Broadening the Perspective on Military Cohesion

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 571-586 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilmari Käihkö

It is difficult to underestimate the importance of cohesion for armed groups or organizations specialized and engaged in organized violence. This article argues that the recent debate on military cohesion has been far too narrow as it focused on Western state militaries during the 20th and 21st centuries, and even then only on the microlevel. It is necessary to broaden the perspective in order to construct theories that encompass even the vast majority of armed groups—the non-Western, nonstate, and nonmodern. This article advocates two ways of doing so: the investigation of cases that belong to these three types and broadening analysis to two new levels of analysis—the meso-level of armed groups and the macro-level, which contains state and society. Cohesion is established through harmonizing these three levels, which necessitates including them in the analysis in the first place.

2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 631-656 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alasdair Roberts

Scholars in public administration now recognize three levels of analysis: macro, meso, and micro. But there is uncertainty about the relationship between levels and concern about a “schism” in research. However, linkages between levels can be demonstrated easily. At the macro-level, leaders develop an overall strategy for pursuing national priorities, which determines the broad architecture of the state. Institutions must be built, renovated, or managed to give effect to these strategies: This is the meso-level of public administration. Overall, strategies also shape the micro-level relationship between people who rule and people who are ruled. This is done by categorizing people—as subjects or citizens, for example—and by redefining categories. Macro-level strategies evolve, with consequences for the agenda at the meso- and micro-levels. Experience at lower levels also shapes strategy at the macro-level. The interaction among levels is illustrated by comparison of three eras in modern American history.


Author(s):  
Anna-Maija Puroila ◽  
Jaana Juutinen ◽  
Elina Viljamaa ◽  
Riikka Sirkko ◽  
Taina Kyrönlampi ◽  
...  

AbstractThe study draws on a relational and intersectional approach to young children’s belonging in Finnish educational settings. Belonging is conceptualized as a multilevel, dynamic, and relationally constructed phenomenon. The aim of the study is to explore how children’s belonging is shaped in the intersections between macro-, meso-, and micro-levels of young children’s education in Finland. The data consist of educational policy documents and ethnographic material generated in educational programs for children aged birth to 8 years. A situational mapping framework is used to analyze and interpret the data across and within systems levels (macro-level; meso-level; and micro-level). The findings show that the landscape in which children’s belonging is shaped and the intersections across and within the levels are characterized by the tensions between similarities and differences, majority and minorities, continuity and change, authority and agency. Language used, practices enacted, and positional power emerge as the (re)sources through which children’s (un)belonging is actively produced.


Legal Studies ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Zhong Xing Tan

Abstract This paper explores the promise of pluralism in the realm of contract law. I begin by identifying and rejecting conceptual strategies adopted by monistic and dualistic approaches. Turning towards pluralism, I evaluate three versions in contemporary literature: pluralism across contracting spheres and types, pluralism through consensus and convergence, and pluralism through localised values-balancing and practical reasoning. I suggest embracing some pluralism about contract pluralism, by using these models to construct a framework of ‘meta-pluralism’, where at the macro-level, we are concerned with plural spheres of contracting activity; at the meso-level, a variety of trans-substantive interpretive concepts that receive some measure of juristic consensus; and at the micro-level, practical reasoning through particularistic analysis of case-specific considerations. I illustrate the meta-pluralistic framework through a case study on the varieties of specific performance, and explain how the proposed pluralistic framework enriches our understanding of the nature of contract.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 105-124
Author(s):  
Jamal Wakim

This article argues that the Lebanese Civil War (1975–90) was in essence a terror of state directed by mercantile economic and political elites (the comprador class) controlling the Lebanese state and society against the middle and poorer classes (the working class). The aim of this terror or organized violence was to subdue the subordinate classes, which in the late 1960s and early 1970s rebelled against the confessional system that operated for the benefit of the comprador class. The rebellion was expressed by members of the working-class joining cross-confessional nationalist and leftist parties. Hence, violence was aimed at reestablishing the confessional order as a means to restore a hegemonic system that served the interests of the comprador class at a time when this class was rehabilitating its economic role by resurrecting the financial system, which had received a severe blow in the late 1960s. It effected this rehabilitation through the Taif Agreement signed between Lebanese parliamentarians in 1989, under the auspices of Syria, Saudi Arabia, and the United States, to favor the new mercantile elite led by Rafiq Hariri.


2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huu Cuong Nguyen

This study investigates professional development among educational policy-makers, institutional leaders and teachers. Through a synthesis of associated literature, this study identified a large number of articles focusing on professional development among teachers and lecturers. However, only a few studies on professional development among leaders and managers of educational institutions were ascertained, and research on professional development for educational policy-makers is also limited. This article first presents key aspects of professional development. It then reviews professional development theories and practices for policy-makers, institutional leaders and teachers. Finally, a discussion and recommendations are provided. This article contributes to the limited literature on professional development at the meso-level for institutional leaders, and at the macro-level for policy-makers.


2020 ◽  
pp. 3-21
Author(s):  
Bart J. Wilson

The central claim of the book is that property is a universal and uniquely human custom. Contra cultural relativists, every human society has property tools, utensils, and ornaments. Contra biologists, only Homo sapiens has property in things other than food, mates, and territories. Contra philosophers and legal scholars, the bedrock of property is custom, not rights. Contra social scientists and ordinary people, property is indeed a custom and not something that must be instituted by government. Property operates at the three levels. At the micro-level core of property is an organism that perceives the physical world through its body. The meso-level of property is the community within which the organism resides. At the macro-level of property are the institutions that unite strangers of different communities through the modern democratic concept of rights. Whereas the custom of property is ancient, moral, and universal to all people, property rights are modern, amoral, and majoritarian.


2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 271-283 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anees Wajid ◽  
Muhammad Mustafa Raziq ◽  
Omer Farooq Malik ◽  
Shahab Alam Malik ◽  
Nabila Khurshid

Purpose It is argued that the service-dominant (S-D) view of the value co-creation concept is mainly of a macro nature and is difficult to examine empirically. In this regard, marketing research using the micro-foundation theory proposes some conceptual models, through which relationships (involving value co-creation) at a micro/meso level may be studied. The purpose of this paper is to add to such exchanges regarding value co-creation and conceptualize the link of embeddedness of an actor (in a service-ecosystem) to their engagement in the value co-creation process. Design/methodology/approach The authors draw on the S-D logic and the value co-creation concept and make propositions with regard to two micro-foundational concepts: actor engagement and actor embeddedness. Findings The authors show that actor embeddedness can be considered as an antecedent of actor engagement, which leads to value co-creation at a macro level and perceived value in context at the micro level. Originality/value The authors fill some gaps in literature with regard to S-D logic and value co-creation by combining two micro-foundational concepts: actor engagement and actor embeddedness and propose how through these, some macro-level outcomes such as value co-creation and resource integration may be determined.


Author(s):  
Giasemi Vavoula ◽  
Mike Sharples

We propose six challenges in evaluating mobile learning: capturing and analysing learning in context and across contexts, measuring mobile learning processes and outcomes, respecting learner/participant privacy, assessing mobile technology utility and usability, considering the wider organisational and socio-cultural context of learning, and assessing in/formality. A three-level framework for evaluating mobile learning is proposed, comprising a micro level concerned with usability, a meso level concerned with the learning experience, and a macro level concerned with integration within existing educational and organisational contexts. The article concludes with a discussion of how the framework meets the evaluation challenges and with suggestions for further extensions.


There are few studies on the macro-level dynamics of networks. These dynamics affect the whole network and concern non-local changes. Macro-level changes almost always stem from reasons outside the network. We observe this in its most typical form when the network population increases or decreases in an unusual manner. We cannot correlate such a population change with the relations of actors or the dyad, triad, or intergroup behaviors within the scope of these relations as it was the case in microo r meso-level dynamics. Sudden changes in population in a social network may“disturb” the established order and, therefore, may affect individual communicative relations. Population growth, on the other hand, might result in a revival in terms of other aspects. This chapter these macro-level dynamics.


2020 ◽  
pp. 0095327X2094715
Author(s):  
Anthony King

In 2018, Ilmari Käihkö published a special collection in Armed Forces & Society on the debate about small unit cohesion. Later, in reaction to a response by Guy Siebold, he published a further intervention with Peter Haldén. Focusing on my 2006 article in the journal and my subsequent debate, Käihkö has claimed that the cohesion debate is too narrow. It ignores organizational factors in the armed forces and wider political factors, including nationalism and state policy. Consequently, it is incapable of analyzing non-Western state or irregular forces and is only relevant for the 20th and 21st centuries. This response shows that while Käihkö’s extension of the empirical archive to non-Western armed groups is to be welcomed, none of his theoretical claims are sustainable.


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