C. Wright Mills and the Ending of Violence

Why has communal violence more or less ended in Northern Ireland and South Africa? What enabled peace settlements to be negotiated and to be accepted by large sections of the population? Why is Northern Ireland's peace process more fragile than South Africa's? This book argues that it is possible to develop a sociological framework to explain the emergence and progress of the peace process in these two ethnically structured societies that began at roughly the same time to dismantle centuries-old division and conflict. The framework is drawn from C. Wright Mills's account of the 'sociological imagination', and is distinguished by the view that a sociological understanding must demonstrate the intersection between individual biographical experience, social structural changes, historical forces and developments and events in the political process. This case is used to clarify Mills's use of the term and to outline his amibtions for a re-imagined sociology. It addresses itself to readers who wish to know more about the potential of Mills's sociology and to those interested in the ending of violence in Northern Ireland and South Africa.

Table of Contents:
Preface and Acknowledgements Introduction: Conflict, Violence and Peace C. Wright Mills and the Sociological Imagination The Historical Specificity of the Peace Process Individual Biographical Experiences and Peace The Intersection of Politics and the Social Structure Conclusion: The Sociological Imagination and the Peace Process Bibliography Index

About the Author :
JOHN D. BREWER is Professor of Sociology at the Queen's University of Belfast. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 1998. Visiting appointments have been held at Yale University, St John's College, Oxford, Corpus Christi College Cambridge, and the Australian National University in Canberra. This is his thirteenth book.

Review :
'I found [Brewer's work] full of interest and have certainly learned a great deal from it. The idea of drawing upon and applying Mills to [this] field of study is one which I liked and it works...a scholarly piece of work on a timely topic.' - John Eldridge, Professor of Sociology, University of Glasgow, UK 'There is an inevitable tension between writing about C. Wright Mills and doing the kind of comparative analysis done here...it works. I ended up with a much better understanding of what Mills was on about [and] the Northern Ireland-South Africa comparison worked very well. I learnt a lot.' - David McCrone, Professor of Sociology, University of Edinburgh, UK