Educating for Harmony in Conflict Settings: A Case Study

2013 ◽  
pp. 340-350
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Settings

When Neutrality is Taboo. Navigating Institutional Identity in Protracted Conflict Settings - the Nigerian Ife/Modakeke Case

2003 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 259-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peyi Soyinka-Airewele
Keyword(s):  
Social Institutions ◽  
Local Environment ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
Cultural Pluralism ◽  
Conflict Transformation ◽  
Institutional Identity ◽  
Protracted Conflict ◽  
Conflict Settings ◽  
The University

AbstractThis paper explores the means by which social institutions located in African communities that are deeply and violently polarized along ethnic-related lines, navigate the institutional role and identity within such a local environment. Utilizing a case study of ethno-political conflict in the Ile-Ife and Modakeke communities of South Western Nigeria, the paper investigates how the local academy has sought to survive as a zone of diversities located in host cit(ies) with rigidly structured mythicohistories and conflicting geopolitical claims. Through this exploration of the paradox of the uneasy cohabitation of contested realities and the quest for postwar healing and rehabilitation, the paper unveils the unusual local interpretation, rejection and reconstruction of the concept of neutrality, and highlights the challenges, both philosophical and concrete, which confront the academy. The findings of the study suggest a need to cautiously, but decidedly, resituate the university as a civically engaged arena for the creative re-envisioning of diversity and cultural pluralism and ultimately for local and national conflict transformation in Nigeria.

scholarly journals Researching the delivery of health and nutrition interventions for women and children in the context of armed conflict: lessons on research challenges and strategies from BRANCH Consortium case studies of Somalia, Mali, Pakistan and Afghanistan

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle F. Gaffey ◽  
Anushka Ataullahjan ◽  
Jai K. Das ◽  
Shafiq Mirzazada ◽  
Moctar Tounkara ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Nutrition Interventions ◽  
Health And Nutrition ◽  
Research Challenges ◽  
Conflict Settings ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Women And Children

Abstract Background The BRANCH Consortium recently conducted 10 mixed-methods case studies to investigate the provision of health and nutrition interventions for women and children in conflict-affected countries, aiming to better understand the dominant influences on humanitarian health actors’ programmatic decision-making and how such actors surmount intervention delivery barriers. In this paper, the research challenges encountered and the mitigating strategies employed by the case study investigators in four of the BRANCH case study contexts are discussed: Somalia, Mali, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Discussion Many of the encountered research challenges were anticipated, with investigators adopting mitigation strategies in advance or early on, but others were unexpected, with implications for how studies were ultimately conducted and how well the original study aims were met. Insecurity was a fundamental challenge in all study contexts, with restricted geographical access and concerns for personal safety affecting sampling and data collection plans, and requiring reliance on digital communications, remote study management, and off-site team meetings wherever possible. The need to navigate complex local sociopolitical contexts required maximum reliance on local partners’ knowledge, expertise and networks, and this was facilitated by early engagement with a wide range of local study stakeholders. Severe lack of reliable quantitative data on intervention coverage affected the extent to which information from different sources could be triangulated or integrated to inform an understanding of the influences on humanitarian actors’ decision-making. Conclusion Strong local partners are essential to the success of any project, contributing not only technical and methodological capacity but also the insight needed to truly understand and interpret local dynamics for the wider study team and to navigate those dynamics to ensure study rigour and relevance. Maintaining realistic expectations of data that are typically available in conflict settings is also essential, while pushing for more resources and further methodological innovation to improve data collection in such settings. Finally, successful health research in the complex, dynamic and unpredictable contexts of conflict settings requires flexibility and adaptability of researchers, as well as sponsors and donors.

Religion and Mobilization in the Syrian Uprising and War

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy Pearlman
Keyword(s):  
Divide And Conquer ◽  
Structural Constraints ◽  
State Repression ◽  
Conflict Settings ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Syrian Conflict ◽  
Role Of Religion ◽  
Over Time

What role does religion play in mobilization in general, and in mobilization in conflict settings in particular? This chapter explores these questions through a case study of the Syrian uprising and war. Using published sources and original interviews, the author traces the role of religion and sect in Syria’s pre-2011 politics and then in successive stages of the subsequent conflict. She examines the role of religion in the motivations driving protest, the processes generating collective action, the militarization of mobilization, and the transformation of an uprising into war. It is argued that, while religion came to occupy an increasingly prominent place in mobilization over time, its role in the Syrian conflict has been less attributable to religion per se than to the ways religion is entwined with power, privilege, and the dynamics of violence itself. Where religion sometimes appeared significant, such as in the tendency of demonstrations to begin at mosques, the power of religion lay not in piety but in structural constraints. Though religion and sect became increasingly salient as the conflict escalated, this was primarily due to state repression and strategies of divide and conquer, and nothing particular to Islam. Scrutiny of the Syrian experience encourages us to critique assumptions about the distinctiveness of religion in driving protest and conflict in majority-Muslim societies, and instead to examine such mobilization using the same conceptual tools employed in cases of conflict across time and space.

scholarly journals Creative Expression and Contemporary Arts Making Among Young Cambodians

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Rogers ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Young Adult ◽  
Young People ◽  
Creative Process ◽  
Khmer Rouge ◽  
Arts And Humanities ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Conflict Settings ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Traditional Performance

This project analysed the creative practices and concerns of young adult artists (18-35 years old) in contemporary Cambodia. It examined the extent to which the arts are being used to open up new ways of enacting Cambodian identity that encompass, but also move beyond, a preoccupation with the Khmer Rouge (1975-1979). Existing research has focused on how the recuperation and revival of traditional performance is linked to the post-genocidal reconstruction of the nation. In contrast, this research examines if, and how, young artists are moving beyond the revival process to create works that speak to a young Cambodian population.The research used NGO Cambodian Living Arts’ 2020 Cultural Season of performances, workshops, and talks as a case study through which to examine key concerns of young Cambodian artists, trace how these affected their creative process, and analyse how the resulting works were received among audiences. It was funded through the AHRC GCRF Network Plus Grant ‘Changing the Story’ which uses arts and humanities approaches to ‘build inclusive societies with, and for, young people in post-conflict settings.

Exploring Prospects for Agonistic Encounters in Conflict Zones: Investigating Dual Narrative Tourism in Israel/Palestine

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (2-4) ◽  
pp. 75-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Strömbom
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Conflict Zones ◽  
Intractable Conflict ◽  
The Past ◽  
Alternative Tourism ◽  
Conflict Settings ◽  
Contemporary Practice ◽  
Participatory Observation ◽  
Agonistic Encounters

This article contributes to the emerging literature on possibilities to disseminate agonistic narratives in seemingly deadlocked conflict settings. In this context, conflict parties’ existence is often perceived as being under threat, which makes it demanding to question the current societal order. However, even in the most protracted of conflicts, narratives exist that challenge concurring understandings of identity. Efforts to communicate alternative narratives of identity and memory are the focus of this study, which has two foci: First, it creates a theoretical understanding of agonistic narratives as challenging antagonistic memory constructions in conflicted societies. These agonistic narratives are seen as potentially destabilizing boundary constructions in understandings of the past. Second, it performs an empirical excavation into a contemporary practice of such boundary rupture. It presents results from a study with interviews and participatory observation with guides working within alternative tourism in Israel and Palestine who try to present alternative narratives of the conflict to their audience. The case study thus investigates agonistic elements in these encounters, underlining the mixed logics underpinning the existence of alternative narrative tours in intractable conflicts. Furthermore, it delves into facilitating and inhibiting conditions for carrying out alternative narratives in settings of intractable conflict.

scholarly journals Narratives in conflict and the limits on the interpreter’s agency: A case study from the UN Peacekeeping mission in Lebanon

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yolanda Moreno-Bello
Keyword(s):  
Military Personnel ◽  
Narrative Theory ◽  
Linguistic Analysis ◽  
Cultural Barriers ◽  
Military Deployment ◽  
Conflict Zones ◽  
Conflict Settings ◽  
Un Peacekeeping ◽  
Linguistic Barriers

This article presents a socio-linguistic analysis of interpreting in conflict zones and paints a picture of the limits on the interpreter’s agency when working in the field. It focuses on the interpreter’s behaviour towards cultural and linguistic barriers in communication between foreign military personnel and the civilian population in Lebanon. The aim is to analyse the level of agency that the interpreter has when working in a military deployment, taking into account the context and the narrative features that require mediation. Data were gathered through interviews with interpreters in Lebanon and analysed by applying narrative theory. Knowing and appreciating both the theoretical context and the linguistic and cultural barriers identified through the analysis are fundamental to understanding the difficult role that the interpreter-mediator plays in conflict settings and to reflecting on interpreter training that is appropriate to this context.

scholarly journals Inter-caste Marriage in Conflict Settings: War, Displacement, and Social Conditions in Cross-caste Kinship Formations in Jaffna, Northern SriLanka

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 39-49
Author(s):  
Thanges Paramsothy
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Intimate Relationship ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Geographic Proximity ◽  
Spatial Practices ◽  
Steady Growth ◽  
Conflict Settings ◽  
The Social ◽  
Determining Factors

The war and subsequent displacements changed the social and spatial practices around caste, which resulted in an increase in inter-caste marriages, which had been taboo before. This unintentional rebellion was mounted to the very core of caste through these inter-caste marriages. However, the new caste practices and performances that now revolved around these new inter-caste kin networks continued to reproduce old hierarchies, even as it created space for change. This study highlights how various determining factors such as repeated displacement of families, the close geographic proximity resulting from inevitable cross-caste interactions, love and intimate relationship, the safeguard different caste individuals extended to each other during the periods of crisis and emergency and socioeconomic advancements have together contributed to the steady growth of inter-caste interaction and marriages and have over-ridden caste taboos. This study mainly focuses on two areas namely Puṅgudutīvu and Mallākam in Jaffna, Northern Sri Lanka, where 116 inter-caste marriages were recorded and three were taken for a detailed case study.

The Genesis and Internal Dynamics of El Salvador's People's Revolutionary Army, 1970–1976

2014 ◽  
Vol 38 (01) ◽  
pp. 102-129
Author(s):  
ALBERTO MARTÍN ÁLVAREZ ◽  
EUDALD CORTINA ORERO
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
El Salvador ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Internal Dynamics ◽  
Internal Coherence ◽  
The 1960S

AbstractUsing interviews with former militants and previously unpublished documents, this article traces the genesis and internal dynamics of the Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo (People's Revolutionary Army, ERP) in El Salvador during the early years of its existence (1970–6). This period was marked by the inability of the ERP to maintain internal coherence or any consensus on revolutionary strategy, which led to a series of splits and internal fights over control of the organisation. The evidence marshalled in this case study sheds new light on the origins of the armed Salvadorean Left and thus contributes to a wider understanding of the processes of formation and internal dynamics of armed left-wing groups that emerged from the 1960s onwards in Latin America.

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