De Gruyter Handbook of Structural Violence

Structural violence as an analytical term emerged in the late 1960s to characterize the harm and injustice of poverty and other forms of inequality that can be traced to oppressive institutions and social structures. The term is intended to reach beyond physical violence to capture the manifold ways social structures and institutions may stunt or inhibit people’s potential. It denotes not only oppressive practices but also the failure of states or communities to provide for a person’s essential needs, such as healthcare and housing. Structural violence names inequitable social conditions, including the unequal distribution of goods, discrimination, or other unfair social hierarchies. Structural violence can be seen explicitly or implicitly as a point of departure for contemporary studies of homelessness and malnutrition, the ongoing predations of neo-colonialism and neoliberalism, the harms of institutionalized racism and gender inequality, but also the psycho-social toll of living in fear. This handbook brings together contributions from a range of fields to provide an overview of how researchers, theorists, advocates, policymakers and practitioners use, critique, and expand upon the concept of structural violence. It provides a space for analysis and conceptualization that bridges traditional divides between researchers and practitioners and between academic disciplines, and shows how the notion of structural violence has been crucial in establishing fields such as Peace Studies, and influencing others, such as health policy.