Winnie Mandela's Banning Order, the Territoriality of Power and Political Violence (original) (raw)

Political violence' is a weak concept with a weak empirical basis. Counting acts of violence as 'political' are ultimately done on a subjective basis. By leaving out 80-90% of all violence in society (counted by murders) it is not able to capture the real power relations in society. A less subjctive and more comprehensive concept of violence would be preferable. In this paper I outline such a concept in three steps. First I consider the difference between violence and power; and secondly I explore Winnie Mandela's banning order for clues to the territoriality of power. It reveals four territorial units: state, ethnic group, town and house. I argue that across the borders of exactly these four territorial units are all power relations of any nation-state articulated. Finally I return from power to violence in order to sketch a comprehensive way of coding of data on violence based on the four territorial units.

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