Vol. 15 No. 30 (2026): Perpetradores, políticas eliminacionistas, contextos y memoria colectiva en la España del siglo XX

Over the last two decades, studies of mass violence have progressively placed perpetrators at the centre of analysis. More recently, this process has been reinforced by the growing importance of perpetration-focused research; that is, research concerned with the contexts that make violence possible, the chains of command and decision-making processes that set it in motion, and the reasons why individuals become active participants in its execution. In this regard, both the study of contexts and that of perpetrators are essential for understanding collective crimes and their nature. On the one hand, structural analyses of reality provide explanations that are ultimately incomplete, which highlights the importance of contingency. On the other hand, the commission of violence is only possible through the personal and collective initiative of those individuals and groups who, for one reason or another, choose to take part in it. As such, this is one of the most dynamic and interdisciplinary fields within global historiography. With regard to the study of the Spanish Civil War and Francoism, it has already yielded significant results over the past decade. For this reason, we propose a special issue framed within these coordinates, bringing together six diverse contributions that reflect some of the most important ongoing lines of research in the field.