The international conference proposed here explores the impact of armed conflict on psychosocial wellbeing in a comparative transregional perspective. The principle objective is to look beyond the presently popular concept of »war traumatisation« and to conceptualise the social character of the dynamics in question. The medical language of traumatisation systematically narrows the analytical focus by concentrating on the individual as well as on extraordinary cases. To understand the social dynamics and societal significance of war-related psychosocial suffering and to stimulate resilience in peacebuilding policies, moving beyond this individualizing perspective seems imperative. The conference employs the concept »idioms of distress« as a theoretical and methodological starting point. Developed by the social anthropologist Mark Nichter (1981), it draws attention to the culturally and historically contingent experiences and expressions of psychosocial suffering and has been widely discussed in health studies. It highlights that what is recognised as »mental illness« in the context of a Western-style public health system, might appear as »spirit possession« elsewhere. Distress resulting from war violence has played an important role in these debates; in peace and conflict studies, however, these works so far received but little attention. Yet, they conceptually resonate with a number of recent studies in this field, which approach the dynamics of war and violence from the perspective of experience. The conference crosses the latter with the »idioms of distress«-approache to open up perspectives for systematic comparative analyses of the social dynamics and societal significance of war-related psychosocial suffering. In particular it asks (a) how experiences of distress in war situations are produced by and for different sets of agents; (b) in which »languages« these experiences come to be expressed and are socially dealt with; (c) which institutions or organisations are involved in these processes; and (d) what are the implications on the level of public policies. The event operates at the intersection of different disciplines (especially sociology, psychology, social anthropology and philosophy) and different cultures of knowledge. It therefore brings together a group of scholars with expertise in different world regions, including colleagues coming from war-affected countries themselves. In the context of current debates the conference approach is particularly promising, as a better understanding of the social dynamics of war-related psychosocial suffering has major implications for research, treatment and policy making.
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