War, violence and masculinities: introduction and perspectives

Abstract

The evolution and social constitution of masculinities are intimately linked to violence and to warfare as an organised field of violent practices. The present issues of NORMA explore the mutual influences between violence, war and masculinities, the forms these have taken in different social and cultural contexts and the implications for masculinity research. The issues cover a range of historical and current topics, cases and analytical approaches. The contributions fall into the following four themes: violent masculine rituals and how contemporary societies cope with extreme violence against women; popular written and visual fiction about war and masculine rationalities; gender relations in social movements of rebellions and national transformation and finally masculinity in civil society under conditions of war. In this introductory article we present the four themes and contextualise and summarise the contributions. In conclusion we discuss perspectives and challenges for the study of violence, war and masculinities.

Keywords:

• war
• violence
• gender
• culture
• resistance

Notes on contributors

Ann-Dorte Christensen is a Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology and Social Work, Aalborg University, Denmark; Director of the Centre for Masculinity Studies at Aalborg University and co-editor of Norma, International Journal for Masculinity Studies. Within masculinity studies she has been writing on hegemonic masculinity and intersectionality; masculinity ideals; masculinity risk and safety; violence in left-wing movements; marginalised masculinities and the intersections on class, ethnicity and gender.

Palle Rasmussen is professor of education and learning research in the Department of Learning and Philosophy, Aalborg University, where he directs the Centre for Education Policy and Evaluation Research. His research areas include education policy, lifelong learning, professional education, gender and education as well as social theory, and he has published extensively in these fields.