Telling What was not Told: Acehnese Women’s Narratives of Conflict and the Tsunami

Objective: This study aimed to identify the core psychological patterns and experiential indicators that predict psychological inflexibility in women involved in high-risk romantic relationships. Methods and Materials: A qualitative research design was employed, utilizing semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 20 women from Kenya who were currently or recently engaged in romantic relationships characterized by emotional, psychological, or physical risk. Participants were recruited through purposive sampling, and interviews were conducted until theoretical saturation was reached. Data were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic analysis in NVivo 14 software, following Braun and Clarke’s six-phase approach. The trustworthiness of the analysis was ensured through member checking, peer debriefing, and an audit trail. Findings: Thematic analysis revealed four overarching categories reflecting the predictive indicators of psychological inflexibility: (1) Cognitive Rigidity and Maladaptive Beliefs, including overgeneralization, black-and-white thinking, and fatalistic worldviews; (2) Emotional Dysregulation and Experiential Avoidance, such as emotional suppression, fear of expression, and numbing; (3) Relational Dependency and Identity Diffusion, marked by fused identities, fear of abandonment, and lack of assertiveness; and (4) Trauma History and Psychological Vulnerability, including unresolved childhood trauma, repetition of abusive patterns, and hypervigilance in intimacy. Participants’ narratives revealed how these patterns sustained psychological inflexibility and impaired their ability to exit or reframe harmful relationships. Conclusion: Psychological inflexibility in women engaged in high-risk romantic relationships is shaped by a convergence of cognitive rigidity, emotional avoidance, relational enmeshment, and unresolved trauma.

The collective adherence to contradictory conflict narratives has underpinned the intractable ethnopolitical conflicts that have occurred in the Northern Region of Ghana. Changing the conflict narratives that perpetuate ethnopolitical conflicts in the region through peace education is a prerequisite for any meaningful peacebuilding. Consequently, the study examined how civil society actors use peace education to deconstruct negative conflict narratives in the region. The study is qualitative and relied on both primary and secondary data sources. Primary data was obtained through in-depth interviews with 20 participants. The data was analyzed using an inductive-deductive thematic analysis approach with the aid of NVivo 12 software. The study found that civil society organizations’ (CSOs) peace education programs create awareness, facilitate mutual understanding, and engender values of human rights, non-violence moves to conflict resolution, reconciliation, and trust-building. Peace educational activities by CSOs, whether direct or indirect, and whether in educational settings or the community, are essential in changing the socio-psychological infrastructure that perpetuates a culture of violence. It is proposed for broader engagement with CSOs for the initiation and implementation of context-specific peace education programs to help deconstruct the conflict narratives that perpetuate identity conflicts in some parts of Ghana.

The purpose of this study is to find out how the Acehnese paradigm is historically constructed and deconstructed. The problem raised is how the Acehnese people's paradigm towards women's leadership in Aceh and what kind of discourse will help Acehnese women in achieving gender justice. The method in this research is a case study with a qualitative approach. The research subject is the leadership of Acehnese women, and the objects in this research are academics, NGOs (social institutions), community leaders and political figures. The location of this research is in the city of Banda Aceh. Data collection techniques through observation and in-depth interviews. The theory used is the theory of leadership, gender politics and habitus. The results of the study indicate that the implementation of culture and the Islamic sharia system tends to hinder women's movement with the principle of protection. The restrictions on the role of women by patriarchal culture make Acehnese women shackled and receive discriminatory treatment. This inequality between the roles of men and women is one of the structural and cultural barriers that causes individuals in society to not have equal access. The differences in roles, functions, and responsibilities between men and women are the result of social construction and can change according to the times.

This study aims to determine the entrepreneurial potential of Acehnese women in supporting halal tourism in Lhokseumawe City, to determine the obstacles and success factors of women in entrepreneurship, to know policies for empowering women in entrepreneurship, and to formulate a model for developing Acehnese women's entrepreneurship. This study uses a qualitative method with dialectical analysis. Data collection techniques are observation, in-depth interviews, confirmation with related figures and agencies, and documentation studies. The results indicate that Lhokseumawe City has great potential for the development of women's entrepreneurship and fostering the quality of entrepreneurship to be more resilient and independent. The inhibiting factors for entrepreneurship are the weak access to funding and the lack of awareness of the local government. The most important factor for entrepreneurial success was the spiritual spirit given by the family, especially their husbands, parents, and spiritual teachers. The involvement of the Lhokseumawe City government, sub-district government, village government, academics, banks, large companies in the tourism object environment, non-governmental institutions/NGOs, and the private sector MSMEs in Lhokseumawe can realize the success of halal tourism in Lhokseumawe. The Lhokseumawe City Government has fully supported Acehnese women's entrepreneurial activities.

This article deals with the philosophical analysis of social memory in the conditions of the development of today’s information society. In the paper, the social and intellectual cross-sections of information space and time are investigated. These cross-sections are directly related to the analysis of society’s legal consciousness, which seems to, so to say, lag behind the reflections about information space and time. The authors note that social space and time are formed through achieving the unity of information space and time. This is largely facilitated by social memory, which in its essence is a culture, and culture is connected with self-awareness. Culture as memory – historical and moral, obtained through social practice – provides the practice of material and spiritual production. Social memory acts as a kind of qualitative indicator of the state of society and contributes to the transition of information into knowledge, whose elements are characterized by the intense nature of their interaction. This intensity is explained by the fact that knowledge, unlike information, stands guard over the past, protecting it from external attempts to present anything positive that had been as something that had never happened and make it disappear in the annals of time. Philosophy is related to the analysis of the ultimate grounds of information space and time, which increases the intensity of interaction between the elements of the social system. At the same time, social memory increases the degree of interaction between existing values. It should be noted that social memory is very important for further research on the functioning of information society. It is a prerequisite for social forecasting of the development of cultural and social relations. Social memory is a way of existence of knowledge as a form of realization of human creative potential.

Full Book: The Israeli and Palestinian Collective Memory of Conflict – Survey Findings, Analysis, Comparison and Collaboration

Reconciliation involves a sustained change in how groups perceive and interact with one another, at all levels of society. However, in many conflict-affected societies, only a small minority of individuals work actively toward this goal and it is not clearly understood how motivations to engage in reconciliation efforts can become more widespread. This study investigates the conflict narratives and action frames of activists in a conflict-affected society, and explores how these relate to different degrees of engagement in reconciliation efforts. In-depth interviews were conducted with 27 community activists in Northern Ireland in 2014; 14 were strongly engaged in reconciliation efforts and 13 had limited or no engagement in reconciliation efforts. Thematic analysis of the interview transcripts revealed that reconciliation activists articulated conflict narratives and action frames that differed markedly from those articulated by community activists who have little or no engagement in reconciliation efforts. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the role of interpretative processes, such as narratives and framing, in alternatively supporting or reducing individuals’ motivations to work toward social reconciliation in a conflict-affected society. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)

In this qualitative study we sought to explore the triggers involved in women’s rage that are expressed towards their intimate partners. In-depth interviews were conducted with 37 incarcerated women who reported experiencing rage towards their partner. Unresolved trauma from childhood closely linked to current levels of adult rage; specific types of trauma that were reported included experiencing physical and sexual abuse, feeling unprotected by caretakers, and having observed domestic violence within their homes. Symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder were described within the stories of rage as women recounted their experiences of intimate partner violence. Common triggers for igniting rage included women perceiving a threat to themselves, a threat to their loved ones, and emotional abuse.

Mass testing is essential for identifying infected individuals during an epidemic and allowing healthy individuals to return to normal social activities. However, testing capacity is often insufficient to meet global health needs, especially during newly emerging epidemics. Dorfman’s method, a classic group testing technique, helps reduce the number of tests required by pooling the samples of multiple individuals into a single sample for analysis. Dorfman’s method does not consider the time dynamics or limits on testing capacity involved in infection detection, and it assumes that individuals are infected independently, ignoring community correlations. To address these limitations, we present an adaptive group testing (AGT) strategy based on graph partitioning, which divides a physical contact network into subgraphs (groups of individuals) and assigns testing priorities based on the social contact characteristics of each subgraph. Our AGT aims to maximize the number of infected individuals detected and minimize the number of tests required. After each testing round (perhaps on a daily basis), the testing priority is increased for each neighboring group of known infected individuals. We also present an enhanced infectious disease transmission model that simulates the dynamic spread of a pathogen and evaluate our AGT strategy using the simulation results. When applied to 13 social contact networks, AGT demonstrates significant performance improvements compared to Dorfman’s method and its variations. Our AGT strategy requires fewer tests overall, reduces disease spread, and retains robustness under changes in group size, testing capacity, and other parameters. Testing plays a crucial role in containing and mitigating pandemics by identifying infected individuals and helping to prevent further transmission in families and communities. By identifying infected individuals and helping to prevent further transmission in families and communities, our AGT strategy can have significant implications for public health, providing guidance for policymakers trying to balance economic activity with the need to manage the spread of infection.

Recent surveys show that most scientists do not perceive a conflict between science and religion. However, in many Western societies the “conflict narrative” prevails, which states that science grows at the expense of religion, and vice versa. Furthermore, evidence indicates the presence of stigmas against religion in many scientific fields of the West. Why do religious scientists feel discriminated in a field where several of their colleagues are not prejudiced against religion? Based on 22 in-depth interviews and 2 focus groups with Argentinean scientists, we show that the conflict narrative and the stigmatisation of religious scientists are present in the Argentinean scientific field. We argue that the conflict narrative is learned as part of the shared understandings of the field during the socialisation of Argentinian scientists in public institutions, where the secular norm prevails. Religious scientists adapt by strategically hiding their beliefs from their colleagues. This behaviour means that the narrative is not challenged in public, thus generating a feedback loop where the notion that there is a broad consensus about religion in the field reinforces the incentives for the strategic interaction of religious scientists.

The long-standing political conflict in the Kashmir Valley has resulted in identity based polarization and subsequent displacement of communities. Reconciliation between Hindus (also known as Pandits) and Muslims is viewed as an important step in any sustainable effort towards conflict resolution and peacebuilding in the Valley. This paper begins by examining the much debated territorial and cultural concept of ‘Kashmiriyat’ and instead proposes an alternative lens that emphasizes on shared history as opposed to common identity. We approach reconciliation through a socio-psychological lens by examining the role of a shared cultural past and historical coexistence- or simply put as shared history, as a positive resource that can be appraised by facilitating intergroup contact through certain channels. The possible impediments are discussed and future directions have been outlined. The conclusion emphasizes on the need to focus on intra-communal reconciliation in populations suffering from ongoing intractable conflict, and the necessary need for future research to focus on elements like shared history and collective memory that can be essential in post conflict recovery.

Community Voices and ‘Community Scripts’1 Carmen Mangion As a primary source, oral history testimonies have a chequered twentiethcentury history. The resurgence of oral history as a methodology in the 1960s was received with consternation by some historians, who saw it, as Eric Hobsbawm did, as a ‘remarkably slippery medium for preserving facts’.2 In the 1960s and 1970s, despite those who discounted the empirical value of oral history, it became a wellspring of ‘facts’, especially for social historians investigating marginalised groups.3 Scholars of cultural studies from the 1980s embraced and valued oral history for its subjectivity. Luisa Passerini argued that oral history narratives were more than facts, they were cultural constructs (‘expression and representation of culture’) that revealed ‘dimensions of memory, ideology and subconscious desires’.4 Another doyen of oral history, Alessandro Portelli, added: ‘Errors, inventions, and myths lead us through and beyond facts to their meanings’.5 This reframing of oral history encouraged the development of the burgeoning field of memory studies, which bolstered the theorisation of oral history. Part of this theorisation included debates on the connections between individual and collective memory, which is the subject matter of this article. These links are examined to ask whether individual recollections of women religious6 fit into an (often unconscious) cultural script determined by the social norms, values and practices of religious life. If they do, than this suggests individual memories are pre-determined and constructed into grand narratives that are subsumed into collective memory.7 Cultural historian Anna Green suggests otherwise: that there is room for the ‘consciously reflective individual, or for the role of experience in changing the ways in which individuals view the world’.8 What better way to evaluate the question of cultural scripts than using the oral testimony of religious sisters?9 This short piece explores the subjectivities of Catholic women religious (their sense of themselves which includes their experiences, human inter-relationships and emotional states), Carmen Mangion Studies • volume 107 • number 427 302 as they frame their life-stories during the course of an interview (or series of interviews).10 One would expect, in communities of women who were socialised together, typically from youth to old age, a common narrative shaping their personal accounts of religious life. These narratives would then reflect in part the collective memory and corporate identity of the religious institute to which they belong. This article begins with a brief discussion of individual and collective memory, corporate identity and cultural scripts, before investigating three potential cultural script narratives. It concludes by arguing that collective memory does shape individual recollections but, given the disruptions to religious life many women religious experienced, personal stories do not always depend on a shared history. Collective memory and corporate identity The concepts of collective memory and corporate identity are important for understanding how religious life operates, as they allow us to connect communities of women religious to their historical traditions, customs and myths. They are also useful for understanding how cultural scripts are created. Sociologist Maurice Halbwachs employed the term ‘collective memory’ to identify how an individual used their social and cultural surroundings to link their individual memories with that of the larger community. He argued that ‘The individual calls recollection to mind by relying on the frameworks of social memory’.11 For much of the twentieth century, the intricate layering of frameworks of religious life included a two-part formation period, first as a postulant, then as a novice, with each stage punctuated by very specific milestones in the form of ceremonies and vows. Throughout this educative process, women were absorbing the history of the religious institute, learning community customs and studying the Rule and constitutions which guided their governance, prayer, work and even physical movements. Once a sister was professed and entered her community, collective memories were transmitted from sister to sister in order to create a cohesive message and identity.12 There was a consistent and repetitive emphasis on the Rule and constitutions, which was linked to the identity of a religious institute, and was used to build community and influence the self-perception of the community. Life for all women religious was structured by the horarium, which timetabled waking, praying...

We examine the recent proliferation of religious discourses among front line social workers in the former British Colony of Hong Kong in order to explore the nature of ‘re-enchantment’ in modern social work practice. In-depth qualitative interviews with twenty social workers who identify as ‘Christian social workers’ in a variety of social work organisations (both religious and secular) reveal the adoption of religious identities and discourses to navigate the encroachment of managerialism. A systematic analysis of these narratives suggests that Christian social workers evoke religion to reclaim feelings of authenticity in their work, to facilitate more personalised relationships with their clients, and to empower themselves following the introduction of managerialist policies. We illuminate the dialectical relationship between religious discourses and managerialism to critique claims in the literature about a ‘re-enchantment’ in social work, and to understand the essence of religion in modern social work practice.

The Beteng Sari Archaeological Site in East Lampung represents a socio-historical landscape shaped by long-term cultural interaction within the civilizational networks of the Indonesian archipelago. It is concluded that Betengng Sari as a space of cultural interaction and dynamic local identity formation, moving beyond the predominantly descriptive approaches of previous research. Employing a qualitative historical case study design, the research is based on field observations, in-depth interviews, and the analysis of archaeological remains and written sources. The main findings indicate that the configuration of earthen fortifications and ditches, the distribution of domestic artifacts, the presence of Chinese ceramics, metal objects, ancient coins, and a cosmologically oriented burial complex demonstrate Beteng Sari’s integration into regional trade networks and cultural mobility. The coexistence of megalithic traditions, Hindu–Buddhist influences, early Islamic remains, and imported material culture reveals a layered process of acculturation characterized by continuity and adaptation rather than cultural replacement. It is concluded that Beteng Sari functioned as an interregional node of interaction in which local agency played a crucial role in shaping spatial organization, social practices, and collective memory, thereby framing local identity in East Lampung as a contextual and non-essentialist historical construction, with theoretical implications for studies of cultural interaction and landscape archaeology.

This study analyzed the traditional cuisine of the Togutil people in North Halmahera, focusing on four main foods: Paruda, Waji, Dodol, and Halua. This study departed from the assumption that food was not merely an object of consumption, but a cultural text that carries layers of social, ecological, historical, and political meaning. Using a culinary ethnographic approach, this study combined participatory observation, in-depth interviews, and analysis of culinary documents and artifacts. The analysis was conducted by integrating cultural ecology theory (Steward, 1955; Harris, 1998), habitus and cultural capital (Bourdieu, 2010), collective memory (Halbwachs, 2020; Assmann, 2011), and the framework of cultural and postcolonial resistance (Hall, 1990; Said, 2003; Spivak, 2010). The results of the study showed that Togutil cuisine serves as an edible archive, combining ecological knowledge, social practices, solidarity, spirituality, and an arena of resistance against global food homogenization. Paruda symbolizes ecological adaptation and food sovereignty, Waji represents agrarian solidarity and hospitality, and Dodol affirms technical skills and cultural capital. At the same time, Halua becomes a medium of respect for ancestors and symbolic resistance. Theoretically, this study expands the horizons of sociological and anthropological studies of food by introducing the concept of "culinary social memory." Methodologically, this study affirms the relevance of culinary ethnography as a reflective approach to reading the connections between food, culture, and power. Practically, this research emphasizes the importance of preserving traditional cuisine as a strategy for food sovereignty, intergenerational education, and advocacy for customary rights amid the pressures of modernization and globalization.