Violence, as defined in the dictionary of human geography, "appears whenever power is in jeopardy" and "in and of itself stands emptied of strength and purpose: it is part of a larger matrix of socio-political power struggles".Hyndman, J. (2009) Violence in Gregory, D., Johnston, R., Pratt, G., Watts, M. and Whatmore, S. eds. Dictionary of Human Geography, Wiley-Blackwell, NJ: 798–99. Violence can be broadly divided into three broad categories—direct violence, structural violence and cultural violence. Thus defined and delineated, it is of note, as Hyndman says, that "geography came late to theorizing violence" in comparison to other social sciences. Social and human geography, rooted in the humanist, Marxist, and feminist subfields that emerged following the early positivist approaches and subsequent behavioral turn, have long been concerned with social and spatial justice.Bowlby, S. (2001) "Social Geography", in Smelser, N. and Baltes, P. eds. International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, Oxford, Elsevier, 14293–99. Along with critical geographers and political geographers, it is these groupings of geographers that most often interact with violence. Keeping this idea of social/spatial justice via geography in mind, it is worthwhile to look at geographical approaches to violence in the context of politics.
Violence, as defined in the dictionary of human geography, "appears whenever power is in jeopardy" and "in and of itself stands emptied of strength and purpose it is part of a larger matrix of socio-political power struggles".Hyndman, J. (2009) Violence in Gregory, D., Johnston, R., Pratt, G., Watts, M. and Whatmore, S. eds. Dictionary of Human Geography, Wiley-Blackwell, NJ: 798–99. Violence can be broadly divided into three broad categories—direct violence, structural violence and cultural violence. Thus defined and delineated, it is of note, as Hyndman says, that "geography came late to theorizing violence" in comparison to other social sciences. Social and human geography, rooted in the humanist, Marxist, and feminist subfields that emerged following the early positivist approaches and subsequent behavioral turn, have long been concerned with social and spatial justice.Bowlby, S. (2001) "Social Geography", in Smelser, N. and Baltes, P. eds. International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, Oxford, Elsevier, 14293–99. Along with critical geographers and political geographers, it is these groupings of geographers that most often interact with violence. Keeping this idea of social/spatial justice via geography in mind, it is worthwhile to look at geographical approaches to violence in the context of politics.