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Thesis - Hate Violence Attacks Bodies, Identities, and Futures

Andersen, Helena LU (2024) CCRM20 20241
Sociology
Abstract
This thesis examines the experiences of LGBTQIA+ persons in Latin America, when they are targeted with hate violence. The study is based on 21 in-depth, qualitative interviews from persons affiliated with IRCA CASABIERTA, a non-governmental organization in San José, Costa Rica, working with LGBTQIA+ migrants, typically from other Latin American countries. The study works through a post structural and social constructivist lens, by applying a theoretical framework from Judith Butler, looking into linguistic vulnerability, injurious speech, and regulation of bodies. This approach is accompanied by concepts from Richard Jenkins, Erving Goffman, Raewyn Connell, and Pierre Bourdieu, which aid and complement the analytical scope. The study aims... (More)
This thesis examines the experiences of LGBTQIA+ persons in Latin America, when they are targeted with hate violence. The study is based on 21 in-depth, qualitative interviews from persons affiliated with IRCA CASABIERTA, a non-governmental organization in San José, Costa Rica, working with LGBTQIA+ migrants, typically from other Latin American countries. The study works through a post structural and social constructivist lens, by applying a theoretical framework from Judith Butler, looking into linguistic vulnerability, injurious speech, and regulation of bodies. This approach is accompanied by concepts from Richard Jenkins, Erving Goffman, Raewyn Connell, and Pierre Bourdieu, which aid and complement the analytical scope. The study aims to unveil how hate violence permeates lived experiences in various life domains of LGBTQIA+ persons. By applying a holistic approach in understanding the workings of hate violence attacks, the study examines life domains as the objects of attack, rather than categories of violence, as is usually the framework for violence studies. Here, the study identifies three life domains that are predominantly attacked and impacted by hate violence, which are: the body, the identity, and the future. The study contributes to the existing field, by introducing a novel way of understanding hate violence as a disruption of entire life domains, which builds on and adds to pre-existing understandings of hate crime and hate violence. (Less)
Popular Abstract
Popular science summary
Hate crime, or bias motivated crime, is defined as a criminal act against a person, or several people, which is executed based on a represented minority of difference from, what others consider to be the norm. This can entail attacks on people, because of their religious beliefs, skin colour, gender, country of origin, sexual orientation, and many other such representations. Different countries have different definitions of hate crime written into their penal codes, while some have none at all. Hate violence, is used to describe acts of violence based on bias, against minorities or marginalized people, whether it be criminalized in a given country, or not. Thereby, hate violence describes the act of hate violence,... (More)
Popular science summary
Hate crime, or bias motivated crime, is defined as a criminal act against a person, or several people, which is executed based on a represented minority of difference from, what others consider to be the norm. This can entail attacks on people, because of their religious beliefs, skin colour, gender, country of origin, sexual orientation, and many other such representations. Different countries have different definitions of hate crime written into their penal codes, while some have none at all. Hate violence, is used to describe acts of violence based on bias, against minorities or marginalized people, whether it be criminalized in a given country, or not. Thereby, hate violence describes the act of hate violence, in various forms, rather than judicially, regionally, ratified ones.
This thesis focuses on hate violence attacks in Central- and Latin America, and the Caribbean, targeting LGBTQIA+ persons, which stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual, and more. The study was carried out with qualitative interview methods, by interviewing 21 individuals. The interviews are the center of the thesis, where post structural and social constructivist social theories have been applied to analyze the testimonies from the informants. These perspectives see all social and societal life as constructed by humans, human history, and human politics, meaning that nothing can be taken for granted, and everything currently considered as normal, could potentially be very different, if people saw it differently.
Typically, hate violence and violence in general, is understood through different categories, such as physical, phycological, institutional violence, etc. Hate violence is furthermore seen as targeting the whole community, in this case the LGBTQIA+ community, through an attack on one of few individuals. This study looks into how LGBTQIA+ persons are affected by hate violence, and how that in turn reflects on what hate violence truly is attacking in people’s lives. In this thesis, hate violence attacks are presented to attack people’s bodies, their identities, and their futures. This may sound simple, nevertheless all three of these areas of lived experiences are fairly complex and have not previously been conceptualized as targets of hate violence, in the way they are presented in this thesis. Moreover, the body, identity, and future are interlinked, why there are overlaps between attacks on the three “life domains”.
A trigger warning is in order before reading the result chapters, as some testimonies can be difficult to read, as they at times concern severe, violent, and heartbreaking lived experiences. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Andersen, Helena LU
supervisor
organization
course
CCRM20 20241
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Key words: hate violence, LGBTQIA+, Latin America, normativity, linguistic vulnerability, gender border control, regulation, life domains.
language
English
id
9169384
date added to LUP
2024-06-28 15:57:40
date last changed
2024-06-28 15:57:40
@misc{9169384,
  abstract     = {{This thesis examines the experiences of LGBTQIA+ persons in Latin America, when they are targeted with hate violence. The study is based on 21 in-depth, qualitative interviews from persons affiliated with IRCA CASABIERTA, a non-governmental organization in San José, Costa Rica, working with LGBTQIA+ migrants, typically from other Latin American countries. The study works through a post structural and social constructivist lens, by applying a theoretical framework from Judith Butler, looking into linguistic vulnerability, injurious speech, and regulation of bodies. This approach is accompanied by concepts from Richard Jenkins, Erving Goffman, Raewyn Connell, and Pierre Bourdieu, which aid and complement the analytical scope. The study aims to unveil how hate violence permeates lived experiences in various life domains of LGBTQIA+ persons. By applying a holistic approach in understanding the workings of hate violence attacks, the study examines life domains as the objects of attack, rather than categories of violence, as is usually the framework for violence studies. Here, the study identifies three life domains that are predominantly attacked and impacted by hate violence, which are: the body, the identity, and the future. The study contributes to the existing field, by introducing a novel way of understanding hate violence as a disruption of entire life domains, which builds on and adds to pre-existing understandings of hate crime and hate violence.}},
  author       = {{Andersen, Helena}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Thesis - Hate Violence Attacks Bodies, Identities, and Futures}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}