Why Humans Fight: The Social Dynamics of Close-Range Violence

Malesevic offers a novel sociological answer to the age-old question: 'Why do humans fight?'. Instead of focusing on the motivations of solitary individuals, he emphasises the centrality of the 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 recent scholarship across a variety of academic disciplines as well as his own interviews with the former combatants, Malesevic shows that one's willingness to fight is a contextual phenomenon shaped by specific ideological and organisational logic. This book explores the role biology, psychology, economics, ideology, and coercion play in one's experience of fighting, emphasising the cultural and historical variability of combativeness. By drawing from numerous historical and contemporary examples from all over the world, Malesevic demonstrates how social pugnacity is a relational and contextual phenomenon that possesses autonomous features.

Author: Sinisa Malesevic
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 10/06/2022
Pages: 380
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.12lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.78d
ISBN13: 9781009162814
ISBN10: 1009162810
BISAC Categories:
- Social Science | Sociology | General
- Social Science | Violence in Society