemala (or even Latin America) as having a cultural propensity for normalizing and accepting violence, Menjívar aims to develop an approach to examining structures of violence—profound inequality, exploitation and poverty, and gender ideologies that position women in vulnerable situations— grounded in women’s experiences. In this way, her study provides a glimpse into the root causes of the increasing wave of feminicide in Guatemala, as well as in other Latin American countries, and offers observations relevant for understanding violence against women around the world today.

The Third Edition of Violence: The Enduring Problem offers an interdisciplinary and reader-friendly exploration of the patterns and correlations of individual and collective violent acts using the most contemporary research, theories, and cases. Responding to the fear of pervasive violence in the world, authors Alex Alvarez and Ronet Bachman address the various legislative, social, and political efforts to curb violent behavior. They expertly incorporate a wide range of the most current cases to help readers interpret the nature and dynamics of a variety of different, yet connected, forms of violence. While most texts of this type simply cover individual acts of violence, this book offers readers a broader perspective, covering more collective violence activities such as terrorism, mob violence, and genocide.

This unique text challenges the notion that absence of conflict is the foundation and norm of a stable political environment. Combining complexity theory and the notion of signature with case studies, it argues that political processes need to be understood within their social and cultural contexts. It thus develops the idea of enduring conflict, referring to both the enduring nature of political conflict and the endurance of people in conflict-ridden societies, looking at countries involved in conflict transformation, such as Northern Ireland, Cambodia, Indonesia, and South Africa. Examining debates around trauma, memory, and reconciliation, the work shows how conflicts are so socially and culturally ingrained and protracted that political agreements alone cannot bring substantive change. In addition, key texts, such as peace agreements, along with interviews of politicians, participants, and NGOs help identify the conditions under which notions like peace, democracy, and conflict resolution can even be conceived - let alone implemented. This innovative text is a significant contribution to the literature as it highlights the limitations of conflict resolution strategies and identifies the issues that pertain to conflicts throughout global politics. Written in an accessible manner, it will be highly attractive to students in conflict processes, peace studies, and international relations theory.

An integrated look at the political films of the 1960s and ’70s and how the New Left transformed cinema A timely reassessment of political film culture in the 1960s and ’70s, Enduring Images examines international cinematic movements of the New Left in light of sweeping cultural and economic changes of that era. Looking at new forms of cinematic resistance—including detailed readings of particular films, collectives, and movements—Morgan Adamson makes a case for cinema’s centrality to the global New Left. Enduring Images details how student, labor, anti-imperialist, Black Power, and second-wave feminist movements broke with auteur cinema and sought to forge local and international solidarities by producing political essay films, generating new ways of being and thinking in common. Adamson produces a comparative and theoretical account of New Left cinema that engages with discussions of work, debt, information, and resistance. Enduring Images argues that the cinemas of the New Left are sites to examine, through the lens of struggle, the reshaping of global capitalism during the pivotal moment in which they were made, while at the same time exploring how these movements endure in contemporary culture and politics. Including in-depth discussions of Third Cinema in Argentina, feminist cinema in Italy, Newsreel movements in the United States, and cybernetics in early video, Enduring Images is an essential examination of the political films of the 1960s and ’70s.

Explores experiences with disability and aging for immigrant survivors of domestic violence across the life course Across the United States, one in three women experiences violence in their intimate relationships. More resources are now being devoted to providing these women with immediate care; but what happens to survivors, especially those from marginalized communities, as they grow older and grapple with the long-term effects? In Violence Never Heals, Allison Bloom presents a life-course perspective on the disabling experience of violence in Latina immigrant communities. Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork performed in a Latina program at an Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) crisis center, Bloom offers insights into the long-term effects of systemic and gender-based violence, revealing that these experiences become subtly disabling long before old age. Drawing from her own background as a practitioner, Bloom further details how current IPV services fail to acknowledge and accommodate such effects, in large part because of their disproportionate focus on younger survivors and the particular development of the domestic violence services field. She offers both scholars and practitioners concrete strategies for how they can alter their approaches to better treat and mitigate the lifelong effects of domestic violence. Violence Never Heals addresses a glaring omission in IPV scholarship, providing both an aging-focused perspective on IPV as well as laying out concrete steps for how to implement this perspective in pursuit of more comprehensive treatment.