Progressive Violence

This book examines the role of collective violence in the achievement of solidarity, shedding light on the difficulty faced by sociology in theorizing violence as a result of its tendency to idealise society in order to legitimise the idea of progressive social change. Using the global War on Terror as a focal point, it discusses the related issues of power, knowledge, and ethics, explaining the War on Terror in terms of the Anglo-American tradition of imperial power and domination. Exploring the solidarity produced by the ritual domination and destruction of a ‘villain’, the book also considers the price of the ‘progressive violence’ involved in advancing the moral cause of freedom.