La violence révolutionnaire

“Identity Work” and Clandestinity

“…Secondary literature has explored identity work from a meso-sociological approach focused on the dynamics of clandestine life in small radical institutions. Commitment to these collectives is presumed necessarily to imply “a major biographical rupture that involves renouncing a previous identity” [Sommier, 2008: 92]. In the case of guerrilla-type armed organizations, this rupture is accompanied by a “reconstruction of the identity of the organization’s members (men and women) in line with the combatant model” [see Felices-Luna, 2007].…”

“…This paradigm dominates the literature because of the acceptance of “a logic specific to clandestine life in radical institutions. This life is circumscribed, because commitment to this type of group requires a major biographical rupture that involves jettisoning previous identities in order to be literally reborn, in particular by adopting a nom de guerre, internalizing meticulously codified rules of conduct, and sometimes even resorting to mortification techniques, etc.” [Sommier, 2008: 92] 1 . The question of identity transformation in the course of integration into armed groups is a constant, to the point that engagement has been conceived as “identification” [Hardin, 1995: 7].…”

“…It is to this question that we will devote our analysis. Our study will focus primarily on the micro-sociological level because we have explored the contexts of involvement in these groups in depth elsewhere [Guibet Lafaye, 2019, 2020a], as have others [see Della Porta, 1995, 2013; Della Porta and Rucht, 1995; Sommier, 2008].…”

Violence as a Subject of Social Science I The Specificity of Political Violence

“…However, many elements contribute to make this difference rather vague: even some speak of a real "blurred limit" (Sommier, 1998(Sommier, , 2000(Sommier, , 2008. What weakens the opposition between "these two types of violence" is in the first place the moral bias.…”

L’autonomie politique dans l’Europe des années 1970 : approches transnationales d’un phénomène protéiforme

“…Dans ce sillage, la désagrégation de l'extrême gauche extra-parlementaire s'accélère. Outre de nombreux individus, des collectifs entiers comme le groupe Gramsci ou la Fédération communiste libertaire de Rome, en 1975 16 , rejoignent l'aire de l'autonomie. Ces ralliements poussent certains activistes autonomes à mettre en place des formes d'organisations plus formelles.…”