The traditional social system as an obstacle to social change, a reading of Slimane Medhar’s book "social violence in Algeria"

Abstract

The current article is a rereading of the work of Slimane Medhar entitled social violence in Algeria, published for the first time in 1997 and republished several times.

  Despite the signs of modernity that characterize today’s Algerian society, and the psycho-sociological, socio-cultural and socio-economic changes it has experienced since the independence of Algeria, it still remains dependent on a traditional social system that uses different types of physical and symbolic violence to ensure sustainability.   

This article is an opportunity to present this book to the Arabic-speaking readership, indeed, this book can play the role of an analytical grid that can help us better understand the dynamics of Algerian society because of the political impasse in which the country finds itself these last moments, while basing itself on psycho-sociological, sociological and anthropological data which, according to Medhar, shows the anchoring of violence in the Algerian traditional and political systems.

At the end of our review, we concluded that the signs of this pre-existing traditional social system still remain, despite some signs of change that remain to be confirmed. In addition, the data and analyzes presented in this work must be updated via surveys in the four corners of the country with more methodological rigor and traceability.