How violence gains value: Prizing, appraisal, and communicative action

This article examines how violence gains value through communicative action, focusing on the distinction between prizing and appraisal as key processes of valuation. Drawing on John Dewey’s theory of valuation and communicative constructivism, it argues that violence is both a performative assertion of value and a subject of discursive negotiation. Using a case study of a racist attack, the study demonstrates that prizing occurs as an immediate, embodied act in which perpetrators affirm perceived values while simultaneously devaluing their victims. In contrast, appraisal involves the retrospective and discursive evaluation of violence, shaping its legitimacy and social meaning through public debate, legal judgment and media representation. This dual perspective challenges structuralist views that treat values as pre-existing determinants of violence, highlighting instead how violence actively produces and transforms cultural meanings. By analyzing the communicative construction of violence-related valuations, the study contributes to the sociology of violence by offering insights into the dynamic processes through which violence is legitimised, contested and integrated into the social order.