‘Slow Violence’, Suicide, and the Robb Elementary School (Uvalde, TX) Mass Shooting
In the second episode of The Suicide Cultures podcast, Rebecca, Sarah, and Joe discuss the concept of ‘Slow Violence’ and how it helps us to understand suicide, as well as looking at the relationship between slow forms of violence and mass shootings in the United States. Slow Violence has been a useful concept within our project for examining how structural conditions of economic, social, and physical distress can create lives which are unlivable. Recorded on the morning after the tragic Uvalde mass shooting in the United States, we discuss how to make sense of these ongoing events and how they are often related to forms of suicidality. We end by discussing forms of resistance available to those caught in cycles of slow violence.
The articles below contain information about the victims of the mass shootings discussed in this episode.
Robb Elementary School, Uvalde, TX
https://www.thecut.com/2022/05/these-are-the-identified-uvalde-school-shooting-victims.html
Tops Friendly Markets store, Buffalo, NY
Title Music:
Sun Breaks Though the Clouds by Ketsa
Free Music Archive – Ketsa – 06 Sun-Breaks-The-Clouds
Show Notes for Episode 2:
Contact the Suicide Cultures team at: suicidecultures@ed.ac.uk
Or find us on Twitter: @suicidecultures
The Suicide Cultures project blog
The Suicide Cultures project website
The Suicide Cultures Events including our Seminar Series
References
Armstrong, S. (2020). At risk of rights: Rehabilitation, sentence management and the structural violence of prison. Critical Criminology, 28, 85-105. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-020-09503-7
De’Veaux, M. (2013). The trauma of the incarceration experience. Harvard Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Law Review, 48(1), 257–277.
Fisher, R. (2021). The unseen ‘slow violence’ that affects millions – BBC Future, BBC Future.
Mills, A., & Kendall, K. (2018). Care vs custody: Challenges in the provision of prison mental health care. In A. Mills & K. Kendall (Eds.), Mental health in prisons: Critical perspectives on treatment and confinement (pp. 101–129). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
Nixon, R. (2011). Slow violence and the environmentalism of the poor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
