Conflict-ridden Society Research Articles

Pastoral Reflection on Depictions of Contemporary Religious Subcultures in Online Discussions: An Analysis of Stereotypes (A Case Study from Slovakia)

In terms of ethnic and religious characteristics, the majority of the Slovak population identifies with Slovak nationality and Christianity. Recent quantitative and qualitative research on the value orientations of Slovaks has revealed negative stereotypical and dismissive attitudes towards “difference”, which is often perceived as “non-Slovak” or “not ours”. In this social, cultural, and religious context, the question arises as to what understanding and tolerance of religious expressions can be expected in the current, often conflict-ridden society and what pastoral challenges arise from this. The aim of the research was to identify whom participants in online discussions consider to be the most “different” from themselves, which specific attributes of other religious subcultures (i.e., those other than the majority Christian) the discussants consider the most “different”, and how they evaluate this “difference”. The research method used was critical discourse analysis (CDA), which focuses on identifying and addressing social issues by analysing how these problems are presented in language—in our case, in written online comments within selected online discussions. The research confirms that the attitude of participants in online discussions towards the differences of other religious groups in the context of Slovakia is often accompanied by suspicion and majority negativism. The research findings point to the need for in-depth research focusing on the meaning and practical possibilities of reducing the social distance of the majority population concerning religious and ethnic minorities.

Against Implications: Ethnographic Witnessing as Research Stance in the Lebanese Conflict Zone

Legacies of violence—and the exigencies of care that emerge in contexts of conflict—become visible in schools and yet often remain unacknowledged. These conflicts are often elided in educational policy making and research focused on developing best practices. I step back from research oriented toward problem solving to argue for a method (ethnography), a stance (witnessing), and a refusal (to draw implications for practice). Documenting the work of teaching in one Lebanese public school, I analyze the complexities of relationships and practices that emerge as teachers live with children in a space of enduring precarity. I show how, given the enormity of the conflicts, and the impossibility of addressing them through education, teachers’ silence about the conditions of children’s lives is almost the only thing that makes sense; but in the “almost” rests space for crafting an education that weaves affiliative forms of sociality across the rifts of a conflict-ridden society.

Being Young in the Diaspora: Fragmentation of the Palestinian Youth Mobilisation from the Middle East to Europe

While the current research mainly deals with the Palestinian youth in the Middle East, reports from various organisations, whose most accounts are descriptive, hardly provide a sustained and critical evaluation of their nature and impact. With an urgent need to understand better youth engagement in exile under adverse conditions in a conflict-ridden society such as the Palestinian one, this paper aims to analyse the Palestinian youth initiatives from the Middle-East (Lebanon, Syria and Palestine) to Europe (Sweden). Focusing on the Palestinian youth in the diaspora, this paper provides an analysis of the impact of migratory trajectories and activist backgrounds in regards to the evolution of the mobilisation’s practices. Notwithstanding the stunning achievements of the Palestinian youth movement, this article investigates the fragmentation and even collapse of many of these types of engagement due to political and socio-cultural ruptures, throughout data collected in Sweden, and employing the youth engagement theoretical framework.

Meetei Women in the Political Sphere of Manipur

History has its testimony to the active participation of Meetei women during social and political crises in the conflict-ridden society of Manipur. The historic events of Nupi lal (women’s war) 1904 and 1939 during the British colonial period of Manipur and the nude protest by a group of Meetei women at the western gate of Kangla in 2004 are worth mentioning. Such an active engagement of Meetei women in the political sphere of society, which is considered to be the world of men, makes them appear to challenge the delineation of the two worlds—‘ghar and bahir’, the home and the world—delineated for women and men, respectively. While it would be facile to judge the status of Meetei women based on their ostensibly visible appearances, there is no simple answer to the question of whether they are/are not bound by the boundaries of the home and the world. This article investigates the nature of Meetei women’s engagement in the political sphere to see if their actions are in strict adherence to feminist political ideologies. This article also problematizes the straitjacketing of binaries of protector/protected, victim/agent, public/private and oppressor/victim.

Politicised celebrity in a conflict-ridden society: The Elor Azaria case and celebritisation discourses in Israel

ABSTRACT Research on celebrities in large-scale national and global contexts has traditionally focused on the ways in which celebrity culture reinforces hegemonic values and the social status quo to avoid alienating potential audiences. Through an examination of the celebritisation of Elor Azaria, an Israeli soldier who earned renown after he was put on trial for killing an incapacitated Palestinian assailant, we suggest that in a small scale, nationalistic and conflict-ridden society such as Israel, complementary global discourses of depoliticisation and local discourses of politicisation may occur, complicating the celebrity culture landscape. We demonstrate these convergent logics through an analysis of media discourse about Azaria, and other celebrities who were drawn into the affair, and consider theoretical implications for celebrity politics more broadly.

Students Shaping Internationalization in a Conflict-Ridden Society: Experiences of Israeli Teacher Education Colleges

This article focuses on students from two Israeli teacher education colleges serving marginalized communities, both of which participated in a European Union (EU) project aimed at fostering internationalization in higher education institutions in Israel. The study reported focuses on students’ agency in shaping institutional internationalization processes, in particular during their studies but also, as it became apparent, later in their teaching careers following graduation. Moreover, we explore how students’ agency in internationalization is shaped by the conflict and its consequences. Employing a qualitative methodology, we followed six students’ personal and professional trajectories, revealing the nature and scope of their activities and perceptions in light of their proactive role in internationalization in their institutions. We show how life in a conflict-ridden society may prompt proactivity and agency among marginalized students, revealing and discussing the potential transformative nature of students’ agency in internationalization processes. Our findings indicate that institutions can strive to facilitate student agency and utilize it to further develop internationalization within their institutions.

Internationalization Under Intractable Conflict: The Influence of National Conflict on Israeli Higher Education Institutions’ Internationalization Efforts

Intractable conflicts are usually defined as long-lasting, violent, intergroup ones perceived as having no foreseen solutions. Such conflicts heavily affect the societies involved, which invest massive resources in all issues related to the conflict, including various educational elements. Regardless of the context of national conflict, internationaliation efforts have become a common reality in the strategy and actions of contemporary higher education institutions, with international, intercultural, and global dimensions integrating into the aims, functions, and delivery of education. This article traces the internationalization process as perceived among various stakeholders involved in policymaking and enactment within a society struggling through intractable conflict, namely, Israel. I scrutinized this process in Israel and explored the apparent mismatch between the theory of internationalization and its practice in the reality of a conflict-ridden society.

Household-Level Recovery after Floods in a Tribal and Conflict-Ridden Society

Summary Based on a panel survey conducted in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, this study analyzes the extent to which households recovered from damage due to floods that hit the country in 2010. With regard to the initial recovery of productive assets, households that experienced heavier damage to their assets had recovered to a lesser extent. After one year, recovery had continued, but households whose houses were damaged by the floods experienced a deceleration in the recovery speed. The recovery dynamics suggests the importance of the interaction of productive assets and unproductive, non-liquidatable assets in conflict-ridden situations.

From Revolution to Tunisianité: Who is the Tunisian People?

Sami Zemni explains how, after Ben Ali’s escape, the discovery of a conflict-ridden society led to a polarized debate about the definition of the Tunisian people. The discourse on tunisianité served as a hegemonic discourse that was meant to help bridging the gap between opposing views on who or what constitutes the people. However, tunisianité and the call for the restoration of the state’s prestige (haybat addawla) also signaled the possibility of political closure; i.e. the rejection and de-legitimization of political subjectivities that do not subscribe to this view of national identity.

Between Arabic and French in the Israeli Education System: Acquisition of Cosmopolitan Capital in a Conflict-Ridden Society

In the era of globalization, educational systems are forced to react and globalize through schools’ content and context. Among other 21st-century capabilities such as information technology use, team work, and entrepreneurship, multilingual competence has been placed among the objectives of education systems in many developed and developing countries (e.g., UK, Singapore, China, and Israel). We analyzed the pattern of students’ choice for advanced studies in English, Arabic, and French languages in Israeli schools over the last 20 years (1995, 2000, 2005, and 2010). Throughout the study period, advanced studies in English and French correlated highly with the mother’s education (hence are associated with a certain social perceived status), while Arabic studies became increasingly correlated with the mother’s education over the years. In addition, we performed semistructured, in-depth interviews with 20 parents of children studying either French or Arabic in junior high schools. All interviewed parents were selected from schools at which pupils can choose between French and Arabic, and parents were asked about the motivation for choosing either French or Arabic. We found that parents mostly see foreign languages as part of cultural and cosmopolitan capital that their children need to acquire in order to benefit from it later in their career. While French was found to be perceived in terms of pragmatic and instrumental cosmopolitan capital, Arabic was perceived as a pragmatic but also as an ideological asset. In addition, interviewed parents used certain stereotypes, usually to describe the unchosen language to rationalize their choice. We discuss our findings in the context of Israeli society and the conflict-ridden situation that its education system is functioning within.

The global–local nexus: desired history curriculum components from the perspective of future teachers in a conflict-ridden society

This study reveals the views of future teachers from Israeli-Jewish and Palestinian-Arab communities regarding the desired school history curricula. We applied a quantitative and qualitative survey to a sample of 528 students studying in teachers’ preparation programmes in three higher education institutions: one research university with a large Jewish majority and only Jewish respondents to our survey, one Palestinian-Arab college and one Jewish secular college. In both Jewish and Arab sectors, we found a major gap between teachers’ perceived desired curriculum and the official (nationalistic) one. The results indicated that the university students, who come from higher socio-economic backgrounds, prefer significantly more internationally oriented curricula than Palestinian-Arab students and Jewish students in colleges. In addition, students who are studying in the university were found to attribute more importance than all college students to globally oriented curricular content for their pupils’ future success. Notably the Jewish students choose to include more globally oriented subjects than are currently found in the official curriculum. On other measures, there was less difference between Jewish and Palestinian-Arab students. The qualitative phase of our research revealed that this seeming anomaly is due to the relative lack of sector-specific content in the formal curriculum covering the history of Palestinian-Arab population. This study yields important implications for history curricular design in the context of the global-local nexus, particularly within conflict-ridden societies.

A Study of the Persistence of Individuality in Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles

Tess of the is a striking one among Hardy's novels for its delineation of the notion of individuality or strong individual character. The social setting and the tragic happenings which occur therein in the novel are the grounds against the backdrop of which the narrative of the birth and development of an individual self takes place. However, the protagonists or the characters' bouts of suffering and sacrifice, incidentally, lead them to seek for themselves choices and self-knowledge that in turn would guarantee the functionalist state of a society and social solidarity among the members of the society. In other words, the strong sense of individuality as gained by the protagonists and as occasioned by their tragic sufferings in the novel is only meant to be lost for the cause of the order of the existing society of the period. This paper would make an attempt to explore the reasons and the factors which go into making such a scheme or a pattern in the novel. I. Introduction Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was a distinguished novelist, short-story writer and poet of the nineteenth and early twentieth century England. He belongs to the last generation of Victorian writers. As such, his works bear witness to the happenings and changes which occurred in Victorian society in a state of transition to modern times. Hardys keen observation of human beings and nature, and his meticulous delineation of the intricacies and intrigues involved in the affairs of human beings merit critical appreciation from the critics and other writers, and his writings have indeed met with a great deal of such appreciation and attention. Eschewing the school of literary criticism centering on fate and fatalism, destiny and divinity in Hardys novels, this paper seeks to investigate the role and essence of individual and individuality, social solidarity and conformity in Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy. The birth and growth of the concept of individuality and the individual informed by the developments in the socio-political thoughts and changes are thematically articulated in Hardys novels. Thomas Hardy wrote fourteen novels and a considerable number of short-stories, poems and other literary pieces. He is known for his incisive delineation and description of the social and moral plight of the characters and their struggle against the oddities of life. The tragic occurrences and mishaps as occasioned by the changing world of nineteenth century England reveal the ill luck or fate of the characters. However, thoughts concerning human behavioural qualities and the notion of determining ones own individual character in the face of harsh realities of time and society, also come to the fore as a positive emphasis on strong individuality on the part of the characters in the novels. Repudiation of self-imposed ignorance of knowledge of self and confirmation of practical existence in itself in the light of the experience and wisdom gathered from the sad occurrences of their lives teach them the importance of the essential being. The governing materialist conditions and economic determinants depicted in the novel steer them in the direction of the formation or non-formation of individuality. The poor economic conditions of the working-folks or villagers in Tess of the D'Urbervilles hardly enable them to see for themselves the actual condition of their lives. The meaningfulness of their existence lies in sharing in the bonds of solidarity binding the other members of the community, and when they do, they become party to the social order and integration as prevalent in the society. While the development of a strong sense of individuality and selfhood was very much apparent in such a conflict ridden society, the loss of the same in yielding itself to the functionalist notion and nature of the society is also a verity to be considered. It ought to be mentioned that the character called Tess in this novel, while revolting against the social injustice and inequitable access to equal justice, submits herself to the prevailing social and moral order of the society of the period. The individuals merge themselves with the ordinary hordes of the rustic folk in the direction of nurturing a semblance of conventional social order and restraint.

Greek-Cypriot teachers' constructions of Turkish-speaking children's identities: critical race theory and education in a conflict-ridden society

This article examines Greek-Cypriot teachers' constructions of Turkish-speaking children's identities in the Greek-Cypriot educational system. Drawing on interviews and classroom observations from a two-year ethnographic study conducted in three primary schools in the Republic of Cyprus, the author explores how Turkish-speaking children enrolled in these schools are racialized, ethnicized and classed within the dominant discourse of Greek-Cypriot teachers. The article discusses how the homogenized perceptions expressed by the majority of participating teachers in this study are illustrative of structural racism that reinforces these constructions in teaching practices. Yet, at the same time, resistance is present in the discourse and practice of a few teachers; this resistance is expressed through a counter-positioning of the ‘normal/ized’ identities of Turkish-speaking children. The author argues that without structural transformation, the fact and practice of racism/nationalism/classism will go unaltered in schools.

Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey

WORLD LITERATURE IN REVIEW ^^^^^^^^^^^Hpi i Using a consistently direct, ele gantly concise style, Ananissoh suc cessfully conveys his vision of an irreducible core of moral darkness in the heat and blinding light of the noonday sun. Edward Ousselin Western Washington University M?issa Bey. Puisque mon c ur est mort La Tour d'Aigu?s, France. LAube. 2010.254 pages. 18. isbn 978-2-8159-0000-3 Aida, a divorced, middle-aged Alge rian mother and English literature professor, is writing increasingly desperate messages to her recently assassinated only son. Part revenge tragedy, part mournful introspec tion, Ma'issa Bey's harrowing and superbly written novel bears witness to the tens of thousands of victims of Islamic fundamentalism in this long suffering North African country. Beginning with A?da's new status as a bereaved mother and ending with the moment when she confronts her son's killer, Puisque mon c ur est mort (Since my heart is dead) provides in the course of fifty short chapters the portrait of an ordinary, if somewhat unconventional, woman who strug gles against both her grief and the rigid social norms of her community. Due to a law of amnesty designed to put an end to a decade of civil war, A?da knows that the man who shot her son will not be brought to justice. She describes the societal effect of this law as a pro cess of relegating the brutal, bloody years of a war waged against civil ians to the presumably soothing sta tus of a distant dream. Meanwhile, the murder of her son has corifined A?da to a recurring nightmare that begins "au moment pr?cis o? j'ouvre les yeux sur la lumi?re du jour, de chaque jour" (precisely when I open Ma?ssa Bey Puisque mon cceur est mort roman my eyes to see the first light of the day, of every day). Spkaling into a form of madness, having abandoned her professional responsibilities, she spends her days alone in her apart ment, venturing out only to visit her son's grave or to walk along a desolate beach. A?da finds no sol ace when she learns that her son, Nadir, a medical student, was shot by mistake, the real target having apparently been his friend Hakim, the son of the local police chief. Fit tingly enough, it is the guilt-ridden Hakim who will supply the grieving mother with a gun, ostensibly for her own protection, but which will also allow her to plan and carry out her vengeance. Much of the narrative is devoted to A?da's recounting, in the form of a one-sided dialogue, of her son's short life. From Nadir's circumci sion to the beginnings of his medical studies, from his group of friends to his briefly glimpsed loves, A?da's son slowly becomes a fleshed-out character, even as the ramifications of his death propel the narrative forward. The posthumous portrait of Nadir also furnishes details about how daily life in Algeria has been impacted by the unrermtting terror and Jollings. Speaking about her son's generation, A?da points out that due to the long years of mas sacres and assassinations, normal leisure activities?such as going out to a concert or a film?have disap peared: "Toutes ces choses-l? appar tiennent ? un pass? r?volu" (all those things are part of a distant past). It is in such comments about her son's and her own daily life, which attest to ordinary human concerns, that A?da's own character transcends what might have been a stereotypical depiction of a grief-stricken mother, bent on revenge. While she is at one level an allegorical representation of her conflict-ridden society, A?da remains a deeply fascinating indi vidual, even as she succumbs to the violence that surrounds her. (Edito rial note: To read an essay by Bey, see the November 2007 issue of WLT.) Edward Ousselin Western Washington University Peter Carey. Parrot and Olivier in Amer ica. New York. Knopf. 2010. 387 pages, ill. $26.95. ISBN 978-0-307-59262-0 One thing the polymath Australian novelist Peter...

Working toward the De‐essentialization of Identity Categories in Conflict and Postconflict Societies: Israel, Cyprus, and Northern Ireland

During the past decade, we have conducted research in our own countries, all of which are considered conflict or postconflict societies: Israel, Cyprus, and Northern Ireland. We have focused on a variety of topics related to peace education, reconciliation, and coexistence. Giving special emphasis to the formation of identity in educational settings, two of us have investigated primarily in integrated schools (in Israel and Northern Ireland), while the third has conducted research in multicultural schools (in Cyprus). We believe that a comparative study of these three settings is valuable because such juxtaposition helps to conceptualize how some aspects of identity are developed in practice in the countries in question (Phillips and Schweisfurth 2006). What has attracted our attention in this body of research are the dissimilar ways in which educators and children attend to identity issues when such issues appear in interactional events. Although educators, in their rhetoric and educational practices, often seem to essentialize ethnic or religious identity and mark events as related to absolute categories, children, though knowledgeable of these categories, seem less attentive to them in their social activities and construct their social worlds with less emphasis on ethnic or religious divisions. Regardless of the differences in identity found in the educational policies of Israel (emphasis on Zionist ethos), Northern Ireland (focus on pluralism), and Cyprus (priority on Greek-centered education), we have observed that, in practice, children’s perspectives differ from those of adult educators. In this article, we examine the ways in which educators engage in educational initiatives geared toward peace, coexistence, and/or conflict resolution and consider the implications for such initiatives if children’s perspectives were taken into consideration. We first summarize the similarities and differences with respect to the sources of conflict in the three societies. Then we offer short descriptions of the educational initiatives under examination and the sociopolitical con

A new bilingual education in the conflict-ridden Israeli reality: language practices

Under the Israeli language education policy, the mother tongue is learned first for several years, followed by a second language (English for Jews, Hebrew for Arabs) and then a third language (English for Arabs, Arabic/French for Jews). This type of limited bilingualism seems to suit the Israeli reality in the context of the Israeli–Arab conflict, the definition and perception of Israel as a Jewish–Zionist state and the complex Jewish–Arab relations within Israel. In 1997, the Hand in Hand Center for Jewish–Arab Education in Israel initiated a new model of Hebrew–Arabic bilingual education in Israel, assuming that direct contact between Arab and Jewish pupils would bring about far-reaching changes in the conflict-ridden Israeli society. Currently, three schools have adopted the new model. Several studies of the new model have provided rich information, mainly about educational, cultural and national issues. However, no systematic study has focused on the implementation of bilingual education in the schools; less emphasis has been placed on actual language practices in the classroom and the school environment in relation to ideology and policy. This article attempts to investigate and document the interaction between Hebrew and Arabic in a location which conceptually places both languages on equal footing.

Can the Evangelist Ignore Socio-Political Issues? I

The rapid growth of Korean churches and the conflict-ridden Korean society may serve to illustrate how evangelists should face critical socio-political issues. The Korean experience seems to indicate that evangelists are most effective when they concentrate their entire efforts on preaching “Jesus Christ and Him Crucified” alone. Believers in general, however, should be keenly interested in such issues as human rights and social justice, not only for their own sake but also for the sake of effective future evangelism. The Church's involvement in these issues gives a favourable impression of Christianity, which in turn facilitates evangelism.

New Wine in Old Skins, and Vice Versa

A study o religious groups in contemporary culture suggests two basic ways to xi7rss rdig beliefs or myths ire their contest with scientific beliefs or myths in a pluralistic and conflict-ridden society. Oririskt& appropriate the latest social-scientific findings and methods to reformulate community life and beliefs; the other is to ignore scientific developments and concentrate on a re-presentation of traditional beliefs. Both types of groups are also concerned with the tension between personal growth and social change, the need for close community, the problems of mythic language, and the search for appealing disciplines of personal growth.