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Mass Shootings in Central and Eastern Europe
No full textThis book examines mass shootings and attempted shootings that occurred across 16 countries in Central and Eastern Europe, known as post-communist states. This region of the world has been described by social scientists as possessing specific social, cultural, and political characteristics which may mean that mass shootings in this part of the world are driven by distinct causal factors in comparison to those in North America and elsewhere. This book explores trends and patterns that underpin cases in this under-explored region and tests whether Cumulative Strain Theory can account for mass shooting occurrences. It uses in-depth qualitative analysis to examine select case studies in one chapter, followed by a chapter which uses quantitative methods to identify trends across a wider set of cases and to test the theoretically-driven hypotheses. This data is then compared with data in the US. This book draws on a wide range of media, forensic and court reports and provides methodological insights and discussions of future trends including the potential incidental increase of mass shootings in these regions. It also engages in recent public policy debates pertaining to firearm ownership and regulation. Alexei Anisin is Dean of the School of International Relations and Diplomacy at the Anglo-American University in the Czech Repulic, and Research Associate at the Institute of Political Studies in the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University Prague, Czech Republic
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Mass shootings and civilian armament /
No full text"Mass Shootings and Civilian Armament provides the first comprehensive multi-methodological analysis of the relationship between mass shootings and firearm purchases (as proxied by background checks) in the US on national level data from 1999-2020. Interdisciplinary in nature, Mass Shootings and Civilian Armament will not only be of great interest to scholars of Criminology, but will also speak to Sociologists, Economists, Public Policy scholars, Political Scientists, Historians, as well as Cultural Studies and American Studies scholars"-
Book Review: Narrating conflict in the Middle East: discourse, image, and communications practices in Lebanon and Palestine
No full text"Narrating Conflict in the Middle East: Discourse, Image, and Communications Practices in Lebanon and Palestine." Dina Matar and Zahera Harb (Editors). I.B.Tauris. May 2013. --- In this book the contributors set out to examine the ways in which conflicts in Palestine and Lebanon have been and are narrated, imagined and remembered in diverse spaces, including that of the media. Narrating Conflict in the Middle East makes an effective relation of the concepts of power and discourse to contemporary art, movies and representations in both the Palestinian and Lebanese public spheres, writes Alexei Anisin
Book review: The myth of media globalization
No full text"The Myth of Media Globalization." Kai Hafez. Polity. --- The ongoing interconnection of the world through modern mass media is generally considered to be one of the major developments underpinning globalization. This book considers anew the globalization phenomenon in the media sphere, with Kai Hafez aiming to analyse the degree to which media globalization is really taking place. Hafez’s book is an effective and a worthwhile read for those interested in mass media and the grim facts behind its ownership and role in the modern world, concludes Alexei Anisin
State repression, nonviolence, and protest mobilization
No full textThis four article journal-based dissertation builds on Gene Sharp's framework of nonviolent direct action, along with Hess and Martin's repression backfire, in order to deepen our understanding of how state repression impacts protest mobilization and historical processes of social change. After initially problematizing Gene Sharp’s notions of power and consent with aid of political discourse theory, and two case studies of the 1905 Russian Bloody Sunday Massacre and the South African 1976 Soweto Massacre, the dissertation moves onto specifically explain the conditions under which protest mobilization is likely to continue after severe state repression. A causal process model underpins the logic of the dissertation. It identifies generalizable antecedent factors and conditions under which repression backfire is most likely to occur. Numerous mechanisms are also introduced that help explain the operation of this process across different historical eras and political systems. After applying this process model and its mechanisms to the 2013 Turkish Gezi protests, a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis of 44 different historical massacres is presented in which repression backfired and increased protest in some cases, but not others. Repression backfire is a highly asymmetrical and nonlinear causal phenomenon. I conclude that nonviolent protest strategy has been a salient factor in historical cases of repression backfire and is also vital for the ability of protests to withstand state repression. However, the role of nonviolence is partial and to some degree inadequate in explaining repression backfire if it is not linked to other general factors which include protest diversity, protest threat level, and geographic terrain
The Russian Bloody Sunday Massacre of 1905: a discursive account of nonviolent transformation
No full textA mass nonviolent protest against the Tsarist autocracy in 1905 led to the Russian Bloody Sunday Massacre where Tsarist forces killed hundreds of civilians. This paper presents a new theoretical perspective of this incident and suggests that the effect of the massacre was of greater importance to both the First Russian Revolution and eventual downfall of the Tsarist Empire than has previously been considered by historians and theorists of nonviolence. The massacre dislocated the Tsarist state to a never before seen extent, enabling political movements to compete in a time of state crisis which arose after the Tsar was stripped of his title of “the Father of the People” and divine monarch. A political process model linked to discourse theoretic explanatory concepts is presented to explain how the Tsar's contradictory ordering of the killing of his greatest supporters, the devout Orthodox peasantry, and workers was fatal for the existence of Tsarism as a political discourse. The model also captures a viral media effect that garnered large-scale domestic and international public sympathy for the St Petersburg social movement. This sheds light on how discursive forces having to do with identity and power play a role in transformative events brought about by nonviolent protest
Identity, Repression, and the Collapse of Apartheid
Get PDFScholars emphasize that an influx of resources during the 1980s lowered the costs of collective action and nourished a mass nonviolent anti-apartheid movement that eventually brought down the incumbent regime. Utilising a discourse theoretic approach, this study demonstrates that the 1976 Soweto massacre along with its antecedent organisational campaign waged by the Black Consciousness movement (BCM) were pivotal, yet overlooked historical factors that contributed to the apartheid collapse. While the Soweto massacre led to the detainment of BCM leadership and the death of leader Steve Biko, the event of white police killing black unarmed students in June of 1976 backfired and revealed central antagonisms and contradictions underpinning the apartheid project. Only once political identities were dislocated did the possibility arise for a unified mass opposition movement to form. Alongside weighing economic costs under threat of state repression, this study demonstrates that historical waves of revolutionary mobilisation are also influenced by identity and meanings that get attribute to repressive events by publics
Book review: Two nations indivisible: Mexico, the United States and the road ahead
No full text"Two Nations Indivisible: Mexico, The United States and the Road Ahead." Shannon K. O’Neil. Oxford University Press. May 2013. --- Over three decades Mexico has gone from a poor to a middle class nation, a closed to an open economy, an authoritarian to a vibrant (if at times messy) democracy, and a local to an increasingly binational society. Two Nations Indivisible aims to tell the story of the making of modern Mexico, and what it means for the United States. Recounting the economic, political, social, and security changes of the last thirty years, it provides a roadmap for one of the most overlooked foreign policy challenges of recent times. A recommended read for those looking for an overview of contemporary U.S.-Mexico affairs, writes Alexei Anisin
Book review: American value: migrants, money and meaning in El Salvador and the United States
No full text"American Value: Migrants, Money and Meaning in El Salvador and the United States." David Pedersen. University of Chicago Press. March 2013. --- Over the past half-century, El Salvador has transformed dramatically. Historically reliant on primary exports like coffee and cotton, the country emerged from a brutal civil war in 1992 to find much of its national income now coming from a massive emigrant workforce—over a quarter of its population—that earns money in the United States and sends it home. In American Value, David Pedersen examines this new way of life. An excellent account of the history of U.S.-El Salvador relations, writes Alexei Anisin
The Perfect Storm? Political Instability and Background Checks During COVID-19
Get PDFThe COVID-19 pandemic has been observed to have increased aggressive behavior and violence in the United States. This study tests whether political instability events propelled gun purchasing behavior through a temporally sensitive analysis based on data drawn from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) and monthly data from the FBI’s NICS National Instant Criminal Background Check System. It utilizes a multi-methodological framework featuring both regression modeling and qualitative comparative analysis. While results from statistical inquiry do not lend support to significant associations of any single variable on the outcome, the comparative configurational inquiry does identify three salient pathways that brought about background check increases during COVID-19. All three solutions feature the conditions of political instability and presidential election events. Alongside these factors, mass shooting occurrences are present in two of the identified solutions. These findings reveal that COVID-19 fostered a set of conditions and the formation of a “Perfect Storm” which resulted in the greatest number of annual gun purchases in recorded history
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