“Belgrade to Belgradians, Not Foreign Capitalists”: International Statebuilding, Contentious Politics, and New Forms of Political Representation in Serbia

2020 ◽  
pp. 088832542090444
Author(s):  
Nemanja Džuverović ◽  
Aleksandar Milošević
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Economic Transformation ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Southeast Europe ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
International Statebuilding

This article belongs to a forthcoming special cluster, “Contention Politics and International Statebuilding in Southeast Europe” guest-edited by Nemanja Džuverovic, Julia Rone and Tom Junes. One of the main criticisms concerning the process of post-conflict transition in Serbia has been the lack of context sensitivity and participation of the local population in the decision-making process, especially regarding the most important issues that were addressed during the political and economic transformation of the country that began in 2001. This criticism became especially pronounced from the beginning of the economic crisis in 2008, when the negative characteristics of international statebuilding became even more apparent, causing increased dependency on international institutions and further economic marginalisation of the most vulnerable groups. By looking at the movement “Don’t Drown Belgrade” and the series of large-scale protests in Belgrade in 2016, the article seeks to explore the main reasons for social discontent with the international-led statebuilding agenda in post-conflict Serbian society and the local strategies employed to resist and subvert this form of statebuilding.

International Statebuilding as contentious politics: the case of post conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina

2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 354-370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Outi Keranen
Keyword(s):  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
International Statebuilding

The post-conflict space in Bosnia and Herzegovina has been marked by a multiplicity of statebuilding projects: in addition to the much-analyzed internationally-led statebuilding process, parallel Bosniak, Bosnian Serb and Bosnian Croat statebuilding trajectories exist. They seek to undermine and challenge the international statebuilding venture by appropriating and adapting the liberal statebuilding processes. This is carried out through the institutions and processes of governance put in place by international statebuilders to subvert the statebuilding trajectory. Focusing on the local appropriation of processes and institutions of governance, the paper maps out the repertoires of contention entailing boycotts, walk-outs, protests and refusals to co-operate in an attempt to explain and understand how local contention vis-à-vis the international statebuilding trajectory is carried out.

Introduction: Contentious Politics and International Statebuilding in Southeast Europe

2020 ◽  
pp. 088832542090563
Author(s):  
Nemanja Džuverović ◽  
Julia Rone ◽  
Tom Junes
Keyword(s):  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Southeast Europe ◽  
International Statebuilding

This article belongs to a forthcoming special cluster, “Contention Politics and International Statebuilding in Southeast Europe” guest-edited by Nemanja Džuverovic, Julia Rone and Tom Junes.

scholarly journals Sustainable Tourism and Natural Protected Areas: Exploring Local Population Perceptions in a Post-Conflict Scenario

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 331
Author(s):  
Delia M. Andries ◽  
Cecilia Arnaiz-Schmitz ◽  
Pablo Díaz-Rodríguez ◽  
Cristina Herrero-Jáuregui ◽  
María F. Schmitz
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Multiple Correspondence Analysis ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Tourism Development ◽  
Economic Transformation ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Natural Protected Areas ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
The One

The expansion of urban areas around the world and the application of the sustainability paradigm to tourism discourses has favored an increase in the number of people visiting natural protected areas (NPAs) in their leisure time. While tourism is desired to boost the economy of destinations, mismanagement can bring negative consequences for social–ecological systems, particularly in post-conflict rural scenarios. In the context of a broader ethnographic research, we analyzed the perceptions of the local population about tourism development in the NPA Jaltepeque Estuary (El Salvador, Central America) and the establishment of a Biosphere Reserve in the area, using structured questionnaires and Multiple Correspondence Analysis for the typification of social actors. We found that overall, the population regards positively the development of tourism in the area. Fishermen are the only ones who highlight the negative economic consequences of tourism development, claiming disparity in the distribution of benefits and an increase in the cost of living. We conclude that although tourism development is an activity desired by local people, there is a need in the community to discuss how this process of socio-economic transformation should be approached and an evident conflict between two different models: the one desired and offered by the population and the one that is currently being developed in the nearby Costa del Sol corridor.

scholarly journals Introducing Twitter Daily Estimates of Residents and Non-Residents at the County Level

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 227
Author(s):  
Yago Martín ◽  
Zhenlong Li ◽  
Yue Ge ◽  
Xiao Huang
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Local Population ◽  
External Validation ◽  
Population Estimates ◽  
County Level ◽  
Internal Validation ◽  
Population Movements ◽  
Dynamic Component ◽  
Home Location ◽  
Non Local

The study of migrations and mobility has historically been severely limited by the absence of reliable data or the temporal sparsity of available data. Using geospatial digital trace data, the study of population movements can be much more precisely and dynamically measured. Our research seeks to develop a near real-time (one-day lag) Twitter census that gives a more temporally granular picture of local and non-local population at the county level. Internal validation reveals over 80% accuracy when compared with users’ self-reported home location. External validation results suggest these stocks correlate with available statistics of residents/non-residents at the county level and can accurately reflect regular (seasonal tourism) and non-regular events such as the Great American Solar Eclipse of 2017. The findings demonstrate that Twitter holds the potential to introduce the dynamic component often lacking in population estimates. This study could potentially benefit various fields such as demography, tourism, emergency management, and public health and create new opportunities for large-scale mobility analyses.

scholarly journals Threat of arsenic contamination, salinity and water pollution in agricultural practices of Sundarban Delta, India, and mitigation strategies

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anirban Nath ◽  
Sourav Samanta ◽  
Saon Banerjee ◽  
Anamitra Anurag Danda ◽  
Sugata Hazra
Keyword(s):  
Plant Breeding ◽  
Rural Population ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Agricultural Practices ◽  
Mitigation Strategies ◽  
Saline Stress ◽  
Freshwater Resources ◽  
Catchment Areas ◽  
The Sundarbans

AbstractThe paper through a critical appraisal of the agricultural practices in the Indian Sundarban deltaic region explores the tripartite problems of arsenic biomagnification, salinity of arable lands and ingress of agrochemical pollutants into the freshwater resources, which endanger the health, livelihood and food security of the rural population inhabiting the delta. The threefold problem has rendered a severe blow to the agrarian economy consequently triggering large-scale outmigration of the rural population from the region. Although recent studies have addressed these issues separately, the inter-connectivity among these elements and their possible long-term impact upon sustainability in the Sundarbans are yet to be elucidated. In the current scenario, the study emphasizes that the depleting freshwater resources is at the heart of the threefold problems affecting the Sundarbans. Owing to the heavy siltation of the local river systems, freshwater resources from the local ravines have salinized beyond the point of being used for agricultural purposes. At the same time, increasing salinity levels resulting from fluctuation of pre- and post-monsoon rainfall, frequent cyclones and capillary movement of salinized groundwater (primarily during the Rabi season) have severely hampered the agricultural practices. Salinization of above groundwater reserves has forced the farmers toward utilization of groundwater, which are lifted using STWs, especially for rice and other cultivations in the Rabi season. The Holocene aquifers of the region retain toxic levels of arsenic which are lifted during the irrigation process and are deposited on to the agricultural fields, resulting in bioaccumulation of As in the food products resourced from the area. The compound effect of consuming arsenic-contaminated food and drinking water has resulted in severe health issues recorded among the local population in the delta. Furthermore, due to the sub-optimal conditions for sustaining agriculture under saline stress, farmers often opt for the cultivation of post-green revolution high-yielding varieties, which require additional inputs of nitrogen-based fertilizers, organophosphate herbicides and pesticides that are frequently washed away by runoff from the watershed into the low-lying catchment areas of the biosphere reserve. Such practices have endangered the vulnerable conditions of local flora and fauna. In the present situation, the study proposes mitigation strategies which necessitate the smart use of locally obtainable resources like water, adaptable cultivars and sustainable agronomic practices like organic farming. The study also suggests engaging of conventional plant breeding strategies such as “Evolutionary plant breeding” for obtaining cultivars adapted to the shifting ecological conditions of the delta in the long run.

Societal discontent will increase in Bahrain

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Social Protest ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Content Type ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Arab Uprisings ◽  
Base Level

Significance Although large-scale social protest in Bahrain has been cowed over the ten years since the ‘Arab uprisings’, small-scale demonstrations recur, reflecting a base level of discontent. Mobilising issues include economic pressures, limited political representation (especially of the Shia majority) and, most recently, ties with Israel. Impacts Despite protests, Israel’s and Bahrain’s respective ambassadors will keep up high-profile activity and statements. The authorities are likely to exaggerate the role of Iranian interference in order to deepen the Sunni-Shia divide. If Riyadh manages to extricate itself from the Yemen war, that could partly reduce the pressure on Manama.

The Agrarian Reform and the City: The Great Expansion of Sibiu during the Interwar Years

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-44
Author(s):  
Diana Mihnea
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Agrarian Reform ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Local Institutions ◽  
Technical Council ◽  
Territorial Expansion ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The City ◽  
Urban Territory

During the 1920s, the city of Sibiu expanded by approximately 250 hectares, with an area that was three times larger than its historical core. This great expansion was the result of the application of the agrarian reform, whose laws allowed and encouraged the creation of new building plots in the cities of Transylvania, Banat, Crișana and Maramureș. Although this was the largest territorial growth of the city up until that time, it was not controlled by the municipality and its Technical Office. In fact, the city authorities were excluded from most stages of the decision-making process. All the decisions were taken by the central and local institutions of the Ministry of Agriculture and Domains that were in charge with the application of the agrarian reform. The territorial expansion was not based on any large-scale studies regarding the needs of the city or the impact on its future development. In fact, the proportions and the directions of the city’s expansion were dictated mostly by the number of accepted requests for building plots and by the position of the areas that could be expropriated and that were suitable to be parcelled. The creation of the large new allotments was simultaneous with the efforts of the municipality to draft a systematisation plan that was now urgently necessary, given the rapidly changing situation of the city, and it was imposed by the new administrative legislation of Romania. So, shortly after the parceling plans were issued and the new building plots were distributed to those entitled, a preliminary systematization plan – drafted between 1926 and 1928 – proposed the revision of the new allotments and the modification of the procedure for assigning the building plots according to a system that would allow a gradual territorial growth of the city. Hence, during the second half of the 1920s and the beginning of the 1930s there were ample negotiations over the new urban territory, involving not only the Ministry of Agriculture and Domains, but also the Ministry of Interior and the Superior Technical Council. In the end, after almost a decade of negotiations, only minor adjustments were made to the allotments and the provisions of the systematisation plan were only partly applied.

Land conflicts and social differentiation in eastern Uganda

2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 395-422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matt Kandel
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Social Differentiation ◽  
Land Conflicts ◽  
Current Period ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Historical Developments ◽  
Eastern Uganda

ABSTRACTRising competition and conflict over land in rural sub-Saharan Africa continues to attract the attention of researchers. Recent work has especially focused on land governance, post-conflict restructuring of tenure relations, and large-scale land acquisitions. A less researched topic as of late, though one deserving of greater consideration, pertains to how social differentiation on the local-level shapes relations to land, and how these processes are rooted in specific historical developments. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Teso sub-region of eastern Uganda, this paper analyses three specific land conflicts and situates them within a broad historical trajectory. I show how each dispute illuminates changes in class relations in Teso since the early 1990s. I argue that this current period of socioeconomic transformation, which includes the formation of a more clearly defined sub-regional middle class and elite, constitutes the most prominent period of social differentiation in Teso since the early 20th century.

scholarly journals Revisiting the Scope of Collaboration in the Days of the Great Patriotic War: A Case-Study of the Smolensk Region

2018 ◽  
pp. 856-866
Author(s):  
Dmitriy E. Komarov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Controversial Issue ◽  
Potential Threat ◽  
Soviet Government ◽  
Scale Resistance ◽  
Great Patriotic War ◽  
Occupied Territories ◽  
Intense Debate

The article assesses the scope of collaboration in occupied Soviet territories in the days of the Great Patriotic War. This topic is a matter of intense debate in modern Russian scholarship. The most controversial issue is the extent to which Soviet citizens participated in events organized by invaders in occupied territories and the support which local population lent to occupation authorities. The article assesses potential threat of collaborationism in political, as well as economic terms. Having seized the richest and most economically developed regions of the country, the enemy could have significantly strengthened his military potential. National historiography has not yet integrated all data on stratification of local population in their stance toward invaders. It is an extremely difficult task to accomplish nationwide. As occupied territories were culturally, historically and socio-politically heterogeneous, it should be approached by studying republics and regions on a standalone basis. The case-study of the Smolensk region draws on archival materials to determine the share of Soviet citizens cooperating with occupation authorities within the framework of ‘administrative collaboration.’ It concludes that the number of Smolensk families whose members can be classified as ‘administrative collaborators,’ did not exceed 12%, whereas more than 9% of Smolensk families had members who took an active part in the struggle against invaders in the partisan detachments. Thus, the article demonstrates that two extreme irreconcilable phenomena in the occupied territories — collaborationism and partisans movement — were practically in balance. The absolute majority of Smolensk residents (almost 80%) did their utmost to avoid participation in both. Further developments in the Smolensk region proved that their ‘neutrality’ was conditional: the population remained loyal to the Soviet government and formed a social base for large-scale resistance to the occupation policy. Smolensk region became one of the centers of the partisan movement. To a certain extent, Smolensk data can be extrapolated to other western regions of the Russian non-black earth area.

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