The State of Our Knowledge

2021 ◽  
pp. 15-30
Author(s):  
Molly M. Melin

This chapter draws together discussions of the puzzle of continued violent conflict from across social science disciplines, international organizations, and related media coverage. The chapter offers an overview of the main related research and the lack of conclusive findings, which helps explain why violence persists despite widespread international efforts to prevent it. This chapter offers an overview of the findings on conflict resolution processes by scholars in the field of political science. It then draws from business scholarship and overviews research suggesting the positive contributions the private sector can and does make toward peace. It concludes by highlighting the problems of having disjointed approaches and offering a conceptual framework for how these distinct approaches can be combined to generate a more comprehensive understanding of conflict resolution.

2008 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Allen Nan

AbstractThis article explores the import of the network society for conflict resolution, broadly defined. Defining networks as social structures which connect people to each other, the article highlights the dual potential impacts of networks on participation in conflict resolution processes. Network society discourse creates a discourse of inclusion while also offering opportunities for exclusion. Conflict resolution theory has embraced the inclusive potential of network dynamics both implicitly and explicitly. Peacebuilders use networks, with their potential for participation and connecting conflict resolution processes, levels, and sectors, in efforts to do their peacebuilding work better. However, not all networks support conflict resolution. Networks can also reinforce conflicts, institutionalize exploitation, exacerbate inequalities, and strengthen violent conflict movements. Networks can be distinguished as inclusive or exclusive. Inclusive networks are more suitable for supporting meaningful participation in conflict resolution processes, while exclusive networks entrench conflict. Vibrant networks incorporate more inclusive and more exclusive dynamics in network vitality that allows both flexibly incorporating diversity and developing clarity of focus that inevitably delineates areas (or people or activities) outside the area of focus. Meaningful inclusion and participation in conflict resolution negotiations is broadly possible through inclusive networks, but forms of exclusion from conflict resolution negotiations are equally possible outgrowths of exclusive networks.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-50
Author(s):  
Senka Ena Majetic

Abstract - It is widely accepted among feminists that feminism implies a distinctive approach to inquiry. And for some this is not just a matter of the grounds on which topics are selected for investigation, or even of the theoretical ideas that are treated as relevant. Rather, feminism is taken to carry distinctive methodological and epistemological implications (Hammersley, 1995: 45). In this paper I want to assess the arguments for a distinctively feminist methodology. My first task, though, is to provide some detail about what this is taken to entail. There are, of course, important differences among feminists who have written on this topic, and in the course of the discussion I will highlight some of these. I certainly do not want to suggest that what I am assessing is a single position, nor am I claiming to represent the basis on which most feminists actually do research. My main concern here is solely with feminist writing about methodology.


1985 ◽  
Vol 47 ◽  
pp. 4-5
Author(s):  
Paul F. Diehl ◽  
Michael J. Montgomery

Simulation is an increasingly popular pedagogical device; much of the recent literature on the theory and practice of political science instruction attests to this. Probably the most popular simulation device is called model United Nations. In recent articles in Teaching Political Science and NEWS for Teachers of Political Science, William Hazelton and James Jacob have described Model United Nations in glowing terms, focusing on one particular conference and completely ignoring the rest of the 200 or more conferences held annually across the United States.Like Jacob and Hazelton, we recognize the great potential value of United Nations simulations in trying to illuminate the often confusing politics of international organizations. As former participants and directors of these programs, however, we are keenly aware of the shortcomings and difficulties associated with the existing structure of model U.N. programs.


2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-208
Author(s):  
Thomas B. Pepinsky ◽  
Barbara Geddes ◽  
Duncan McCargo ◽  
Richard Robison ◽  
Erik Martinez Kuhonta ◽  
...  

Comparative politics has witnessed periodic debates between proponents of contextually sensitive area studies research and others who view such work as unscientific, noncumulative, or of limited relevance for advancing broader social science knowledge. In Southeast Asia in Political Science: Theory, Region, and Qualitative Analysis, edited by Erik Martinez Kuhonta, Dan Slater, and Tuong Vu, a group of bright, young Southeast Asianists argue that contextually sensitive research in Southeast Asia using qualitative research methods has made fundamental and lasting contributions to comparative politics. They challenge other Southeast Asianists to assert proudly the contributions that their work has made and urge the rest of the comparative politics discipline to take these contributions seriously. This symposium includes four short critical reviews of Southeast Asia in Political Science by political scientists representing diverse scholarly traditions. The reviews address both the methodological and the theoretical orientations of the book and are followed by a response from the editors.


Author(s):  
Samantha Gamero

This presentation will focus on the issue of the privatization of water. The privatization of water is currently being facilitated by the growth of trade liberalization and the free trade policies of international organizations like the IMF and World Bank. It is also growing due to the neoliberal policies of states and because of the increasing power of the private sector (including well- funded lobby and special interest groups) over the policies of governments. The principal arguments and viewpoints of those who both support and oppose the privatization of water will be examined and evaluated. In particular, arguments concerning the cost and accessibility of water for people will be studied. The effects and implications of privatization in highly diverse communities in both developed and developing countries will be discussed. An example from the community of Cochabamba in Bolivia will be analyzed, showing many of the drawbacks that can come with the privatization of water. This presentation will argue that water is a precious resource which ought not to be treated as a commodity. Instead, it should be treated as a human right that no individual or corporation should make a monetary profit from. Governments ought to provide safe drinking water for their citizens, rather than leaving this duty to the private sector as is happening in many parts of the world.


2009 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 144-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan Shannon

I explore whether international organizations (IOs) promote peaceful conflict management. Using territorial claims data, I find that organizations with interventionist capabilities encourage disputing members to attempt peaceful conflict resolution. Then, to more fully uncover the causal relationship between IOs and conflict management, I investigate the influence of IOs on bilateral dispute settlement separately from third party settlement.The analyses reveal that institutions do not promote bilateral negotiations between members, indicating that the socialization and trust-building capabilities of IOs are limited. However, institutions foster multilateral talks, demonstrating that IOs broker bargaining with third party diplomatic intervention.


PROPAGANDA ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-22
Author(s):  
M. Masad Masrur

The discussion room for the Work Creation Bill is officially located at the DPR RI Building. The discussion, which involved various interest groups, was deemed insufficient to accommodate the “rejecting” aspirations expressed by various community groups. Several community groups who are members of various civil society movements, held demonstrations outside the DPR RI Building as a venue for discussion of the Job Creation Bill. Demonstrations that also took place in these areas have caused damage to public facilities. According to Habermas's opinion, this condition is the result of structural domination, where the ruling group directs various forms of policy with instrumental communication that will not create understanding. In agreement with Gramsci, in this case, there is a political hegemony between one group against another. The government, which has an interest in immediately completing the deliberation of the Job Creation Bill, through the power of political domination, seeks to exercise hegemony against the civil society movement, causing violent conflict. Conflict resolution in the discussion of the Work Creation Bill is structurally carried out by using the state law approach in accordance with the prevailing laws and regulations. In accordance with the mandate of the constitution, all matters relating to regulations, a judicial review can be carried out at the Constitutional Court.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (10) ◽  
pp. 75a
Author(s):  
Melissa E Moss ◽  
Atsushi Kikumoto ◽  
Jena Z Kunimune ◽  
Ulrich Mayr

2010 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 293-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larry Diamond

Violence and Social Orders: A Conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History (Cambridge 2009) offers a theory of the evolution of the modern state and an even more ambitious framework “for interpreting recorded human history.” The book raises fundamental questions about the political structuring of violence, the functions of the rule of law, and the establishment and maintenance of political order. In doing so, it speaks to a range of political scientists from a variety of methodological and subfield perspectives. We have thus invited four prominent political science scholars of violence and politics to comment on the book: Jack Snyder, Caroline Hartzell, Jean Bethke Elshtain, and Larry Diamond.


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