Suchergebnisse

"The International Political Sociology of Risk" published on by Oxford University Press.

"The International Political Sociology of Empire" published on by Oxford University Press.

"The article explores ways of analyzing torture from a comparative perspective, using analytical instruments informed by the sociology of the body. The focus is on relations between torture practices, body knowledge, and body images. Three different ways of approaching the body by torture are distinguished: firstly, the direct infliction of violence as painful manipulation (examples being electric shocks or the Spanish Gaiter), secondly, the deprivation of vital inputs or intakes on which the body depends (like the restriction of air supply or the withholding of food), and thirdly, the subjection of the immobilized body to its own functions (for example by stress positions or the refusal of sanitary facilities). These three modes of torture practices are each connected to specific body images, this is, to generalized ways of viewing the human body, and to specific realms of body knowledge, this is, to specific arsenals of knowledge about the body, which are employed, modified and constructed in the practical actions of torture situations. It is argued that the differences as well as the similarities between specific cases of torture can be better understood by taking into account not only the actual torture practices themselves, but also their interconnectedness with body knowledge and body images the latter two aspects being fundamental for the ways in which torturers approach their victim and extort information by tormenting her or his body." (author's abstract)