Narratives of Political Violence
An exploration of how political violence is constructed; this book presents the life stories of individuals once committed to political transformation through violent means in Portugal.
Challenging simplistic conceptualisations about the actors of violence, this book examines issues of temporality, gender and interpersonal dynamics in the study of political violence. It is the first comprehensive case study of political violence in Portugal, based on the perspectives of former militants. These are individuals from different political spheres who became convinced that they could not be mere spectators of the circumstances of their times. For them, the only viable way of making a difference was through violent acts. Applying the Dialogical Self Theory to trace the identity positions underpinning their narratives, this book not only sheds light on radicalisation and deradicalisation processes at the individual level, but also on the meso- and macro-level contexts that instigate engagement with and encourage disengagement from armed organisations.
This book will be of interest to students and scholars of critical terrorism studies, political violence, European history and security studies more generally.
Raquel da Silva is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in the International Development Department, University of Birmingham, UK.
Routledge Critical Terrorism Studies
Series Editor: Richard Jackson
University of Otago, New Zealand
This book series will publish rigorous and innovative studies on all aspects of terrorism, counter-terrorism and state terror. It seeks to advance a new generation of thinking on traditional subjects and investigate topics frequently overlooked in orthodox accounts of terrorism. Books in this series will typically adopt approaches informed by critical-normative theory, post-positivist methodologies and non-Western perspectives, as well as rigorous and reflective orthodox terrorism studies.
Hamas, Jihad and Popular Legitimacy
Reinterpreting Resistance in Palestine
Tristan Dunning
Terrorism, Talking and Transformation
A Critical Approach
Harmonie Toros
Russias Securitization of Chechnya
How War Became Acceptable
Julie Wilhelmsen
A Critical Theory of Counterterrorism
Ontology, Epistemology and Normativity
Sondre Lindahl
Narratives of Political Violence
Life Stories of Former Militants
Raquel da Silva
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Critical-Terrorism-Studies/book-series/RCTS
Narratives of Political Violence
Life Stories of Former Militants
Raquel da Silva
First published 2019
by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
2019 Raquel da Silva
The right of Raquel da Silva to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-1-138-54252-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-351-00840-2 (ebk)
Dedication: For Carla Machado, who planted the seed of this book; and for Filipe, whose steadfast support allowed me to make it a reality.
This book is the result of having dedicated a good part of the last decade of my life to the study of political violence in Portugal. I want to start by thanking all the Portuguese women and men who shared their life stories with me. I thank them for their trust, empathy and respect. I am also thankful to the Foundation for Science and Technology which funded much of the research for this book.
Throughout this journey, the unwavering support of several people has been essential to keep me going, to keep me sane and to keep me joyful. I am very grateful to Nicolas Lemay-Hbert, whose role as dissertation advisor and mentor has been invaluable. He has never been too busy to care for my project, to listen to me or to help me work out what to do next. His energy and passion are contagious and I am very fortunate to have knocked on the right door!
I want to thank Richard Jackson for supporting this project from day one and for all the useful advice which led me not only to turn my doctoral dissertation into a book, but to develop my research further through this book. This was also made possible through the work I developed with the amazing team of researchers from the Change Processes in Psychotherapy Research Group at the University of Minho, Portugal, in particular Catarina Rosa, Joana Silva, Pablo Frnandez-Navarro, and Miguel M. Gonalves. They introduced me to Dialogical Self Theory and helped me to take the first steps towards the analytical framework developed in this book. Their support has proved indispensable.
The relationship with the fantastic people at the Centre for Narrative Research at the University of East London Molly Andrews, Cigdem Esin, Aura Lounasmaa, to name just a few has also been a source of motivation. Their annual postgraduate research conference To Think is to Experiment provided a venue to test my ideas, gain inspiration and learn more about narrative research. The same applies to the ConnectFutures team Zubeda Limbada, Laura Zahra McDonald, and Lynn Davis. I admire their commitment to social justice and thank them for welcoming me into the team, and for their friendship and ongoing support. I am also very grateful to Jeremy Hollow and Michael Jaxa-Chamiec from Listen and Learn Research, who over the years have been infinitely patient and kind to me. Working with them helped me grow as a researcher and as a team member. I thank them for their example and for all the fun we have had together.
I also want to thank all the people who gave me feedback on my writing at various stages: Airi Lampinen, Josefin Graef, Ruth Densham, Diana Quigley, Molly Andrews, Paul Jackson, Catarina Rosa, Miguel M. Gonalves, Jon Catling, Monica Pinilla-Roncancio, Debs Condy, Susanna Samson, Julia Cole, Rosey Meiring, Emily Lange, Paddy Greenleaf, Sanne Weber, Megan Armstrong, Laura Zahra McDonald, Lynn Davis, Simon De Lay, Tom Hewitt, and Lou Carter. A big thank you to Alexandre Cardoso, who took the time to understand my rough sketches of figures and tables, then helped me improve them.
Parts of ) on behalf of the Academy of Social Sciences. I am grateful to Taylor and Francis for permission to use the material in this book, and to my co-authors of the second article.
