Permission,obedience,and continuities: A contribution to the sociological theory of genocidal processes

Abstract

This article presents a theoretical reflection on genocidal processes. In the first place, we will propose the compatibility of the paradigm of permission with the paradigm of obedience, which would allow us to talk about tolerated genocidal acts, encouraged genocidal acts, and actively pursued genocidal acts. As we open up to the paradigm of permission this would lead us to challenge the explanations which regard genocidal processes as ruptures from civilization, from the moral order, and from the logic in everyday life in modern societies. It will be argued, in second place, that a paradigm of continuities would allow us to explore genocidal processes in a more accurate way. We will go on, then, in our third section, to the details of three processes which operate both in genocidal processes and in everyday life in modern societies: the categorization and construction of ‘others’, the construction of weakness, and the construction of superfluity.