1,721,289 research outputs found
The EU-Turkey deal and the impact on refugee children
No full textSince the controversial EU–Turkey deal dramatically lowered crossings over the Aegean Sea, Syrian refugees in particular have been seeking alternative routes and returning to the treacherous Libyan route. Since the start of the so-called “refugee crisis” this route had become the deadliest sea crossing in the world – with almost 3.000 people dying in 2015 when compared to approximately 800 on the shorter passage between Turkey and Greece. This chapter focuses on the EU–Turkey deal and specifically on its impact on refugee children. I argue that the EU finds itself in a long lasting moral conundrum when dealing with, on the one hand, what is the most pressing issue for European citizens in the first half of 2016 (migration) and, on the other hand, its ethical and legal obligations – and those of its member states – under the UN convention on the rights of the child. This conundrum is getting even more challenging to resolve with the attempted July 2016 coup in Turkey and Erdogan’s authoritarian responses to his opponents
A potential paradigm shift in knowledge production:Some concluding reflections
No full textIn this volume our attention has shifted between the ‘European gaze’ in the production of knowledge on the MENA and the ways in which European reality is constructed in the MENA. We did this with a core focus on knowledge production in higher educational and similar establishments, including think tanks. What has been important here is the necessity to move beyond binarisms in the ways in which Europe is represented through a MENA lens and the MENA through a European lens. This led us to pertinent issues relating to educators’ positionality, their inherent biases and their own notions of truth. The collection therefore shows that the manner in which knowledge is produced tells us a lot about the way in which specific messages about the ‘Other’ are conveyed in an educational context. Moreover, it reveals how – in all its attempts to bring the MENA under its control – Europe itself is immersed in the MENA’s world. Researchers and educators working on and in Europe and the MENA have a responsibility to help improve mutual destructive perceptions in the sense of differentiating facts and truths from falsehoods and misrepresentations. We hope this volume goes some way to assist in such endeavours.</p
Knowledge production in higher education:the Middle East and Europe – an introduction
No full textThis edited volume focuses on knowledge production in higher education in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and Europe. Its twelve contributions shed light on how academics have deliberated the immensely politicised nature of institutions of higher education and their practices – be these in the context of colonialism, decolonialism, nation-building or political transformation. Cognisant of fragmenting labels in constructions of ‘the MENA’ and of ‘Europe’, our contributors supersede such logics by immersing themselves as subjects and objects of the study at hand, making themselves simultaneously ‘scholar’ and ‘subject’. Therefore, this volume explores the politics of institutes of higher education in view of the scholarly practices that are characteristic of the ways in which the MENA is taught at European universities and how Europe – or increasingly, the European Union (EU) – is discussed at institutions of higher education in the MENA. A reflexive understanding of how we teach and study Europe/the EU at MENA universities and how we teach and study the MENA in Europe is needed to help overcome existing divisions between the Global North and the Global South in knowledge production.</p
Introduction:Entanglements in EU-Middle East Relations
No full textHave relations between the European Union (EU) and the Middle East really changed substantially or is there actually more continuity than usually assumed? The aim of this introductory chapter is to take stock of the continuities, ruptures and entanglements in EU-Middle East relations. Since the end of the Second World War, the decolonization process in the Middle East, the challenges of pan-Arabism, the US hegemony over the Middle East, the Venice Declaration, the aftermath of the Cold War, the intensification of US-European military presence in the Middle East and the Arab uprisings have all contributed to key moments of rupture in these relations. All these events represent flashpoints which expose vulnerabilities, weaknesses, fallacies and incoherencies in these relations. This introduction frames and presents the 41 chapters of this Handbook which are organized in six parts – Historical Constructions/Perspectives; Theoretical Approaches/Perspectives; Multilateralism and Geopolitical Perspectives; Contemporary Issues; Peace, Security and Conflict; Development, Economics, Trade and Society. Each chapter and collectively these contributions highlight how EU-Middle East relations are multifaceted, varied and complex. This Handbook provides a useful entry point for an informed exploration and nuanced understanding of the multiple themes, actors, structures and processes that mould these relations
The Young and Exiled:An Introduction
No full textSince the start of the confl ict in Syria in 2011, Syrian refugee children havewithstood violence, uncertainty, fear, trauma and loss. This book follows theirjourneys by bringing together scholars and practitioners to refl ect on how to make their situation better and to get this knowledge to as many front liners – across European and neighbouring countries in the Middle East – as possible.The book is premised on the underlying conception of refugee children asnot merely a vulnerable contingent of the displaced Syrian population, but onethat possesses a certain agency for change and progress. In this vein, the various contributions aim to not just de-securitize the ‘conversation’ on migration that frequently centres on the presumed insecurity that refugees personify. They also de-securitize the fi gure and image of the refugee. Through the stories of the youngest and most vulnerable, they demonstrate that refugee children are not mere opaque fi gures on whom we project our insecurities. Instead, they embody potentials and opportunities for progress that we need to nurture, as young refugees fi nd themselves compelled to both negotiate the practical realities of a life in exile, and situate themselves in changing and unfamiliar socio-cultural contexts. Drawing on extensive fi eld research, this edited volume points in the direction of a new rights based framework which will safeguard the future of these children and their well-being. Offering a comparative lens between approaches to tackling refugees in the Middle East and Europe, this book will appeal to students and scholars of refugees and migration studies and human rights, as well as anyone with an interest in the Middle East or Europe
Normative Power Europe and Conflict Transformation
Full text linkThe starting point for this paper is twofold. On the one hand, the authors have recently been involved in a study on European integration and border conflict transformation, which established conditions under which integration and association can have a desecuritising effect on border conflicts. One core condition was an image of the EU as a positive force in world politics. On the other hand, both authors have been involved in the debate on normative power Europe and have argued that this concept is better seen as a discursive self-construction imbuing the integration project with new force and establishing an EU identity against Others, rather than an objective analytical concept. In this paper, we explore the degree to which this self-construction of the EU is shared by others in international society, and in particular in conflict areas. Our basic hypothesis is that the EU's chances to act as a mediator, or to transform conflicts through association agreements and other forms of partnerships, largely depends on this acceptance of the notion of normative power Europe. The paper draws upon the cases of Cyprus and Israel/Palestine as examples. Its aim is to develop a theoretical framework with which the basic hypothesis can be studied, to discuss initial examples, and to draw out the political and normative consequences from the relationship between normative power Europe and conflict transformation, especially in light of our earlier criticism of the EU's self-construction
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
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