Dr Elena Simon, supported by Dr Remi Edwards, organised this exciting event that brought interdisciplinary conversations around global insecurity, war and violence together with a critical political economy lens. It invited contributions from colleagues both within the University and invited speakers from outside to discuss how the production and exercise of violence is embedded with social and economic relations.
In the roundtable chaired by Elena, Dr Anastasia Shesterinina spoke about her Civil War Paths project, which explores the relationality of war as a social process. Dr Anna Stavriankis spoke to the political economy of the arms trade and the potential of scholar-activism, and Muiz Muiz spoke to aesthetics and artistic representation of war from a design perspective. Next, Dr Beryl Pong continued the discussion of aesthetics, this time in relation to drone warfare. Finally, Dr Joanna Tidy spoke about her interest in how the stuff of war is produced and who performs that labour as a central question for understanding the contemporary political economy violence.
In the next session, we heard from authors of works-in-progress. Vicki Reif-Breitwieser presented an aspect of her doctoral research which explored the everyday violence of extractive industries, centering private actors as perpetrators of organised violence. Khem Rogaly of think tank Common Wealth presented findings from a developing report on the size and shape of the UK arms trade. Next, findings from a recently published report by Sheffield Campus Coalition for Palestine were presented, demonstrating the University’s links to arms trade with Israel. Lastly, Dr Joseph Ward and Dr Greg Stiles presented early ideas for research on the links between UK defence spending and deindustrialisation in South Yorkshire.
In the last session after lunch, participants put towards a collective research agenda for moving further towards a political economy of organised violence. We hope to run a blog series that speaks to this topic. If you are interested in contributing to this series, please read the call and fill in this form.