Ethnic Divisions Research Articles

A global map of amenities: Public goods, ethnic divisions and decentralization

I analyze the effects of ethnic divisions on the provision of public goods in countries throughout the world. Using OpenStreetMap data, I construct a new, global dataset that pinpoints locations of public amenities, such as schools, hospitals, and libraries. I devise two new proxies to address the variability in the completeness of such data. I find that more autonomous subnational regions with a high degree of ethnic fractionalization provide significantly fewer productive public goods. Therefore, decentralization can decrease the provision of local public goods in areas characterized by higher levels of ethnic heterogeneity than those that prevail nationwide.

A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Newspaper Coverage and Reader Response to Covid-19 Reports

Studies attest to the importance of official languages in health communication in multilingual societies. However, the challenge lies in using an official language in ways that enable both majority and minority language speakers to identify with their sociocultural orientations when using a lingua franca. With the emergence of Covid-19, this challenge has come to the forefront following surveys on citizen responses to health messages. The study examines the themes, narrative viewpoints, language modes of newspaper reports on Covid-19, and reader responses to these reports. We aim to determine the implications of reader response on the credibility, severity, and transmissibility of Covid-19. The contents of three Nigerian newspapers (The Guardian, Punch, and Premium Times) were analyzed using quantitative and discourse analysis. The results showed that the themes of newspaper reports focused on challenges, progress made, preparedness, and containment measures. The language mode was predominantly negative, using fear appeals. Audience responses followed the same themes as the newspapers but demonstrated a remarkable shift in narrative viewpoint and language mode, which in Nigerian style English indicated low source credibility, ethnic divisions, and the denial of the severity and transmissibility of Covid-19. Readers’ responses to newspaper coverage of Covid-19 reinforce the view among scholars that trust in information sources is linked to attitudes toward health risks.

“A lot of people there were undocumented, or at least looked like me”: illegality, visibility and vulnerability among immigrant young adults in Florida

ABSTRACT Contemporary migration studies in cultural geography emphasize place-based approaches, recognizing the relational and contextual nature of belonging, especially as these are nested within material and symbolic structures of racial inequality. This article highlights the role of precarious legal status, focusing on undocumented immigrant young adults who grew up in the United States, to examine subjective experiences of place-making and belonging in situations of heightened visibility, deportability and vulnerability. We analyze 56 interviews with undocumented immigrant young adults, predominantly from Latin America, collected in Central Florida. Findings focus on themes linked to shared experiences of vulnerability due to illegality and visibility: (1) belonging in co-ethnic/co-legal neighborhoods, (2) ethnic and racial tensions, (3) neighborhood (in)security and safety, and (4) mutual assistantance and support among neighbors. In addition to poverty, poor infrastructure, and lack of safety, many neighborhoods in which undocumented youth grow up are characterized by racial and ethnic divisions. Our findings contribute an analysis of how undocumented migrants experience place as intersecting with broader patterns of race and ethnicity, and point to the importance of “co-legal status”. This extension of the concept of co-ethnicity references shared experience of illegality as it relates to place-making for legally precarious individuals.

Digital media, popular culture and social activism amongst urban youth in Nigeria

Focusing on Nigeria, this paper explores the efforts of an online youth leadership programme, Days of Change, which succeeded in galvanising, uniting, and engaging Nigerian youth both online and offline, across social, class, and ethnic divides concerning nation building. The paper provides a unique example of the ways in which online media have become veritable sites of popular urban youth cultures, from which young people negotiate the unstable landscape of post-coloniality that the African state has foisted on its vulnerable youth population. More importantly, the paper seeks to lay the groundwork for further theorisations on how social media can be utilised as a vehicle for anti-colonial youth engagement Africa.

WE ALL BECOME THE OFFERING: RATAN THIYAM’S CHAKRAVYUHA AND CONTEMPORARY MANIPUR

This paper delves into the subtext of the chakravyuha episode in the Mahabharata and examines how Ratan Thiyam transforms it into a play that mirrors the socio-political landscape of Manipur across time. Thiyam’s Chakravyuha undeniably offers a political commentary on Manipur, metaphorically portraying the struggles faced by Manipuri youths, akin to the fate of the helpless Abhimanyu. He illustrates how these young individuals are ensnared by powerful forces, forced into violence not as conquerors or victims, but as sacrificial pawns. In this light, the play serves as a poignant reflection on the entrapment of youth in cycles of conflict, providing a powerful critique of contemporary realities which have become notorious in recent times. The depiction of violence on the Manipuri stage is not a recent phenomenon. Political dramas have long captivated Manipuri audiences, resonating deeply with their experiences. This paper examines the factors that made this politically charged play significant in the 1980s, and why it remains even more relevant today. Furthermore, it delves into the interconnected themes of violence, human suffering, sectarianism, ethnic divisions, and other critical issues that are pivotal in shaping Manipur's future.

Ethnic plurality, political mobilisation, social divisions and the formation of conflict structures in North-Eastern Ghana

Political mobilisation is a necessary aspect of any democracy in the world. Since the introduction of democracy in Ghana, political mobilisation has become part of the political process that characterises the selection and choice of leaders. This phenomenon manifests itself differently in different geographical areas of the country. While processes of political mobilisation have received adequate academic attention, the extent to which they are immersed in coincidental ethnic cleavages to engender the formation of conflict structures in the specific region of the Bawku/Kusaug Traditional Area is less studied. This study contributes to the critical literature on political mobilisation by nuancing the debate on political mobilisation to include how political mobilisation reinforces ethnic division and creates contours and pathways through which ethnic conflicts inchoate and sophisticate. The study used a case study design of the qualitative approach to investigate the phenomenon. Twenty-seven participants were selected through an expert purposive sampling technique to partake in focus group discussions and personal interviews. The data collected through these methods were analysed using inductive thematic analysis. The analysis revealed that political mobilisation in Bawku is often anchored through the ethnic elite who mobilise their people along ethnic lines for or against specified political parties. This often creates different political rewards for each ethnic group depending on the political party that emerge victorious in elections. These differential rewards lead to violent confrontations with several economic, social and security consequences. The study therefore suggested strategies to better anchor political mobilisation and ensure peaceful co-existence among ethnic groups in the Bawku/Kusaug Traditional Area, the Upper East, Northern Ghana and Ghana as a whole

Ethnicity, Imprisonment, and Confidence in Police and Courts: Evidence from an International Survey

AbstractThis article investigates the sources of ethnic disparities in confidence in police and courts. After reviewing studies of ethnicity and trust in legal authorities and comparative research on prisons, I argue that ethnic divides in confidence in police and courts are based on power imbalances between majority and minority groups and exacerbated by punitive legal systems. I test these claims using data from waves 6 and 7 of the World Values Survey, including 99,480 people in 59 countries. Results from mixed effects logistic regressions indicate that, overall, ethnic majority group members are more likely than minority group members to be confident in police and in courts. However, the differences are larger in countries with higher imprisonment rates. In fact, there are no ethnic differences in confidence in police or courts in countries with low imprisonment rates. The patterns remain net of individual- and country-level controls for crime and other factors. These results suggest that ethnic disparities in confidence in legal authorities are rooted in power dynamics intrinsic to the minority-majority dichotomy and that punitive legal authorities amplify the divides.

The Family as Black Nationalism: Cosmopolitan Archetypes in Black Popular Township Television Films

The apartheid regime conspired to advance black ethnic divisions to facilitate the homelands and diminish the threat of black people to South Africa. From 1994, the democratic dispensation has engaged in various nation-building attempts to solidify a united South Africa that is multicultural and multilingual in conjunction with a progressive Constitution. Popular township films by Ekasi: Our Stories and Lokshin Bioskop have ventured into this arena which was the forte of the South African Broadcasting Corporation, to engage in storylines that encourage nation-building. In this article, I argue that popular films have emerged to represent cosmopolitan tropes that galvanise Black Nationalism. Also, the films engage negative black tribal stereotypes that, if not attended to, could result in black disunity. It can also be argued that the latter has been a stimulant for African conflicts, occasionally causing genocides. This article explores the role popular films play in conveying a nation-building narrative that sustains Black Nationalism and reconciliation in post-apartheid South Africa.

Armed Group Rivalry and Its Implications for Post-Accord Peacebuilding and Inclusive Development in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh

This study examines the intricate relationship between armed group rivalry, post-agreement peacebuilding, and inclusive development in Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT). Using a qualitative research methodology, the study collects data through in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and document analysis to investigate the key variables driving armed group rivalry and its consequences for regional peacebuilding and development initiatives. The findings suggest that historical grievances, ethnic divisions, struggle for resources, and political influence are the driving forces for armed group conflict in the CHT. The study also finds the enormous influence of armed group rivalry on the implementation of the 1997 CHT Accord, ongoing peacebuilding efforts, and the region's inclusive growth. The analysis underlines the necessity for a comprehensive and inclusive approach to peacebuilding that addresses the core causes of armed group rivalry, engages all relevant stakeholders, and encourages the full implementation of the 1997 CHT Accord. The study contributes to a greater understanding of the complex interplay between armed group rivalry, peacebuilding, and development in conflict-affected regions by offering policy recommendations to support lasting peace and inclusive development in the CHT. Keywords: Armed group rivalry, Post-accord peacebuilding, Inclusive development, Chittagong Hill Tracts, Conflict resolution, Socioeconomic inequalities and Regional cooperation DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/13-8-03 Publication date: April 30 th 2023

Surviving cassava: smallholder farmer strategies for coping with market volatility in Cambodia

ABSTRACT Cassava has become a ‘must have’ crop for many Cambodian smallholders; yet, the market is volatile and yields are uneven. Drawing on long-term fieldwork in Kampong Thom and Ratanakiri provinces, we analyse how farmers cope with volatility. We argue that multiple pathways have emerged: some farmers have ceased producing cassava; some have expanded production; while most farmers engage in ‘ambivalent repeasantisation’, striving to gain autonomy from market fluctuations through the survival work of everyday gendered labour, including investing family and community labour into cassava, shifting back to food crops, managing debt, and creating relationships with traders, while also imagining a life beyond cassava. Uneven fortunes with cassava contribute to land redistribution, deepening class, gender and ethnic divides. The case of smallholder cassava pathways in Cambodia shows us that agrarian transition is neither linear nor unidimensional, and dynamics of ‘depeasantisation’, ‘repeasantisation’, and ‘intensification’ through crop booms cannot be assumed a priori.

Religiosity and Misanthropy across the Racial and Ethnic Divide

The systematic study of misanthropy, the lack of trust in humanity, has proliferated over the last 30 years. One prominent line of research details racial and ethnic disparities in levels of misanthropy, but pays little attention to the role of religiosity, while another focuses attention on religiosity and its impact on levels of misanthropy, with only scant attention to the role of race and ethnicity. Little attempt has been made to synthesize these two strands of literature to address an important unanswered question: Does the association between religiosity and misanthropy vary by racial and ethnic group? To answer this question, we pooled data from the General Social Survey (GSS, 2000–2018). Among other things, we find stark racial differences between Blacks and Whites in terms of the effect of religiosity on misanthropy. Blacks and Latinos who attend religious services weekly (social religiosity) have significantly higher levels of misanthropy than others, while Whites who attend weekly services are less likely to be misanthropic. An important takeaway is that service attendance (a type of social capital) is associated with feelings of misanthropy for all groups (albeit in opposite directions for Blacks and Latinos versus Whites), rather than personal acts of prayer (individual religiosity). When it comes to misanthropy, we conclude that religion works differently for minorities compared with Whites. We discuss the implications of our findings for future research.

Politicizing water: Rescaling resistance to extractive development in Guatemala

Many Indigenous and peasant movements denounce the expansion of extractive development as a threat to their lives, livelihoods, and territories that reinforces legacies of colonization and armed conflict. Grassroots resistances to extractive projects converge on concerns over water access and contamination. This essay draws on politically-engaged ethnographic research with Indigenous territorial defense organizations in Guatemala and political ecological perspectives on water politics to examine how the strategic politicization of water affects the scalar potential of Indigenous and peasant environmental movements. I describe how Indigenous and peasant communities, political organizations, and NGOs use water as a transfer point to demonstrate the harms of extractivist projects; pursue legal strategies; form local, regional, and national networks; and to articulate resistances across a range of industries, environmental paradigms, and geographic and ethnic divides, strengthening alliances for alternative ways of being on the land.

An Analysis of Sectarian Conflict in the Central African Republic (2012–2020) from the Lens of the Protracted Social Conflict Theory

The Central African Republic has been entangled in new cycles of conflict since the upsurge of the Seleka insurgency in December 2012. Although a number of reasons account for the violent nature of the conflict and its protracted nature, sectarianism appeared to be the most glaring and leading driver of the conflict. The dominance of the Christian majority over the Muslims in every aspect of life, the questionable Central African citizenship of CAR Muslim population have led to overt discrimination against the minority Muslim population. This discrimination on religious lines adds to ethnic discrimination by various CAR leaders who offer preferential treatment to members of their ethnic groups through appointments to top government and military positions, to the detriment of the other tribes, breeding ethnic division. Applying the Protracted Social Conflict theory, this article attempts to investigate into how sectarianism contributed to the protraction of the CAR conflict from 2012–2020. The paper applies a qualitative method of analysis to investigate the sectarian roots of the 2012 conflict in the CAR. Data collection and analysis involved secondary sources in the form of books, scientific journal publications, reports and other relevant internet sources to answer the central question in the research.

Presentation, Outcomes, and Non-elective Surgical Management of Diverticulitis: Is There an Ethnic Divide?

Presentation, Outcomes, and Non-elective Surgical Management of Diverticulitis: Is There an Ethnic Divide?

A Balkan Neofunctional Success Story or the Curious Case of Bosnia’s Central Bank

Bosnians show little faith in their state-level institutions, and with good reason, as the country ranks poorly on measures of corruption, regulatory quality, and government efficacy. However, the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina (CBBH) is a notable exception. In a country where the state is still often paralyzed by ethnically aligned obstructionism, the Central Bank is widely lauded as an effective state-level institution, and it backstops, and oversees, a stable, trusted, pan-Bosnian banking system. To explain the Bank’s success, we draw on rational choice and institutionalist literature to propose and test a theory of the “CBBH as referee” in its three main functional areas: currency board maintenance, payment system operation, and the coordination of banking supervision. We find evidence for this mechanism in the context of currency board operations, and we also document a Haas-ian neofunctional process, in which the Bank has interacted cyclically with foreign banks to unintentionally de-ethnicize the Bosnian financial sector. Initial Bank reforms facilitated foreign banks’ market entry, and their subsequent lack of interest in hewing to prior ethnic divisions served to cement a unified Bosnian financial space. We substantiate this argument with data drawn from interactive interviews with Bosnian policymakers, financial sector experts, and banking sector participants, and in so doing, also show how the commercial behavior of transnational actors can have unexpected policy impacts.

Foreign intervention and legacies in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church

This paper examines foreign intervention and the legacies remain in the affairs of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church (EOTC). It discusses the so-called Jesuit missionaries' intervention in the EOTC during the 16th and 17th centuries and some of their legacies. It also explores Italy's intervention in the EOTC in the 19th and 20th centuries and the legacies left in the EOTC. To deal with these issues, this article used a qualitative research approach, including primary and secondary data collection instruments. It shows that contradictory religious teachings, ethnocentrism, and ethnic division, which are evident in the contemporary ecclesiastics of the EOTC, are the legacies of the Jesuit missionaries and Italy in the EOTC. It concludes that the current contradictory and divisive religious teachings in the EOTC were initiated and originated by the Jesuit missionaries, and the ethnocentric tendency and ethnic-based division of top ecclesiastics of the current EOTC are the legacies of Italy. Currently, such divisions are consolidated and celebrated by Ethiopians, including the top authorities of the EOTC, but at least in part, their source is foreign intervention. Thus, the EOTC should disclose the roots of such destructive and divisive legacies to strengthen its unity.

Terrorism, Trust, and Identity: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Nigeria

AbstractWe study the effects of terrorism on political trust and national versus ethnic identification. Making use of unexpected attacks by the extremist group Boko Haram in Nigeria, which occurred during the fieldwork of a public opinion survey in 2014, we show that even in a context of weak state institutions and frequent terrorist activities, terror attacks significantly increase political trust. We also find that the attacks significantly reduced the salience of respondents' national identity, instead increasing ethnic identification. These findings run counter to arguments that “rally around the flag” effects following terror attacks result from increased patriotism. The results have important implications for understanding the effects of terrorism in contexts of weak state institutions, frequent political violence, and politically salient ethnic divisions.

Progressive politics and populism: Classes of labour and rural–urban political sociology—An introduction to the special issue

AbstractThis special issue analyses the prospects for a progressive politics against right‐wing populism and capitalism. Taken as a whole, its articles underline the need to understand progressive movements as encompassing agrarian, rural, and urban settings and as socially rooted among labourers and petty commodity producers that do not accumulate (classes of labour), which includes the majority of farmers. Most of the world's rural population now reproduce themselves to some degree in towns and cities, which necessitates further development of a rural–urban political sociology. Articles in the special issue discuss existing and potential organizations and networks of classes of labour. They point to the political potential of migrant populations to erode the social divisions of race, ethnicity, and nationality that capitalism and right‐wing populism construct to defend their interests. They contribute to understanding of why some members of classes of labour support racist nationalist populisms that pit them against fellow members of classes of labour. And they show why national contexts matter. Forms of capitalist government, including varieties of populism, are linked to world‐historical dynamics of accumulation and reproduction, as well as racialized class relations, and constrain routes to progressive politics in different ways. Analysis of them can inform counter‐strategies.

Profilisanje osujećene omladine (POSIT) u Republici Srpskoj - deset godina poslije

Civil wars in former Yugoslavia have resulted in divided societies especially in those cultures where ethnic divisions exist. Problems become intergenerational when there are not sufficient resolutions leading to viable reconciliation. There often exists a collective malaise in these situations that manifests itself as primary and secondary post-traumatic disorders (PTSD). Secondary PTSD often afflicts the children and adolescent off springs of their parents or grandparents impacted by the conflict per se. Given that, group profiles of students from Republika Srpska (2010. versus 2020.) measured with the Problem-Oriented Screening Instrument for Teenagers, POSIT (Rahdert 1991) which covers 10 functional adolescent problem areas including substance use, mental health, family relations, and aggressive behavior/delinquency. Ten years later, it is important to maintain focus on the unmet psychological and social/cultural needs of traumatized children and youth, second-generation war victims because neglecting these problems could be costly for society in terms of later disorganization of this population, as it matures.

Political Instability and the Collapse of Nigeria First Republic Government: 1960-1966

Nigeria First Republic Government was democratically elected institution that governed and regulate its affairs in accordance with the constitution. However, political instability and conflict failed to provide the favorable atmosphere to reign during the 1960-1966, Nigeria first republic government. the instabilities were created as result of ethnic division and competition that courses serious political disorder and turmoil ranging from census crises of 1962, election violence of 1964 and the leadership crises of the western region in 1965. First republic government came in to being as a result of political struggle by the Nigerian nationalist leaders, pre-independence political parties, the Nigeria press men and the ex-service men of the Nigeria army against the British colonial rule. Subsequently, 1959 election was held which served as the final stage that pave the way for the established first republic and the political independence of Nigeria came in 1960. The paper aims to provide the administrative structure of the Nigeria first republic government, the impact of the political instabilities to Nigeria politics and the collapse of the government in 1966. The methodology adopted in these writeup is historical in nature that entails the use of secondary sources, data analysis was collected from books, journal paper, articles, theses, had been study carefully and critically examines in order to determine their validity, accuracy and its authenticity. The objective of the study is to describe the historical significance of political instability in Nigeria first republic government and its impact to the present Nigerian Polities.