Structural Violence

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

What is structural violence, and what role does it play in shaping human lives and human interactions? In this course, we investigate the often subtle, systematic sources of harm that damage health and hinder individual and community potential, while often remaining rationalized, invisible, or simply taken for granted as the world “as it is”. Structural violence is distinguishable from “hot” forms of violence in its diffuse and seemingly agentless source, where no one person is to blame. We will target these diffuse sources—from bureaucracy to urban planning to corporations to policies meant to help the poor—in order to identify the hidden abode of violence and the consequences these hold for ordinary life. Structural violence is influenced by, and in turn influences, cultural violence, which we will also investigate as a source of persistent harm. Structural violence will emerge in this course through a diverse set of studies; from American housing policy, to medical discrimination, to toxic “sacrifice zones”; and racism in disease epidemics. Our inability to interrogate these structures hinders our ability to create a just and sustainable world, and recognizing and redressing the existence of structures can be a productive path towards healing the wounds—and ending the violence—caused by the invisible trappings of power. This form of inquiry is also productive in understanding why decades-long stand-offs—whether or not an official state of violence exists—are never resolved simply through the absence of active fighting. We will finish the course with case studies of people who actively resist or attempt to escape structures, with varying levels of success.