Abstract
Vigilantism, no doubt, is a global phenomenon cutting across both developed and developing societies. Nevertheless, it did not attract scholarly attention and academic treatment until the late 1980s. Too often, however, analyses of vigilantes recount vigilante activities in specific nations of the world. This book presents the form vigilantism takes in a global context. The authors challenge the link between vigilantism and globalization, which they think merely provides a partial explanation of vigilante violence. Rather they argue that the long ‘historical trajectories, and particular cultural repertoires are proximate and pressing imperatives’ behind vigilantism. Thus, the book is a collection of papers that investigate the localized meanings and imperatives of vigilantism using a methodology which focuses on an examination of the theoretical nature, everyday popular uses, public discourses and empirical reality of vigilantism. The papers rely on the long-standing ethics and practices concerned with protecting and defending communities. Drawing on the activities of vigilantes in different parts of the world: America, Ireland, Russia, Palestine, South Africa, India, Nigeria, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Mozambique, the authors capture the complexity of vigilantism within the context of global rhetorics of security and insecurity, order and disorder.