Collective Discussion: Violence as a boundary object: Implications for the field of International Political Sociology

Violence is an enduring global challenge: it can occur in the context of interpersonal relationships, as well as interstate and inter-communal conflict. The synchronous focus on the global and the social in international political sociology might naturally transcend some paradigmatic divisions over what constitutes violence and at which level of analysis it might be studied. However, there has been little analysis of the complex concept of violence and how it functions at the intersection of international relations, sociology, and politics as well as other disciplines represented here by journalism and health. This collective discussion follows from a series of roundtables, which situated violence as a ‘boundary object’: objects which are ‘plastic’ enough to exist across different disciplines and languages, but ‘robust’ enough to maintain a common identity (Star and Griesemer, 1989: p393). The roundtables were built around three themes, replicated below, to interrogate, test, and push the boundaries of plasticity and robustness on the concept of violence across disciplines. The conversation that emerged is presented in this collective discussion as a conversation, with representation of divergent positions and the thought processes they inspired.