Polarized and Demobilized

Author(s):  
Dana El Kurd

After the 1994 Oslo Accords, Palestinians were hopeful that an end to the Israeli occupation was within reach, and that a state would be theirs by 1999. With this promise, international powers became increasingly involved in Palestinian politics, and many shadows of statehood arose in the territories. Today, however, no state has emerged, and the occupation has become more entrenched. Concurrently, the Palestinian Authority has become increasingly authoritarian, and Palestinians ever more polarised and demobilised. Palestine is not unique in this: international involvement, and its disruptive effects, have been a constant across the contemporary Arab world. This book argues that internationally backed authoritarianism has an effect on society itself, not just on regime-level dynamics. It explains how the Oslo paradigm has demobilised Palestinians in a way that direct Israeli occupation, for many years, failed to do. Using a multi-method approach including interviews, historical analysis, and cutting-edge experimental data, Dana El Kurd reveals how international involvement has insulated Palestinian elites from the public, and strengthened their ability to engage in authoritarian practices. In turn, those practices have had profound effects on society, including crippling levels of polarisation and a weakened capacity for collective action.

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 29
Author(s):  
Reem Abuiyada ◽  
Ra’ed Abdulkarim

The paper examined the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organisations (PNGOs) from a historical perspective with focus on their roles, the challenges they faced, and their current status after the establishment of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in 1994.It also examined their driving motives, their contributions to the advancement and development of the Palestinian society, and the challenges they faced. The role of health in development is highlighted and an introduction to NGOs in general is offered, with emphasis on their characteristics in comparison to the public and private sectors after the establishment of the PNA in parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip (WBG).It is clear that PNGOs in general and health NGOs in particular played an instrumental role in providing much needed health services, but also in paving the road for the establishment of a Palestinian state. The paper showed that there are three main challenges that faced NGOs, namely, political challenges, financial challenges and the unclear role of the PNA. The first two challenges faced NGOs during the Israeli occupation and continue to do so after the establishment of the PNA. The third challenge became relevant only after the establishment of the PNA in parts of the WBG.


2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 488-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karam Dana ◽  
Hannah Walker

Women's participation in the First Intifada allowed for increased gender equality in Palestine. However, the weakness of the Palestinian Authority, established by the Oslo Accords, created space for non-state actors (dominated by the Islamist political organization Hamas) to emerge and gain popularity. Likewise, during the post-Oslo period conservative positions on gender resurged. This paper re-examines the structural factors that facilitated increased gender inequality and argues that the nature of the occupation itself serves as the greatest force for gender inequality in Palestine. To develop and test our theory, we draw on original, large-n survey data and in-depth interviews.


1999 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inge de Monnink

In this article I argue that, from a methodological point of view, descriptive studies improve considerably if they use a multi-method approach to the data, more specifically, if they use a combination of corpus data and experimental data. In the modern conception of corpus linguistics, intuitive data play an important role. The linguist formulates research hypotheses based on his or her intuitive knowledge. These hypotheses are then tested on the corpus data. I argue that a sound descriptive study should not end with simply stating the results from the corpus study. Instead, the corpus data have to be supplemented. An appropriate way to supplement corpus data is through the use of elicitation techniques. I illustrate the multi-method approach on a case study of floating postmodification in the English noun phrase.


2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (7) ◽  
pp. 915-932 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorota Woroniecka-Krzyzanowska

The article explores the intersections between sport, state and resistance in the context of military occupation and independence struggle. Based on a year of fieldwork in the local sports clubs in the West Bank, it analyses how sport may be used as a tool of resistance and state-building on the community level. For decades preceding the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1994, sport and youth centres were important sites of socio-political mobilization and took an active part in the national effort to build structures independent from the Israeli occupation. Following the Oslo Accords, state-building became institutionalized and outsourced to the emergent central institutions of the Palestinian Authority. The article analyses this transition from the perspective of local clubs that went from being active actors of state-building through sport to being subjects of the Palestinian Authority’s efforts to consolidate its state-like powers. To understand how local sport activists made sense of these changes, the distinction between a bottom-up and a top-down approach to state-building through sport is made. The article aims to contribute to the ongoing debates on the use of sport in the service of nation state, by investigating the case of state-building through sport in the context of military occupation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-164
Author(s):  
Uta Russmann ◽  
Markus Hametner ◽  
Eduard Posch

For a few years now, members of the government in Austria have been using Facebook to reach out to the public as well as to the mass media. Following normative guidelines and regulations, tax-funded government communication should be neutral, informative and autonomous of party politics. Using a multi-method approach, combining a structural analysis of formal criteria of Facebook accounts and an automated quantitative content analysis of Facebook postings, we investigated to what extent the official Facebook accounts of members of the last two Austrian governments were an exclusive tool for digital government communication. We found that not all representatives made use of Facebook. Moreover, tax-funded digital government communication on Facebook was not all neutral and autonomous of party politics. Based on our findings, we conclude that there is a lack of regulatory framework in Austria to govern tax-funded use of social media.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul S. Martin ◽  
◽  
Blair R. Tormey ◽  
John M. Sullivan ◽  
Craig A Schultz

Author(s):  
William V. Pelfrey

AbstractDisasters can move quickly. Effective communication is a critical resource that can significantly enhance public safety. A mass notification system (MNS) uses text messaging to inform constituents of crisis, provide recommendations, connect to resources, and has the advantage of speed. Limited research has been conducted on the variables that influence the effectiveness, utilization, and perceptions of MNS. The extant study employs a multi-method approach to advance the scholarly knowledge on MNS. All emergency managers in a state were surveyed on issues of MNS enrollment, utilization, and brand. A subgroup of emergency managers were then interviewed to provide depth to the survey findings. Key findings indicate wide variability in MNS usage, little relationship between population size and enrollment, and a high perceived importance of MNS as a communication modality. Policy implications and recommendations are offered.


Philosophies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 61
Author(s):  
Philip J. Wilson

The problem of climate change inaction is sometimes said to be ‘wicked’, or essentially insoluble, and it has also been seen as a collective action problem, which is correct but inconsequential. In the absence of progress, much is made of various frailties of the public, hence the need for an optimistic tone in public discourse to overcome fatalism and encourage positive action. This argument is immaterial without meaningful action in the first place, and to favour what amounts to the suppression of truth over intellectual openness is in any case disreputable. ‘Optimism’ is also vexed in this context, often having been opposed to the sombre mood of environmentalists by advocates of economic growth. The greater mental impediments are ideological fantasy, which is blind to the contradictions in public discourse, and the misapprehension that if optimism is appropriate in one social or policy context it must be appropriate in others. Optimism, far from spurring climate change action, fosters inaction.


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