VIOLENCE IN THE SYSTEM

Phenomenologically sociology is able to show that the problem of viole nce consists of the paradox of violence being simultaneously produced, and excluded, by society. Theoretically, however, sociology is unable to live up to this paradox. It offers two notions of violence, which are the notions of physical, and of structural, violence. These two no tions refer to the two sides of the paradox neatly separated from each other. The article tries to develop a sociological notion of violence which can stand the paradox. Violence is understood as forced attribu tion of communication to action. Yet this notion operationalizes the p aradox without resolving it. A resolution indeed appears to be impossi ble. That is because the foundation of the paradox is society itself.