TY  - JOUR
A1  - Mackert, Jürgen
T1  - In the name of the state the secret society of the torturers
T2  - Berliner Journal für Soziologie = Journal de sociologie de Berlin
N2  - Torture is an extreme act of collective violence that is secretly executed in the name of a state. In order to explain the reasons why people torture others, individualist approaches concentrate on individuals' motives or interests. Contrary to that, the article argues that torture should be understood as a social relation. Thus, it takes the social relations of the group of torturers as a starting point. Firstly, following Georg Simmel's analysis of the secret society the paper argues that the group of torturers can adequately be conceptualized as a secret society; secondly, against this background the article reconstructs the conditions which structure torturers' agency; finally, this article offers an outline of the processes and dynamics that allows for explaining the phenomenon of torture. The thesis of the article argues that a relational sociology helps better explain and understand the social phenomenon of torture.
KW  - Torture
KW  - Secret society of torturers
KW  - Georg Simmel
KW  - Relational sociology
KW  - Processes
KW  - Dynamics
KW  - Explanation
Y1  - 2011
UR  - https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/36561
SN  - 0863-1808
VL  - 21
IS  - 3
SP  - 431
EP  - 459
PB  - Springer
CY  - Wiesbaden
ER  -