Description

CRG Book Launches 21

Le plus grand des maux: Sociologie des guerres civiles by Gilles Dorronsoro

(The greatest of evils: Sociology of civil wars)

Koen Vlassenroot (CRG) in conversation with  Gilles Dorronsoro ( Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) 

Date: 5 May 2026 (Tuesday),

Time: 11:00–12:30 CET

Venue: Room 301 John Vincke (Third Floor), Technicum 1, UFO Campus, Ghent University, Belgium.

Language: English

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

Contrary to a widespread belief that confines them to the Global South, civil wars are a universal phenomenon that, by calling into question the self-evidence of routines, makes visible what underpins the reproduction of social order. Drawing on fieldwork, the author develops both a comparative and qualitative approach to contemporary civil wars as violent confrontations between social orders, based on three hypotheses.

First, far from being purely internal processes, civil wars are transnational phenomena whose dynamics depend on the constraints, resources, and norms of the international system. Second, the formation of an insurgent social order involves the establishment of new institutions that transform society in its most fundamental aspects: gender relations, property rights, and hierarchies between groups. Finally, civil wars create the conditions for a transformation in the relationship between habitus, strategy, and reflexivity. As a result, the possibilities for developing such strategies are limited due to a high degree of uncertainty, leading to a proliferation of short-term strategies aimed at avoidance, adaptation, or survival.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: 

Gilles Dorronsoro is professor of political science. Among his latest publications : Une si prévisible défaite. Le gouvernement transnational de l'Afghanistan, Karthala 2021, Le gouvernement des Kurdes. Gouvernements partisans et ordres sociaux alternatifs, Karthala 2023.