Introduction: The production of organised violence

Elena Simon - Independent Researcher, formerly of the Department of Politics & IR, University of Sheffield

Remi Edwards - Research & Impact Associate, SPERI, Univerity of Sheffield

Vicki Reif-Breitwieser - Doctoral Researcher & SPERI DRN Co-Convenor, University of Sheffield

Joanna Tidy - Lecturer, Department of Politics & IR, University of Sheffield

Sandra Barragan Contreras - Research Associate, Sustainable Consumption Institute, University of Manchester

James Jackson - Hallsworth Research Fellow, Sustainable Consumption Institute, University of Manchester 

Barış Çelik - Teaching Associate, Department of Politics & IR, University of Sheffield

David Yates - Senior Lecturer in Accounting, Management School, University of Sheffield

This is grounded in feminist and decolonial analyses which have been on the forefront in keeping analysis of war, insecurity, racism, coloniality and capitalism grounded in the lives of people, a condition of life that cuts across the sanitising language and representations of state narratives. Spurred on by investigations into the infrastructure and logistics of the War on Terror morphing into an ‘everywhere war’ and the privatisation of violence, the objects of security and means of violence have come into focus more recently. Studies on ‘banal militarism’ aimed to render visible the normalisation of military production, sites, and actions within ‘everyday’ life. The condition of climate melt-down exacerbating the inequalities and insecurities produced by colonialism, underscored the importance of combining epistemic with materialist analysis. 

Marxist political economy has long had a concern with certain types of violence, particularly the violence of dispossession that lays the foundations for capitalist development, and forms of colonial extraction. Violence as labour and the violence of the economy have retaken centre stage in these accounts. Other scholars who have prepared the path for this blog series and a broadly ‘material(ist) turn’ in IR and Security Studies, have been focusing on the violence of international trade and money as weapon systems, pointing to the silent violence of the economic order. Thus, the blog series sits at the interstice of critical political economy and IR and security studies.

With recent wars, liberal militarism has lost much of its hiddenness and confirmed its superficial commitment to human rights and the rule of law as critics have been pointing out. In the midst of a new arms race between major economic powers, rising inequality fuelled by inflationary pressures on the world economy, and a deadlock in meaningful international climate action, this blog series forms part of the growing body of contributions interested in political economy in an era of global, political and environmental instability. 

The series follows a SPERI workshop on this topic, which invited speakers from within and beyond the University of Sheffield to discuss the industry, labour, technology and aesthetics of violence in contemporary economies. Vicki, Jo and Elena presented at that workshop, while the remaining authors joined the series following the workshop.

Vicki Reif-Breitwieser and Joanna Tidy explore the relationship between land and violence in extractive and infrastructure projects. This aims to highlight the centrality of land in the (re)production of the many tangible, as well as unseen forms of violence, that underlie past and present capitalist development. 

Sandra Barragan Contreras and James Jackson explore how large-scale private-owned renewable energy projects in regions like Yucatan, Mexico, perpetuate violence and injustice against local ecosystems and indigenous communities. They argue that profit-driven, state-capital alliances in these projects replicate the exploitative practices of fossil fuel systems, creating new and sustaining existing forms of violence. They suggest that if we are to move to more sustainable futures, we need to create energy projects that prioritise human and environmental well-being over profit.

Elena Simon examines the current debates around dual-use technologies. She argues that while the dual-use concept has highlighted important aspects of the production of the means of violence, it also comes with limitations. She engages critiques of the civil/military dichotomy to explore the expansiveness of the production of the means of violence as integral to the capitalist mode of production.

Baris Celik critically engages with the European Security Studies’ traditional focus on functional questions about security and defence policies. He argues for a new approach in the field that is more conscious of its silences about the realities of organised violence, as well as the economic and institutional entanglements shaping the field.

David Yates explores the role of 'counter accounting', a practice by which alternative accounts, directly addressing a dominant narrative, are produced and published. He considers the role of counter accounting in exposing previously unseen, systemic violence, and how – in rendering this violence visible and in assigning it to a perpetrator (thereby making it subjective) – counter accounts potentially form a key element of democratic accountability, though with limitations.