4,383 research outputs found
Discourses on violence in Costa Rica, El Salvador and Nicaragua: Social Perceptions in Everyday Life
No full textHuhn S. Discourses on violence in Costa Rica, El Salvador and Nicaragua: Social Perceptions in Everyday Life. GIGA Working Papers. Vol 81. Hamburg: GIGA; 2008.Central America has the reputation of being a violent region with high crime rates, youth
gangs, drug traffic, and ubiquitous insecurity. Politicians, the media, and social scientists
in and outside the region often claim that the societies are in complete agreement with
their judgment of the situation and that all society members are calling for law and order
and social segregation. Focusing on Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, the paper analyzes
the social perception of violence and crime. On the basis of essays written by secondary
school students and interviews with citizens from all walks of life in the three countries,
the paper points out how elite arguments on violence and crime are translated into
everyday life, and what society members suggest be done to deal with these problems.
The sources prove that there are noticeable hegemonic discourses on violence and crime in
Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. Simultaneously, a majority of the respondents call
for social and integrative solutions rather than the so-called “iron fist.” The repressive
trend in Central American policies therefore does not necessarily receive the presumed affirmation
asserted by many authorities on and in the region
Exploding Crime? Topic Management in Central American Newspapers
No full textHuhn S, Oettler A, Peetz P. Exploding Crime? Topic Management in Central American Newspapers. GIGA Working Papers. Vol 33. Hamburg: GIGA; 2006.It has become common to state that criminal violence has superseded political violence in
Central America. This paper presents the first results of a research project which analyses
the social construction of violent realities in Costa Rica, El Salvador and Nicaragua. The
authors describe the print media landscape in Central America and examine both the quality
of leading newspapers and the main clusters of topics constituting the news discourse
on violence. The analysis of the macro-structure of topic management in Central American
newspapers allows to differentiate the “talk of crime”: it is more heterogeneous than often
thought. There are signs that the problem of juvenile delinquency is emerging as the center
of a cross-country discourse on “ordinary violence”. On the other hand, the talk of
crime is centered around few topic clusters, with sexual violence and border-related discourse
on violence being of key importance. Finally, the paper points to a heterogeneous
array of discourse events that is connected to political developments and power-relations
Culture of Fear and Control in Costa Rica (I). Crime Statistics and Law Enforcement
No full textHuhn S. Culture of Fear and Control in Costa Rica (I). Crime Statistics and Law Enforcement. GIGA Working Papers. Vol 104. Hamburg: GIGA; 2009.The Costa Rican talk of crime is fundamentally based on the assumption that crime rates have increased significantly in recent years and that there is today a vast and alarming amount of crime. On the basis of this assumption, fear of crime, the call for the “iron fist,” and drastic law enforcement actions are continually increasing. While crime statistics are the logical basis for the hypothesis on the far-reaching extent of delinquency, they are used in a problematic way in the talk of crime. In this paper I discuss Costa Rican crime statis-tics, their development, and their utilization in the talk of crime against the background of criminological theory. The theses of the paper are that a) the informative value of crime statistics regarding Costa Rican reality is far more questionable than the common utiliza-tion of them implies and b) when they are used as argumentation, these crime statistics do not provide evidence of the oft-proclaimed rising crime wave
A History of Non-Violence: Insecurity and the Normative Power of the Imagined in Costa Rica
No full textHuhn S. A History of Non-Violence: Insecurity and the Normative Power of the Imagined in Costa Rica. GIGA Working Papers. Vol 84. Hamburg: GIGA; 2008.Crime, violence, and insecurity are among the most important social topics in contemporary
Costa Rica. These three issues play a central role in the media, politics, and everyday life,
and the impression has emerged that security has changed for the worse and that society is
now threatened permanently. However, crime statistics do not support this perception. The
paper thus asks why violence and crime generate such huge fear in society. The thesis is that
the Costa Rican national identity—with Costa Rica constructed as a nonviolent nation—
impedes a realistic discussion about the phenomena and their causes, and simultaneously
provides a platform for sensationalism and the social construction of fear
„Heimatlose Ausländer“ in Osnabrück. Zur Aushandlung von Teilhabe und Anerkennung
No full textEin fast vergessenes Kapitel deutscher Nachkriegsgeschichte, Teil 5 von 5. Linda Ennen-Lange, Lukas Hennies, Sebastian Huhn, Christoph Rass Das im April 1951 in Kraft getretene „Gesetz über die Rechtsstellung heimatloser Ausländer im Bundesgebiet“ (HAuslG) war nicht zuletzt das Ergebnis des verständlichen Misstrauens der Alliierten gegenüber dem ehemaligen Kriegsgegner Deutschland, dem Land der besiegten Nationalsozialisten. Der Gesetzesentwurf des HAuslG wurde in einer ersten Bera..
Recherche zur IRO und der Verhandlung von Migration nach dem 2. Weltkrieg in den Archives Nationales, Paris
No full textIm Februar verbrachten Lukas Hennies und Sebastian Huhn eine Woche in den Archives Nationales in Paris, um in den dortigen Aktenbeständen der International Refugee Organization (IRO) zu recherchieren, der „Specialized Agency“ der Vereinten Nationen, die zwischen 1947 und 1952 unter anderem mit der Betreuung, Versorgung, Repatriierung und dem Resettlement der sogenannten Europäischen „refugees“ und „Displaced Persons“ (DPs) beauftragt war. Lukas Hennies in den Archives nationales (Foto: Seb..
The Culture of Fear and Control in Costa Rica (I): Crime Statistics and Law Enforcement
No full textThe Costa Rican talk of crime is fundamentally based on the assumption that crime rates have increased significantly in recent years and that there is today a vast and alarming amount of crime. On the basis of this assumption, fear of crime, the call for the “iron fist,” and drastic law enforcement actions are continually increasing. While crime statistics are the logical basis for the hypothesis on the far-reaching extent of delinquency, they are used in a problematic way in the talk of crime. In this paper I discuss Costa Rican crime statis-tics, their development, and their utilization in the talk of crime against the background of criminological theory. The theses of the paper are that a) the informative value of crime statistics regarding Costa Rican reality is far more questionable than the common utiliza-tion of them implies and b) when they are used as argumentation, these crime statistics do not provide evidence of the oft-proclaimed rising crime wave.Costa Rica, violence, crime, social order, crime statistics, public discourse
A History of Nonviolence: Insecurity and the Normative Power of the Imagined in Costa Rica
No full textCrime, violence, and insecurity are among the most important social topics in contemporary Costa Rica. These three issues play a central role in the media, politics, and everyday life, and the impression has emerged that security has changed for the worse and that society is now threatened permanently. However, crime statistics do not support this perception. The paper thus asks why violence and crime generate such huge fear in society. The thesis is that the Costa Rican national identity—with Costa Rica constructed as a nonviolent nation— impedes a realistic discussion about the phenomena and their causes, and simultaneously provides a platform for sensationalism and the social construction of fear.Costa Rica, violence, crime, national identity, public discourse
A History of Nonviolence? The Social Construction of Costa Rican Peaceful Identity
No full textHuhn S. A History of Nonviolence? The Social Construction of Costa Rican Peaceful Identity. Social Identities. Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture. 2009;15(6):787-810
Die marode Musterdemokratie Costa Rica
No full textHuhn S. Die marode Musterdemokratie Costa Rica. GIGA Focus Lateinamerika. 2006;2006(4):1-8
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