Il capro espiatorio. Quando la comunità volge al peggio

This article explores Girard’s ideas on the scapegoat. The aim of this paper is to identify some social and relational processes that transform a community into a place of violence and exclusion. Community studies highlight that community is ambivalent. Some scholars have proposed that the community is a social space of proximity, which responds to people’s need for identity, belonging and trust. Other scholars have observed that the community is a place of conflict, social control and violence. A sound research question is to understand what drives community towards violence. René Girard’s scapegoat theory identifies three fundamental mechanisms or strategies that leads community to violence: mimetic crisis, persecution and the spread of resentment.