Living by the gun in Chad: armed violence as a practical occupation

Abstract

This article explores men in arms’ conceptions of armed violence in a country which has been prone to a violent cycle of rebellion and repression. Based on ethnographic research in Chad, it analyses combatants’ life trajectories in an unstable political environment and a militarised economy. It moves beyond rebellion towards an analysis of the most mundane patterns of the activities conducted by men in arms, to understand what is at stake beyond times and spaces of war. It argues that armed violence is an ordinary way of expressing contestation, as well as a practical occupation ormétier, a French word that indicates a non-institutionalised profession.

Kinship and Conflict: Evidence from Segmentary Lineage Societies in Sub-Saharan Africa

“…On the grievance side, conflict could be induced by inequality within society (Cederman, Gleditsch and Buhaug, 2013), the presence of ethnic cleavages (Montalvo andReynal-Querol, 2005, Esteban, Mayoral andRay, 2012), distrust (Rohner, Thoenig and Zilibotti, 2013), arbitrary national boundaries (Michalopoulos and Papaioannou, 2016), the lack of political accountability and democracy (Gleditsch and Ruggeri, 2010) or other types of exploitative institutions (Richards, 1996, Wood, 2003. Also potentially important are factors that influence the opportunity cost of engaging in conflict (Miguel, Satyanath and Saiegh, 2004, Debos, 2011, Hoffman, 2011, McGovern, 2011, Dube and Vargas, 2013, Debos, 2016. A final recurrent theme in the literature is that conflict -namely, civil conflict -occurs as a consequence of state weakness, as proxied by real per capita GDP (Fearon and Laitin, 2003) or measured more directly by state history (Depetris-Chauvin, 2014).…”

Biografias de homens e mulheres autores de violência: uma revisão bibliográfica sobre o uso de métodos com trajetória para o entendimento do fenômeno sociológico

“…Nesta linha, em um estudo etnográfico no norte da Inglaterra, Ellis, Winlow e Hall (2017) sugerem que, embora possa haver um nexo causal entre experiências traumáticas durante a infância e a persistência de práticas violentas na vida adulta, é necessário entender as especificidades culturais e sociais de cada população. Um terceiro grupo de literatura aborda as biografias em relação a homens de uma perspectiva de identidade e gênero (BAIRD, 2017;CARLSSON, 2013;DEBOS, 2011;GUETA;CHEN, 2012;JANSSON, 2018;LINDSAY, 2012;MOERTL;BUCHHOLZ;LAMOTT, 2010). Esses estudos mostram uma interpretação mais construtivista da abordagem narrativa / biográfica, investigando especificamente os processos de socialização da masculinidade, construção identitária e atribuição de significados.…”

The threat of rebellion: claiming entitled personhood in Central Africa

“…These trends have long historical roots and have intensified since the 1980s, in part due to fall‐out from civil war in Chad, Sudan, and South Sudan, neighbours to the north and east. Many men in the region have experience in various border‐crossing arms‐carrying occupations (Debos ). In addition, over the past decade, a number of rebel groups have formed in CAR .…”