Victims of Political Violence and Terrorism : Making Up Resilient Survivors

"This book examines the survivors of political violence and terrorism, considering both how they have responded and how they have been responded to following critical incidents. As this work demonstrates, survivors of comparatively rare and spectacular violence hold a mirror up to society's normative assumptions around trauma, recovery and resilience. Drawing on two years of observational field research with a British NGO who works with victims and former perpetrators of PVT, this book explores contested notions of 'resilience' and what it might mean for those negotiating the aftermaths of violence. Examining knowledge about resilience from a multitude of sources, including security policy, media, academic literature and the survivors themselves, this book contends that in order to make empirical sense of resilience we must reckon with both its discursive and practical manifestations. An accessible and compelling read, this book will appeal to students and scholars of criminology, sociology, victimology, criminal justice and all those interested in the stories of survivors"-- Provided by publisher Cover 1 Endorsement 2 Half Title 4 Series Information 5 Title Page 6 Copyright Page 7 Dedication 8 Table of Contents 10 Acknowledgements 12 Introduction 14 Making Up Resilience 16 A Note On Theory and Method 19 Structure of the Book 21 Part I Resilience as Discourse and Practice 21 Part II Turning Points and Processes of Resilience 22 Part III Repurposing Resilience 24 References 27 Part I Resilience as Discourse and Practice 30 Chapter 1 Setting the Scene of the ‘Terror–Trauma–Resilience’ Nexus in the 21st Century 32 Declared Resilience in the Face of Terror and Trauma: An Ascendant Relationship? 33 Securing Resilience: Building ‘Bounce-Back-Ability’ Into Counterterrorism, Critical Incident Recovery, and Civil Society 37 Taking ‘Resilience’ Seriously 41 Shifts in Temporality: ‘Resilience’ as Always-Already 47 Conclusion 52 References 54 Chapter 2 To Survivors Themselves: Why, Where, and How to Study Survivors of Political Violence and Terrorism? 60 Why Turn to the Narratives of Survivors Themselves? 62 The Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace (FfP): A Brief History 66 Surviving What? How to (Not) Define Political Violence and Terrorism 69 Pre-Defining and A Priori Reasoning 73 Post-Defining and A Posteriori Reasoning 75 Dynamically ‘Defining’: Violence as Necessarily Contested 76 Making Sense of the Past in the Present: Making Up People 79 Conclusion 85 Note 86 References 86 Part II Turning Points and Processes of Resilience 92 Chapter 3 ‘Resilient’ to What?: Mapping the Impacts of Political Violence and Terrorism 94 Direct Impacts On Individual Survivors 95 Physical Injuries Over Time 95 Short-term Emotional Responses: Anger 97 Bereavement and Grief 101 Indirect Impacts On Survivors and Their Families 104 Long-term Emotional Responses: Fear, Anxiety, and Hypervigilance 104 Negotiating Media Attention 108 Effects On Personal Relationships 111 Conclusion 114 References 116 Chapter 4 Sources of Resilience for Survivors 118 Narrating Responses to Adversity: Inherent Resilience 119 Economic Factors 123 Victim Compensation 123 Communal Support Systems 125 Religion and Faith 127 Survivor Solidarity 129 Resilience as Doing: Practice-Oriented Support 134 The Foundation for Peace 134 Therapy and Counselling 137 Peace and Reconciliation Activities 139 Conclusion 141 References 143 Chapter 5 Exploring Temporalities of (In)Security and Resilience 145 Factors Influencing Retroactive and Prospective Narrative Formation 148 Violence ‘From Above’ and ‘From Below’: Official Inquests, Justice, and Peace Campaigning 148 Relating the Everyday to the Spectacular 155 Narrating Suffering and Journeys of Recovery 157 Embodied Proximity 158 Retroactive and Prospective Ways of Shaping ‘Resilience Narratives’: Two Ideal-Typical Cases 159 ‘They Want to Drag You Back and We Don’t Want to Be Dragged Back’ (Anne and Kevin) 160 ‘If I’d Still Have Been Working, I’d Be Flying High By Now’ (Chandani) 165 Conclusion 169 References 171 Part III Repurposing Resilience 174 Chapter 6 Temporality, Resistance, and Solidarity: The Making and Moulding of Resilient Survivor Communities 176 Accounting for Time Within Practices of Resilience 177 Making Space for Anger, Contestation, and Resistance Within Studies of Resilience 181 The Terrorism Survivor and Group Solidarity: ‘Making Up’ Resilient Survivor Communities 188 Conclusion 194 References 197 Chapter 7 Am I Invictus? 201 From the General to the Specific and Back Again: Five Framings of Resilience 204 Resilience as a Reformulation of Self Or Experience 208 Resilience as Group Solidarity 209 Resilience as Tacit Peer Support 210 Resilience as Transcending the Past 211 Resilience as Resisting Injustice 212 Survivor Resilience(s) 213 Responding to Harm and Bereavement: The Politics of Engaging With Victim Policy 216 Key Recommendations for Policy and Practice 218 Conclusion 221 References 223 Conclusion 226 Issues of Representation: A Methodological Note 226 ‘Mind the Gap’: Discourse, NGO Practice and ‘Feedback Loops’ 226 From ‘Public Issues’ to ‘Private Troubles’: Fostering a Sociological Imagination Back to Front? 230 Argumentum Ad Hominem: Researching a ‘Noisy’ Concept 231 Future Research Trajectories 236 Facing the Emotional Consequences of Suffering, Harm, and Loss: On Sameness and Difference, Uniqueness and Commonality 236 Further Inquiry Into the Temporal Dialectics of Ontological Security 237 Resilience in Action: The Making and Moulding of ‘Resilient’ Communities 238 Reappraising Violence and Its Spaces 238 Conclusion 239 References 242 Methodological Appendix 246 Research Questions 246 Research Design 247 Negotiating Access, Building Rapport, and Getting a Glimpse of Organisational Practice 247 Data Collection 248 Participant Information and Sample Diversity 250 Participant ‘Pen Portraits’ 254 Amanda 254 Anne 254 Barry 255 Bridget 255 Chandani 255 Claire 255 Colin 255 Danielle 256 Ganesh 256 George 256 Jane 256 John 256 Karen 256 Kathy 257 Kelly 257 Kevin 257 Liz 257 Louise 258 Lynn 258 Paul 258 Stephen 258 Data Analysis: Producing Ideal Types Using Abductive Reasoning 258 Research Ethics 262 References 265 Index 268 This book examines the survivors of political violence and terrorism, considering both how they have responded and how they have been responded to following critical incidents. As this work demonstrates, survivors of comparatively rare and spectacular violence hold a mirror up to societyâ••s normative assumptions around trauma, recovery, and resilience.Drawing on two years of observational field research with a British NGO who work with victims and former perpetrators of PVT, this book explores contested notions of â••resilienceâ•• and what it might mean for those negotiating the aftermaths of violence. Examining knowledge about resilience from a multitude of sources, including security policy, media, academic literature, and the survivors themselves, this book contends that in order to make empirical sense of resilience we must reckon with both its discursive and practical manifestations.An accessible and compelling read, this book will appeal to students and scholars of criminology, sociology, victimology, criminal justice, and all those interested in the stories of survivors.