5th ISA Forum of Sociology (6-11 July 2025)

Violence is a ubiquitous feature of human society expressed as a means of domination within face-to-face interactions, intimate relations, social relations, institutions, and between nations. This panel will focus on how groups, societies, and governments deal with the impact of violence. For example, how do they commemorate their victims, punish their perpetrators, and how do violent memories affect national or group interests in forming narratives of traumatic and/or violent events? How does violence shape the relationships between victims and perpetrators? Who has the legitimacy to create narratives of traumatic and violent events? Is there one narrative or competing narratives, which narratives have more legitimacy, and how do the politics of commemoration and representation impact discussions of reparations and reconciliation?

This panel will showcase sociologists working on any aspect of violence’s aftereffects, including war, genocide, terrorism, violence against women, violence in schools, the workplace, sports, family, or other institutions. Papers are welcome that deal with the impact of violence on subsequent victim and perpetrator relationships, as well as the memory of conflict, collective trauma, continued conflict, or reconciliation. Papers could also address memory and memorialization, commemoration, memory and identity politics (constructing victims and perpetrators), political sites of memory, retributive justice, forgiveness, and forgetting. The panel will address how violence impacts future peace or subsequent conflict.