Folter und Körperwissen – Notizen aus der laufenden Forschung

The comparative research project “Torture and Body Knowledge” analyzes how torture techniques (as enacted practices and as systematized blueprints for action) and body knowledge (as knowledge about the body and as incorporated knowledge) interact with each other. Thereby, the project combines perspectives from the sociology of the body, the sociology of violence, and the sociology of knowledge. Empirically, the project focusses on three torture complexes, namely torture by US agencies during the Cold War and the so-called ‘War on Terror’, by Argentinean and Chilean dictatorships in Latin America, and by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.

In addition to the project’s conceptualization, its research questions and aims, the contribution introduces to several points of discussion from the ongoing research. Based on the empirical findings from the three project areas, the team discusses questions pertaining the sociology of violence, which emerge from the analysis of torture as social interaction. These include the tension between assumptions of reciprocity versus othering, and between the violence of torture as an end in itself versus as a means to an end, as well as the asymmetric character of torture situations and the relevance of the “third”.