Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Structure, Agency and Victimization: On the Ethics of Scientific Writing

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Beyond Sociology

  • 317 Accesses

Abstract

During the last decades, development discourse has taken a neo-liberal turn. In parallel with this, the discourse of social science has become more oriented to matters of individual agency.

Within the sociological and anthropological literature on development, this emphasis on individual agency is often expressed in terms of an explicit statement taken by the author that s/he wishes to correct an earlier (ethically inferior) emphasis on structure that is assumed to imply that the concerned people are passive victims. Problematizing this ethics of scientific writing, this chapter takes a look at various discourses in which the concept of victimhood is used, seeing claims and disclaimers of victimhood as themselves being expressions of agency in a contestation over accountability, responsibility, recognition and possible indemnification or blame. Further, the chapter questions the idea of ‘agency’ as a generalizable quality on which a differentiated evaluation of co-humans should or could be made.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    (DN: 21 Sept. 2005).

  2. 2.

    In line with much post-structuralist writing on the complexities of the self, Kelly et al. (1996: 91–94) direct a similar criticism against the dichotomy of victim versus survivor as homogenizing the subject itself too much. The two opposites reflect subject positions and emotional states that the individual can alternate between or maintain parallel to each other (cf.Springer fn 19).

References

  • Agevall, C. (2001). Konstruktionen av offer i den rättsliga argumentationen om våldtäkt. En problematisering av hur föreställningar om kön och sexualitet inverkar på förståelsen av våldtäkt. In Brottsoffer i fokus. De vinnande bidragen i Brottsoffermyndighetens uppsatstävling. Stockholm: Brottsoffermyndigheten.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alley, N., et al. (1998). Health Promotion Lifestyles of Women Experiencing Crises. Journal of Community Health Nursing, 15, 2.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, P. (1980). Arguments Within English Marxism. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourgois, P. (1995). In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Callon, M. (1986). Some Elements of a Sociology of Translation: Domestication of the Scallops and the Fishermen of St Brieuc Bay. In J. Law (Ed.), Power, Action and Belief: A New Sociology of Knowledge (pp. 196–233). London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carmona, L. (1998). Cultural Influence on Just World Beliefs. Retrieved from http://www.units.muohio.edu/psybersite/justworld/culture.shtml

  • Christie, N. (1986). The Ideal Victim. In E. A. Fattah (Ed.), From Crime Policy to Victim Policy (pp. 17–30). London: The Macmillan Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Clarke, L. (2003). How Ought We to Understand the Concept of ‘Rhetorical Agency’: A Statement on the Potential of Logos Within Speakers, Writers, and Audience. Retrieved from http://www.comm.umn.edu/ARS/Agency/clarke,%20agency.htm

  • De Welde, K. (2003). Getting Physical: Subverting Gender Through Self-Defense. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 323, 247–278.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Denfeld, R. (1995). The New Victorians: A Young Woman’s Challenge to the Old Feminist Order. New York: Warner Books and Sydney: Allen & Unwin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fairclough, N. (1989). Language and Power. London: Longman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Flood, M. (1999). Victim Feminism and Power Feminism. Guest lecture to the course ‘Introducing Women’s Studies: The Public Life of Feminism, Department of Women’s Studies, Australian National University. Retrieved from http://www.europrofem.org/contri/contr_en.htm

  • Furnham, A., & Procter, E. (1989). Belief in a Just World: Review and Critique of the Individual Difference Literature. British Journal of Social Psychology, 28, 365–384.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Galtung, J. (1969). Violence, Peace and Peace Research. Journal of Peace Research, 63, 167–191.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gardner, K., & Lewis, D. (1996). Anthropology, Development and the Post-Modern Challenge. London: Pluto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giddens, A. (1979). Central Problems in Social Theory. London: Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Giddens, A. (1993). New Rules of Sociological Method. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilligan, C. (2003). Constant Crisis/Permanent Process: Diminished Agency and Weak Structures in the Northern Ireland Peace Process. The Global Review of Ethnopolitics, 3(1), 22–37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gunnarsson, S., Hatt, K., & Åberg, E. (1999). Starka och handlingskraftiga människor? En studie om den u-landsbild några organisationer i biståndssektorn förmedlar. Diploma Paper, GI/IHR, Stockholm University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Halkier, B. (2004). Handling Food-Related Risks: Political Agency and Governmentality. In M. Lien & B. Nerlich (Eds.), The Politics of Food. Oxford: Berg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harrison, F. W. (1995). Writing Against the Grain: Cultural Politics of Difference in the World of Alice Walker. In R. Behar & D. Gordon (Eds.), Women Writing Culture. Berkeley: University of California.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heidegger, M. (1927). Sein und Zeit (J. Macquarrie & E. Robinson, Trans. 1978 as Being and Time). Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heider, F. (1958). The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations. New York: Wiley.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, W. (2003). On Agency. Journal of Social History, 371, 113–124.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones, E. E., Kannouse, D. E., Kelley, H. H., Nisbett, R. E., Valins, S., & Weiner, B. (Eds.). (1972). Attribution: Perceiving the Causes of Behavior. Morristown, NJ: General Learning Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kelly, L., Burton, S., & Regan, L. (1996). Beyond Victim or Survivor: Sexual Violence, Identity and Feminist Theory and Practice. In L. Adkins & V. Merchant (Eds.), Sexualising the Social: Power and the Organisation of Sexuality. London: Macmillan Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kleinman, A. (1997). Writing at the Margin: Discourse Between Anthropology and Medicine. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Lamb, S. (1999). Introduction. In S. Lamb (Ed.), New Versions of Victims: Feminists Struggle with the Concept. New York, NY: New York University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leymann, H. (1986). Vuxenmobbing. Om psykiskt våld i arbetslivet. Lund: Studentlitteratur.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindgren, M. (2004). Brottsoffer i rättsprocessen: om ideala brottsoffer och goda myndigheter. PhD Thesis, Stockholm University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindgren, M., Pettersson, K.-Å., & Hägglund, B. (2001). Brottsoffer. Från teori till praktik. Stockholm: Jure.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mahler, I., Greenberg, L., & Hayashi, H. (1981). A Comparative Study of Rules of Justice: Japanese Versus American. Psychologia, 24, 1–8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mahmood, S. (1996). Interview with Talal Asad in Mahmood 1996: Modern Power and the Reconfiguration of Religious Tradition. SEHR, 5, 1. Retrieved from http://www.stanford.edu/group/SHR/5-1/text/Asad in Mahmood 1996.html

  • Mc Leer, A. (1998). Saving the Victim: Recuperating the Language of the Victim and Reassessing Global Feminism. Hypatia, 13(1), 42.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meillassoux, C. (1981). Maidens, Meal and Money. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Niven, B. (Ed.). (2006). Germans as Victims. Remembering the Past in Contemporary Germany. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • OED Oxford English Dictionary Online. (1989). ‘agency, n’. In J. A. Simpson & E. S. C. Weiner (Eds.), Oxford English Dictionary (2nd ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. OED Online. Oxford University Press. Retrieved April 29, 2003, from http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/00004308; and ‘faculty, n.’ Oxford English Dictionary Online. Retrieved April 29, 2003, from http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/00081572

  • Peale, N. V. (1952). The Power of Positive Thinking. Ballantine Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pelak, C. F. (2005). Negotiating Gender/Race/Class Constraints in the New South Africa. A Case of Women’s Soccer. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 401, 53–70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Poluha, E. (2004). The Power of Continuity—Ethiopia Through the Eyes of its Children. Uppsala: Nordic Africa Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pottier, J. (1999). Anthropology of Food: The Social Dynamics of Food Security. Malden, MA/Cambridge: Blackwell/Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Povey, E. R. (2003). Women in Afghanistan: Passive Victims of the Borga or Active Social Participants? Development in Practice, 13(2 & 3), 266–277. Oxford: Oxfam.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ramphele, M. (1997). Political Widowhood in South Africa: The Embodiment of Ambiguity. In A. Kleinman, V. Das, & M. Lock (Eds.), Social Suffering. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roiphe, K. (1993). The Morning After: Sex, Fear and Feminism. London: Hamish Hamilton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rose, N. (1999). Powers of Freedom: Reframing Political Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Roseberry, W. (1993). Beyond the Agrarian Question in Latin America. In F. Cooper, A. Isaacman, F. Mallon, W. Roseberry, & S. Stern (Eds.), Confronting Historical Paradigms. Madison, WI: Wisconsin University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shiva, V. (1992). The Seed and the Earth: Biotechnology and the Colonisation of Regeneration. Development Dialogue, 12, 151–168.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, G. (1999). Confronting the Present. Towards a Politically Engaged Anthropology. Oxford: Berg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sperber, D. (1982). Apparently Irrational Beliefs. In M. Hollis & S. Lukes (Eds.), Rationality and Relativism (pp. 149–180). Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stringer, R. (2001). Blaming Me, Blaming You: Victim Identity in Recent Feminism. Outskirts: Feminisms Along the Edge 8. Special issue ed. Chilla Bulbeck. Online Journal. Retrieved from http://www.chloe.uwa.edu.au/outskirts/contents.html

  • Sunstein, C. R. (1997/1991). Preferences and Politics. In R. E. Gooding & P. Pettit (eds.), Contemporary Political Philosophy. An Anthology. Oxford: Blackwell. Originally published in Philosophy and Public Affairs, 20, 3–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ther, P. (2006). The Burden of History and the Trap of Memory. Retrieved from http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-08-21-ther-en.html

  • Thomas, A. M., & Kitzinger, C. (1997). Sexual Harassment: Reviewing the Field. In A. M. Thomas & C. Kitzinger (Eds.), Sexual Harassment: Contemporary Feminist Perspectives. Buckingham, PA: Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thompson, E. P. (1963). The Making of the English Working Class. London: Gollancz.

    Google Scholar 

  • van der Ploeg, J. D. (1990). Labor, Markets and Agricultural Production. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weiner, B. (1986). An Attributional Theory of Motivation and Emotion. New York: Springer-Verlag.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wolf, N. (1993). Fire with Fire: The New Female Power and How it will Change the Twenty-First Century. London: Chatto and Windus.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

    Gudrun Dahl

Authors
  1. Gudrun Dahl
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai, India

    Ananta Kumar Giri

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Dahl, G. (2018). Structure, Agency and Victimization: On the Ethics of Scientific Writing. In: Giri, A. (eds) Beyond Sociology. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6641-2_9

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6641-2_9

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-10-6640-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-10-6641-2

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation