Nonviolent youth activism and symbolic violence: Some problems in Bourdieu’s notion of victim complicity

• Published in: Current sociology Vol. 71; no. 6; pp. 982 - 999
• Main Author: Lohmeyer, Ben Arnold
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.10.2023; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Activism; Complicity; Epistemology; Nonviolence; Reflexivity; Selfawareness; Sociology; Symbolism; Symbols; Victims; Violence; Youth movements; reflexividad; Action directe non violente; complicité; Acción directa no violenta; activismo juvenil; réflexivité; symbolic violence; youth activism; Nonviolent Direct Action; Complicity; complicidad; activisme des jeunes; reflexivity; violencia simbólica; violence symbolique
• ISSN: 0011-3921; 1461-7064
• DOI: 10.1177/00113921211050105

The coupling of victim complicity with violence is intuitively objectionable, yet it is an underexamined aspect of Bourdieu’s ‘symbolic violence’. Within sociology, the nature of violence continues to be debated and refined with contested boundaries particularly concerning non-physical forms of violence. Symbolic violence offers an avenue to investigate this realm; however, it has been both employed and rejected without close examination of the issue of complicity. Moreover, the varying interpretations of Bourdieu’s use of the term ‘violence’ present problems for sustaining sociological distinctions between power and violence. This article examines these issues through the experiences of youth activists employing Nonviolent Direct Action with a focus on their reflexive self-awareness of participation in systems of violence. The author argues that complicity in symbolic violence presents epistemological and ontological problems for the sociology of violence that can be avoided by adopting viable alternative interpretations that emphasise the subject’s reflexivity and the systemic origins of violence.