Structural Violence

Unit Author: K. Anne Pyburn, Indiana University

Description

Structural violence is a type of oppression that is difficult to see. It is usually easy to see that people are being harmed, but the reason for the harm, and the causes of the harm are often almost invisible, because they lie in the ways resources are distributed, not necessarily in the resources themselves. For example, people who live in rural areas, or in economically challenged urban areas may not have access to a good variety of healthy foods because distributors don’t believe certain foods will sell or because knowing there is no competition, they can still profit if they offer only poor-quality goods. People who shop in these “food deserts” may not know that they are not getting the variety offered to people in other places or realize that their food choices are unhealthy. Frequently people who are stuck in such situations get blamed by outsiders for choosing a poor diet.

Another example is school funding. If local taxes are used to fund schools, schools in areas where people are poor will get less support from taxes. These schools will have less resources (e.g., fewer computers and less lab equipment and shop tools), more crowded classrooms, less qualified teachers (better qualified teachers can get jobs in neighborhoods where the salary is better), etc. Of course, there are exceptions to this, but in general, poorer neighborhoods have poorer schools. The result is that children from poorer families get a poorer education and have little chance to use their education to improve their economic status. As with food deserts, people who are subject to poor educational opportunities are often blamed for not valuing education by people who live in areas with fewer disadvantages where more equipment and better teachers make school more engaging.

In both of these cases, the cause of the lack of good foods and good schools is unclear, and the disadvantage of poorer nutrition and poorer schooling may not seem like “violence,” but in reality, these unfair conditions have as much impact on people’s lives as physical violence. Poor nutrition results in physical shortcomings and affects learning ability in children and stamina in adults. Poorer educational backgrounds restrict access to better jobs and higher education. The people who decide where to send certain types of food and how to draw the boundaries around a taxation precinct are creating the “structure” that causes the problems, but they may not even realize the repercussions of their choices or take any responsibility for them.

Learning Goals

Students will become aware of some aspects of “normal” experience as specific to particular income groups, some cultural groups, and some localities.  They will also become aware that resource distribution both results in and is caused by human decisions that can be identified, evaluated and regulated. The underlying causes of will be demystified and students will be encouraged to participate in responsible political engagement in their communities.