The Social Imaginary, Peace and Violent Masculinities

Political change is a process of engaging the social imagination, as much as it involves social and economic impacts. This re-imaging of our society in times of crisis and beyond, is deeply gendered, and maps onto understandings of violence, ‘the other’ and social division.

The lecture will explore the continuities and discontinuities in militarised violence into peace time, and the tensions between new (less violent) masculinities and wider inclusive social change. It will be argued that we need to move beyond a preoccupation with preventing violent masculinities from manifesting through using individual psychological understandings, to considering how hidden masculine cultures operate within a variety of hierarchies and social spaces.

Lecture by Brandon Hamber, John Hume and Thomas P. O’Neill Chair in Peace, International Conflict Research Institute (INCORE), Ulster University.

Response by Stephan Parmentier, professor sociology of crime, law, and human rights, Faculty of Law of the University of Leuven and coordinator of the Research Line on Human Rights and Transitional Justice at the Leuven Institute of Criminology.

The session is introduced by Heleen Touquet, holder of the Chair of European Values of the University of Antwerp.

Related events

University of Antwerp – Hof van Liere

To reach conference rooms de Tassis, Dürer and Prentenkabinet, enter the buildings of the city campus through the main entrance in the Prinsstraat 13. Then cross the small inner court. In the passage to the inner garden, enter the door on your left and climb the stairs. You will find the rooms “de Tassis” and “Dürer” on the second floor. Room “Prentenkabinet” is located on the first floor. People who have difficulty walking, can take the elevator. In the passage to the garden, you take the door on your right. The elevator is situated a bit further down the corridor on your right.