Political communication and political violence: a Luhmannian perspective

Abstract

“Communication” is widely employed in social movement and terrorism studies in the description of symbolic structures related to protest mobilisation and clandestine political violence. This article argues, however, that common understandings of communication over-emphasise its instrumental aspects and therefore cannot fully consider the term’s conceptual opportunities. In response, this article conceptualises an analytical approach to clandestine political violence within a social movement framework, according to a Luhmannian understanding of communication as the mode of social differentiation. The theoretical argument is illustrated by empirical examples from the era of “armed struggle” in Western Europe.

Keywords:

• communication theory
• social movement approaches
• Niklas Luhmann
• clandestine political violence

Notes

1. The term has been coined by della Porta as an analytical alternative to revolutionary non-state terrorism (della Porta 2013, 6–10).

2. While the papers of both German groups are published in edited volumes, communiqués of the CCC are accessible in the online archive of the International Institute for Social History in Amsterdam as of 11 December 2013 (see http://labourhistory.net/raf/browse.php).

3. “Disclose” is employed as a synonym for “communicate” in the sense of mitteilen. All further translations from Luhmann’s work are mine; wherever possible English versions have been used.

4. All translations from groups’ papers are mine.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Florian Edelmann

Florian Edelmann is a PhD candidate at the Department of International Politics, Aberystwyth University. His recent conference presentations include “Ill Communication: Revisiting the Links between Political Violence and Political Communication”, presented at the Annual CST Conference, Loughborough, 2013; “Political Violence as Communication: Revisiting the Boundaries of a Common Concept”, paper presented at the Annual ESA Conference, Torino, 2013; and “Complex Social System Thinking beyond Posthumanism: The Exclusion of Subjectivity and Possibilities for Human Agency”, paper presented at the Annual Millennium Conference, London, 2012.