Remarks on Violence and Intersubjectivity
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Remarks on Violence and Intersubjectivity Tobias Roehl • Herbert Kalthoff
Published online: 8 February 2013 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013
Abstract The article connects a sociological perspective on violence to the problem of intersubjectivity. After an overview of sociological and cultural accounts of violence, we turn to a fundamental problem caused by the experience of violence. In dialogue with Frances Chaput Wakslers book on The New Orleans Sniper (2010) we discuss a case in which the problem of intersubjectivity figures prominently. The erratic nature of violent acts committed by an unseen sniper is experienced as existential crisis in which the question of subjectivity loses its certainty for the social actors involved. As a consequence the problem of intersubjectivity but also questions of framing past events are opened up for sociological research. Keywords
Violence Intersubjectivity Phenomenology Microsociology
Introduction It is widely assumed in social and cultural sciences that societies and cultures make their offspring familiar with their specific patterns of acting, thinking, and perceiving in a continuous process. This includes the ability to perceive other beings as subjects who are similar to us and who likewise perceive us to be such subjects. In modern societies we generally ascribe subjectivity to other living humans which are conceptualized as voluntaristic agents endowed with consciousness, and further, as capable of mutually communicating what they do and want. While these ascriptions happen mostly unnoticed and almost automatically, there are certain situations in which this intersubjectivity described by Edmund Husserl and Alfred Schutz is not taken for granted: besides states of intoxication, hallucinations, or T. Roehl H. Kalthoff (&) Mainz, Germany e-mail: [email protected]
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deliberate deception, these are, most notably, situations of existential crisis caused, for example, by sudden outbreaks of violence in everyday life. What is otherwise accomplished effortlessly turns into a problem when violence is experienced: how is the Other constituted as a subject similar to us in these situations? And how are initiators of violence identified and connected with their deed in legal and police discourses by means of physical clues and/or evidence? How are these attributions implemented, updated, and overruled? In the following we will address these questions: first, we will approach the phenomenon of violence and suggest understanding violence in a relational way; in a second step we will take a detailed look at a study by Frances Chaput Waksler in order to discuss a new approach to the relations between intersubjectivity and violence.
A Sociological Perspective on Violence The observation of violence creates problems for participants as well as for sociology itself. For participants, certain questions become relevant, such as: In which way do I behave and what does this mean for me? What is actually happening here and
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