Paper short abstract:

This paper analyses the relationship between conflict, social invisibility and potentiality. It looks at 'visions of violence' and shows how anticipations of conflict influence the unfolding of individual and social life.

Paper long abstract:

This paper analyses the relationship between conflict, social invisibility and potentiality. It looks at 'visions of violence' and shows how anticipations of conflict influence the unfolding of individual and social life. Taking its empirical point of departure in fieldwork conducted in the cities of Belfast and Bissau the paper illuminates the way futures are sought foretold and prospects negotiated, as people attempt to pre-empt negative social development and avoid potentially violent events. In doing so, the paper will demonstrate how violence, in both Belfast and Bissau, is seen as an underlying possibility; an imagined oncoming event residing in the prospective shadow of the present.