The research area Interpretations examines the transformation of political violence through the perspective of shifting interpretative processes, social practices and individual as well as collective normative evaluations.
The research area explores how patterns of justification and meanings of political violence are evolving and how discourses, spaces, and memory practices contribute to reinterpreting violence. The city is examined as a central space for the practice and interpretation of violence. Since 2026, a joint research focus examines how conceptions of justice shape political conflicts.
The most relevant publications from research area Interpretations are compiled on the “Highlights” publications page.
The current research focus Justice and Justifications: Contested Interpretations and Spaces of Political Violence examines how notions of justice influence political conflicts and their interpretations. In particular, the researchers analyze how justice is mobilized, contested, and used in different contexts and spaces of political violence. The researchers analyze claims for justice and recognition of past experiences of violence. They also examine how different demands of justice can transform conflicts and, in some cases, exacerbate them. The researchers also examine how interpretations of violence are used to justify non-state or state violence, such as the securitization of urban spaces, and how normative judgments regarding the justification of political violence are grounded. The researchers clearly distinguish between law and justice because demands for justice often challenge or exceed existing legal frameworks, particularly in contexts of authoritarian or systemic violence. This research combines theoretical perspectives and case studies from various regions worldwide to foster a better understanding of political violence, its interpretation, and the processes by which it is socially legitimized.
Based on the interpretive authority of powerful actors, the work package Interpretation of Violence examines how the patterns of justification and attributions of meaning associated with political violence change, and the consequences of these changes. Drawing on the case study of Colombia, one focus is set on the effect that legacies of violence (e.g., colonial norms and practices) have on recent developments in violence, peace processes, and the persistence of authoritarian structures. In another project, researchers analyze how re-interpretations of historical violence were achieved and their influence on political relations, drawing on the recognition of colonial genocides (specifically against the Herero and Nama in former German South West Africa and against indigenous peoples in settler-colonial states).
The work package Memory of Violence explores the influence of the heritage and memory boom observed since the 1980s and 1990s on societal reinterpretations of violence. Drawing on case studies from various parts of the world, researchers examine the extent to which protest against historical heroization, such as by toppling of monuments, draws attention to marginalized victims, perpetrators, and forms of violence: Can or does this bring counter-public discourses to the forefront of social debate, and thereby eventually transform official commemorative culture?
The Interpretation of Violence in the City work package is dedicated to a historical analysis of violence in street protests. It focuses on the city as a central space for the practice and interpretation of violence. Using archival studies, interviews, and visual analyses of urban protests in European metropolises and the U.S., researchers trace the different actors and types of violence involved in order to understand forms of violence, transformations in modes of action and containment under conditions of cities. Furthermore, they investigate urban terrorism and the connections and interactions between the city as a diverse social space and specific forms of Islamist terrorism.