Peacebuilding &conflict transformation A ... - Peaceworkafrica

▶ unequal prosperity between the various ‘worlds’▶ limited life chances due to environmental pollution▶ hindrance of emancipatory endeavoursStructural violence is embedded in the system; it is impersonal, as generally no personalactor or perpetrator can be identified, although it creates victims: individualsare harmed, crippled or killed. The actors are not individuals but specific organizationalor social structures. The violence is carried out by strategic actions or manipulationthat are based on structures as values, norms or institutions. Structural violenceis built into many systems that operate without taking into account the needsof others, or, purposely inflict suffering. Mostly a whole network of structures andresponsibilities are involved and often pervasive factors are built into politics or thefabrics of societies.The underlying problems of structural violence are unequal power relationsamong actors (power to decide over the distribution of resources) and systematicdisadvantages against those who do not hold as much — if any — power at all 16 . Inother words, structural violence is the fundament on which economic and socialinequalities are built, followed by unequal life‐chances (i.e.: unequal income distribution,education opportunities etc.).When one husband beats his wife there is a clear case of personal violence,but when one million husbands keep one million wives in ignorancethere is structural violence.Violence in this light does not assume that a person or group feels violence directedagainst them individually. Sometimes structural violence is not even realized, as thelimited norms of life are internalized. As far as Galtung is concerned, structural violenceis synonymous with social injustice 17 .Examples:▶ Injustices of the worldwide system for the trade in goods, which createsmore and more starving people every year.▶ Global conditions, policies by international institutions (G7, GATT, IMF)buttress the unequal distribution of resources: creating conditions that resultin severe poverty of many that is certainly avoidable, while at the same timeothers continue to dominate in terms of wealth.▶ Racial inequality. For example, many Afro-Americans in the US: an unjuststructure of inequality historically rooted in slavery perpetuates constraints inpeople and unequal opportunities in education, access to medical care and justiceand stable employment.▶ Industrial pollution. For example: The consumption-driven and high-en er gy -4 . D i m e n s i o n s o f v i o l e n c e 151