Why humans fight : the social dynamics of close-range violence /

This book offers a novel, sociological, answer to the old age question 'Why humans fight?' Instead of focusing on the motivations of solitary individuals Malešević emphasizes the centrality of social and historical contexts that make fighting possible. He argues that fighting is not an ind...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Malešević, Siniša (Author)
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, [2022].
Subjects:
Description
Summary:This book offers a novel, sociological, answer to the old age question 'Why humans fight?' Instead of focusing on the motivations of solitary individuals Malešević emphasizes the centrality of social and historical contexts that make fighting possible. He argues that fighting is not an individual attribute, but a social phenomenon shaped by one's relationships with other people. Drawing on the recent scholarship across variety of academic disciplines and his own interviews with the former combatants Malešević shows that one's willingness to fight is a contextual phenomenon shaped by specific ideological and organizational logic. The book explores the role biology, psychology, economics, ideology and coercion play in one's experience of fighting and emphasizes the cultural and historical variability of combativeness. Using numerous historical and contemporary examples from all over the world Malešević demonstrates how social pugnacity is a relational and contextual phenomenon that possesses autonomous features.
Physical Description:ix, 368 pages ; 24 cm.
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:9781009162791
1009162799
9781009162814
1009162810