International Journal of Conflict and Violence (IJCV - Universität Bielefeld)
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Governance, Security and Culture: Assessing Africa’s Youth Bulge
Get PDFAlthough Africa has a youth-dominated population, African government policies are often not youth-centered and African governments and their international supporters are frequently under-informed about the priorities of most youth. Reliance on the “youth bulge and instability thesis” leads to distorted assessments of everyday realities. Examination of the lives, priorities, and cultural contexts of African youth, and the cases of youth in Rwanda and Burundi in particular, shows that the nature of relations between the state and massive populations of young, marginalized, and alienated citizens directly impacts the governance, security, and development prospects of African nations
Editorial Remarks: Youth at Risk
Get PDFYouth must always be analysed with respect to two aspects: Firstly, as a societally shaped phase of life that varies socially and culturally across countries and regions, characterized by different chances of social integration and dangers of disintegration. Secondly, as individual biographies playing out in a specific societal dynamic of integration/disintegration, where experiences with violence as perpetrators or victims play an important role. Life in particular societal constellations presents risks for certain parts of the young generation, just as the behavior of youth may itself pose risks in some societal situations. The way the general relationship varies across different national and cultural contexts is the question we have chosen to home in on in this issue of the journal. Post-war, post-dictatorial, developing, transformative, and precarious societal contexts form consistent points of reference for the contributions, which include both country-specific case studies and comparative investigations
Scarcity and Abundance Revisited: A Literature Review on Natural Resources and Conflict
Get PDFNatural resources can contribute to economic growth, employment, and fiscal revenues. But many resource-rich and resource-dependent countries are, in fact, body of literature is devoted to the issue of intrastate resource conflicts. These studies can be broadly divided into two groups: studies which focus on resource characterized by disappointing growth rates, high inequality and wide-spread impoverishment, bad governance, and an increased risk of civil violence. A vast scarcity and conflict, and studies that analyse the relationship between resource abundance and conflict. While studying resources and intrastate conflict is anything but new, we show that the main findings from the literature, which are often conflicting, are difficult to compare due to a lack of adequate, and conflict, we discuss the central terminology and approaches to measuring independent and dependent variables (resources and conflict). general definitions and measurements of scarcity, abundance, and conflict. After overviews of research on resource scarcity and conflict and on resource abundance
Affirmative Action and Ethnic Identity in Black and Indigenous Brazilian Children
Get PDFTwo studies of children aged between five and ten years old investigate the impact of affirmative action programmes on the ethnic identity of black and indigenous children in Brazil. The participants in the first study were children supported by affirmative action programmes: black Quilombola (n= 33) and indigenous (n= 32). Study two was carried out on black children (n= 77) not supported by affirmative action programmes. In the first study the children used nine different categories of skin colour to define themselves. The majority of the indigenous children defined themselves as “morena”, while black Quilombolas defined themselves as “preto” (dark). In the second study the children used six different colours, and dark colours were rarely used. Although the children in both studies liked belonging to their group, most, particularly the Quilombola children, would like to be whiter
Cultural Value Differences, Value Stereotypes, and Diverging Identities in Intergroup Conflicts: The Estonian Example
Get PDFAn examination of the relationship between cultural values, value stereotypes and social identities in Estonia, where intergroup conflicts triggered riots in the capitalTallinn in April 2007, using data from the European Social Survey on cultural differences and value trends as the background to a survey exploring perceivedgroup values and assessed social identities among ethnic Estonians and members of the Russian-speaking minority. The study, conducted in summer 2008, foundagreement across both ethnic groups about the values of a typical group member, but no accuracy in their attribution. The Estonian students (n = 152) avoidedEastern-European identification, while the Russian-speaking students (n = 54) did not want to give up Estonia’s Soviet past. We found that attributed rather thanself-rated value differences between groups caused the conflicts, whilst diverging identities were found to make value stereotypes more extreme
Social Status and Anti-Immigrant Attitudes in Europe: An Examination from the Perspective of Social Dominance Theory
Get PDFA full test of the Social Dominance Theory model addressed immigration as one of the most prominent current intergroup conflicts in Europe. The hypothesis that members of high status groups tend to discriminate members of low status groups because they are more prone to Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) and refer more to legitimising myths such as prejudice was tested using representative samples from eight European countries (N = 1000 each), considering income and migrant background as social status indicators, SDO, anti-immigrant prejudice and diversity beliefs, and the intention to discriminate immigrants. The results confirm that individuals with higher SDO are more likely to discriminate immigrants, partly because of stronger anti-immigrant prejudice and partly because they believe less in diversity. However, the results question the role of social status. Contrary to the expectations of Social Dominance Theory, individuals with lower income are more prone to SDO and have stronger anti-immigrant attitudes and weaker diversity beliefs. The impact of migrant background was weak and ambivalent. We suggest reconsidering the role of social status to stress status maintenance and enhancement as general social motives. Regardless of their social position, people seemingly try to enhance their relative position by devaluing lower status groups
Dealing with Past Colonial Conflicts: How Perceived Characteristics of the Victimized Outgroup Can Influence the Experience of Group-Based Guilt
Get PDFAn examination of potential outgroup-focused predictors of group-based guilt relating to past colonial conflicts involving Portugal and the Netherlands, specifically, the role of the perceptions of the ingroup towards the victimized outgroup, as well as on outgroup identification and meta-perceptions (i.e. the ingroup\u27s beliefs regarding the outgroup\u27s perceptions of it). Using Structural Equation Modeling in a Portuguese sample (N = 178) and a Dutch sample (N = 157), we found that the experience of group-based guilt due to colonial conflicts can be positively predicted by outgroup perceptions and outgroup identification (Dutch sample only). Meta-perceptions were a negative predictor of group-based guilt (Dutch sample only). Furthermore, our results show that group-based guilt is positively associated with compensatory behavioral intentions and perceived importance of remembering past colonial conflicts. Results point to the important role of outgroup-focused variables in shaping group-based guilt experiences relating to past conflicts between groups. The findings suggest possible avenues of further research and ways to improve intergroup relations following conflict
Us versus Them in Context: Meta-Analysis as a Tool for Geotemporal Trends in Intergroup Relations
Get PDFThe increasing availability of studies from many nations offers important potential insights into group-based psychology and behavior, conflict, and violence. Nonetheless, to date, few cross-national or cultural comparisons of study findings have been made, representing a gap in our understanding of the historical causes and courses of inter-group conflict in current comparative approaches. Meta-analytic methods offer researchers the ability to combine data from studies with groups as well as across time. Our review of statistical methods available for comparative analyses in inter-group research found strengths and limitations for understanding group differences, conflict, and violence, and meta-analytic methods address these limitations by exploring potential structural-level moderators and by identifying how temporal and geographical variations may relate directly to group-based variables. Such methods can contribute to our understanding of broad structural effects on group-based variables by elucidating the mechanisms underlying them
Collective Memories of Portuguese Colonial Action in Africa: Representations of the Colonial Past among Mozambicans and Portuguese Youths
Get PDFSocial representations of the colonization and decolonization processes among young people from a former European colonial power (Portugal) and from an African ex-colony (Mozambique) were investigated through surveys using open- and closed-ended questions about national history, focusing on the identity functions of collective memories. Hegemonic and contested representations were found of the most prominent events related to Portuguese colonization of Mozambique, arousing a range of collective emotions. A central place is occupied by memories of the Colonial War, which ended with the Carnation Revolution in Portugal and the subsequent independence of the Portuguese African colonies. Overall, the depiction of colonialism was more negative for Mozambican than for Portuguese participants. The violent effects of colonial action were very salient in Mozambican memories, which stressed the most oppressive aspects of the colonial period, associated with slave trade and brutal repression. On the Portuguese side, the idealization of the voyages of discovery persisted, obscuring the most violent effects of colonial expansion. However, collective memories of colonization of former colonizer and former colonized do not simply stand opposed. Both Mozambican and Portuguese participants reported ambivalent feelings towards the colonization process