Davidovic, Maja
2026.
Ontological (in)security encounters and the epistemic violence of genocide denial.
Journal of Genocide Research
10.1080/14623528.2025.2609395
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Abstract
While existing scholarship highlights the importance of collectiveidentity as a driver for genocide denial by collective actors suchas states, such analysis typically focuses on the ontological needsof the collective Self without taking into consideration itssignificant Other(s). This article argues for a postcolonialunderstanding of genocide denial as an epistemically violentontological (in)security encounter between interconnected actors.Observing ontological (in)security encounters between epistemicsubjects reveals different power relations between the Self andthe Other at different stages of genocide, which shape thetrajectories of denial. A preparatory stage of genocide mightreveal a practice of epistemic violence with the purpose to createthe Other as a separate, inferior epistemic subject and normalize arelation of domination of the Self over the Other, while a post-genocide context might signal a less uneven, neverthelessantagonistic relationship of co-dependence between two epistemicauthorities. In situations of denial of historical genocides,otherness can also serve a source of mutual ontological securitywhere a relationship of coexistence, or co-constitutiveness, of theSelf and the Other becomes desirable. The main contribution ofthis article is offering a new interpretative framework forunderstanding the dynamics and trajectories of genocide denialand interrogating how it might be diminished or aggravated, inand through interactions between ontological security-drivenneeds by the communities involved. Denial is not merely a copingmechanism, but a vehicle of genocide with immense productivepower that creates, discredits or erases subjectivities of politicalactors to not only normalize the relations of domination but alsofulfil ontological needs of collective actors even after that relationof domination is transformed.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Date Type: | Published Online |
| Status: | In Press |
| Schools: | Schools > Cardiff Law & Politics |
| Subjects: | J Political Science > JZ International relations |
| Publisher: | Taylor and Francis Group |
| ISSN: | 1462-3528 |
| Funders: | British Academy Small Research Grant [Reference SRG2223\231337] |
| Date of First Compliant Deposit: | 5 January 2026 |
| Date of Acceptance: | 19 December 2025 |
| Last Modified: | 06 Jan 2026 11:30 |
| URI: | https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/183478 |
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