printViolence and War in the Focus of Macro- and Microsociological Analysis of Foreign Sociology
Obraztsov I.V.
Dr. Sci. (Sociol.), Prof., the Department of Sociology, Head of Sociological Laboratory, Moscow State Linguistic University, Moscow, Russia igorobraztsov@rambler.ru
Obraztsov I.V. Violence and War in the Focus of Macro- and Microsociological Analysis of Foreign Sociology. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2026. No 10. P. 165-172
Based on a comparative analysis of the contents of two new translated editions of Anglo-American sociological literature: S. Malešević’s “War and Society” (2026) and R. Collins’ “Violence. Microsociological Theory” (2025) it examines the role of violence and war in modern society. The authors analyze these social phenomena at the macro and micro levels. Macrosociological analysis by S. Malešević covers the relationship between war, violence and society through the prism of two historical processes that are of primary importance for explaining the dramatic growth of organized violence in the modern world: cumulative bureaucratization of violence and centrifugal (mass) ideologization. R. Collins examens violence as an unnatural phenomenon in interpersonal relationships at the micro level, and the mechanism of its manifestation is revealed through overcoming the barriers of “confrontational tension” and fear, primarily, through the search for a weak victim. He focuses on conflict situations in which violence occurs, its manifestation is fixed on the emotional and bodily levels. Despite the opposites, both approaches complement each other, revealing different aspects of the phenomena under consideration. To sum up, based on the analysis of the contents of the two analyzed publications, a conclusion is drawn about the advantages and disadvantages of current sociological translated literature on violence and war.
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