Generations and Violence

This book offers a qualitative cohort analysis in a comparative case study of national identity and political violence in the Basque and Kurdish contexts.Rooted in the author’s work concerning social reproduction mechanisms of political violence, it examines two non-state politico-military organizations, Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA, Basque Homeland and Freedom) and Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan (PKK, Kurdistan Workers’ Party), the vanguard actors of two long-lasting ethnic conflicts in Spain and Turkey. It draws upon in-depth interviews conducted in the Basque Country and Kurdistan with former and active militants of both organizations who exercised violent practices to show how individuals within certain age groups share a specific range of experiences, a particular mode of thought, and historically relevant actions. This generational analysis illuminates a cause-and-effect relationship explaining the emergence and continuity of armed struggle in specific time intervals.This volume will therefore appeal to a wide range of scholars and researchers of sociology, social movement, history, political sciences, and anthropology.