Homogeneous Society Research Articles

Finding the Right Islam for the Maldives: Political Transformation and State-Responses to Growing Religious Dissent

At the first glance, the Maldives appear not to be prone to religious conflict. The archipelago state comprises a religiously and ethnically homogenous society, the different islands have been subject to shared Islamic rule for centuries and even constitutionally religious homogeneity is granted by making every citizen a Muslim and religious diversity prevented by limiting naturalisation to a specific Muslim group. Yet, today allegations of a threat to Islam play a major role in political mobilisation, the Maldives are faced with Islamist violence, and Maldivians have joined the Islamic State and al Qaeda in disproportionally high numbers. The paper seeks to find an answer to the question of how the repression of dissent under the Gayoom regime and the expansion and rise of violent Islamism relate in the Maldivian context. Next to the theoretical model, the paper will provide an introduction to the Maldivian political culture and the reasons for changes therein. It will shed light on the emergence of three major Islamic streams in the Maldivian society, which stood opposed to one another by the late 1990s and early 2000s, and show how Gayoom’s state repression of dissent initiated an escalation process and furthered Islamist violent politics. The paper will argue that while state repression of dissent played a significant role in the repertoire selection of Islamic non-state agents, the introduction of fundamentalist Islamic interpretations through migration, educational exchange programmes and transnational actors have laid the ground for violence in the Maldives.

LA REPRESENTACIÓN DEL ‘OTRO CULTURAL’ EN JAPÓN: EL CASO DE DETECTIVE CONAN E INUYASHA

De acuerdo con Sugimoto (2016: 227), suele describirse la sociedad japonesa como “excepcionalmente homogénea” desde el punto de vista racial y étnico, lo que niega a las minorías sociales su pertenencia al grupo y las convierte en el ‘otro cultural’. Asimismo, la animación (anime) y los cómics (manga) japoneses representan, en cierta manera, la cultura japonesa, pues la idiosincrasia de los autores acabará permeando la historia. En consecuencia, si el arte refleja la sociedad hasta cierto punto, estudiar cómo se representa al ‘otro cultural’ en la cultura popular japonesa podría ayudar a entender cómo esa sociedad reacciona ante dicha realidad. En este artículo, se analiza cómo se ha representado al ‘Otro’ en Detective Conan (una obra dirigida a un público adolescente masculino donde el autor trata de representar de forma fiable la sociedad contemporánea japonesa) e InuYasha (una obra destinada a un público adolescente femenino donde el escenario principal es una era Sengoku ficticia) con el objetivo de comprender la verdadera dimensión de la discriminación contra las minorías en Japón. Para ello, se han llevado a cabo un análisis cualitativo de los personajes pertenecientes a dichas minorías, así como un estudio cuantitativo de su presencia e impacto en la trama.

Проблема определённости правопознания (в контексте эволюции юснатурализма)

The article deals with the problem of certainty of legal cognition in the context of the evolution of Natural Law. It is noted that the category of certainty was understood differently by representatives of various scientific schools and strands of theoretical framework idea. However, the classical doctrines were similar in the sense that certainty is necessary as the initial principle of cognition of legal reality, in contrast to the relativistic post-classical theories, which took the diametrically opposite principle as a methodological basis, namely «uncertainty». The article actualizes the understanding that Nature Law as a classical type of legal understanding has an internal logic of development. It is noted that modern theories of «Resurgence of Natural Law» generally remain within the framework of natural law concepts, but still overcome the dualism and parallelism of the systems of natural and positive law. In ontology, the modern Natural Law recognizes the human construction of law, the participation of the subject in the constant reproduction of legal reality; in epistemology, it recognizes the inclusion of the subject in the process of cognition, the rejection of the absolutization of the «legislative» mind and the transition to an interpretive «communicative» mind; in axiology, it defends socio – cultural concretization, including in the current legal system. The authors actualize the idea of intersubjectivity of law as integrating various aspects of legal cognition and the operation of law, focusing on identifying the meaning of law not from the point of view of one – dimensional monosubjectivity (individual or homogeneous society), but in dialogical (polylogical) intersubjectivity - in the interaction of subjects of legal communication. Recognition of the dynamism of law, the actualization of law in law enforcement activities problematizes the idea of certainty in law, but on a new, human-centered methodological and theoretical basis.

Voting Originated Social Dynamics: Quartile Analysis of Stochastic Environment Peculiarities

The model of voting originated social dynamics in a stochastic environment (the ViSE model) is considered. Within this model, the influence of the heaviness of distribution tails on the effectiveness of egoistic and altruistic strategies in terms of maximizing two criteria, the average capital increment and the number of non-bankrupt participants, is investigated. Homogeneous societies and four types of distributions used to generate proposals (Gaussian, logistic, Student’s with 3 degrees of freedom, and symmetrized Pareto distributions) are studied. To assess the effect of tail heaviness, all distributions are unified by quartile using scatter. Such an approach can be used to compare the heavy-tailed distributions that are commensurable by density with other distributions under consideration on an interval containing 90% of observations.

Refugees as troubled learners in UK Schools. An evaluation and reconceptualisation of education for diversity in UK schools

This paper addresses the policy of education for diversity that seeks to facilitate refugee integration. The integrationist theory considers that a culturally homogenous society could be created as a result of immigrants adapting and changing their ways sufficiently to fit in with the host culture. Using qualitative data from refugee students from the UK, the paper adopts integrated threat theory as an analytical tool to interrogate the perceptions of refugee students as they try to ‘fit’ in UK schools. Findings indicate that refugee students identify perceived threats in their daily interactions with host community students. The study concludes that the restrictive migration trajectories, a hostile transitional climate, and some right wing anti-immigration discourse create a climate of suspicion, alienation leading to actual experiences of refugee racism. Integrated threat theory therefore offers a useful insight into understanding these differences in group dynamics between refugee learners and their hosts and how this affects the implementation of intercultural interaction.

Pairwise stable networks in homogeneous societies with weak link externalities

We study general properties of pairwise stable and pairwise Nash stable networks when players are ex-ante homogeneous. Rather than assuming a particular functional form of utility, we impose general link externality conditions on utility such as ordinal convexity and ordinal strategic complements. Depending on these rather weak notions of link externalities, we show that pairwise Nash stable networks of various structure exist. For stronger versions of the convexity and strategic complements conditions, we are even able to characterize all pairwise stable networks: they are nested split graphs. We illustrate these results with many examples from the literature, including utility functions that arise from games with strategic complements played on the network and utility functions that depend on centrality measures such as Bonacich centrality.

Public Information Disclosure: Mapping the Understanding of Multiple Actors in Corruption- Prone Indonesian Provinces

Recent scholarships in public administration and legal studies have agreed on the role of public information disclosure as a necessary requirement in eradicating corruption. Moreover, it is evident that accessibility of public information to the citizen helps to improve governance reform and policy making. In that situation, the citizen is involved in the participatory process and subsequently tightens public oversight to the government. Nevertheless, the literature might only be valid in relatively homogenous societies or in countries successfully achieving their development goals. This article seeks to confront this scholarship to the prevalence of a country experiencing ongoing construction of administrative law framework amidst discrepancies of development progress across regions. Three provinces in Indonesia are chosen to explain this matter by identifying relevant actors and mapping their understanding about public information disclosure against corruption. We employ qualitative research by process-tracing methods to identify causal mechanisms over multiple determining factors affecting the understanding. Data is inquired through in-depth interviews and analyses of open, accessible electronic data. Our recent work progress suggests that impediments to undertake public information disclosure against corruption come from very basic situations, including a sort of misunderstanding of predefined terminology between disclosed or classified information to the public and over-reliance on prevailing laws related to the issue without any improvements of the regulatory framework or policy instruments.

Nation Reification or “Nationalizing Nationalism” from the Perspective of International Law

National reification takes place when the state defines itself as a tool to protect the interests of a particular ethnic group and tries to create a homogeneous society unified on the basis of linguistic, cultural, historical, ideological and religious principles. This inevitably leads to the monopolization of politics (common good) by the majority’s culture, and at the same time, to the marginalization and exclusion of the minority’s culture and its obliteration in the future. This marginalization does not imply a discrimination because the minority is not denied civil rights, but its political activity from now on implies an engagement with the majority’s culture. This effect appears in waves. The first wave preceded World War II; the second wave started in the nineties and affected the new post-Soviet and Eastern European countries. National reification is closely related to the principle of democracy; since the minority retains this obviously ineffective right to participate, all other forms of protest become inaccessible to it. National reification is an objective and general tendency of the modern day. It fills the legitimacy deficit and not only “launches” a new state, but also generates internal threats that justify its existence. As a result, from the very first days, a new state is being created as a totalitarian and emergency one that can use extreme, but justified and legitimate measures. The principle of self-determination cannot be used against the process of national reification as it implies an obligation of conduct and has a narrow scope. Moreover, its beneficiaries, by not being states, are deprived of the procedural tools needed to protect their rights. It could be interpreted differently: we should recognize the right to secession for the nations faced with the choice of obeying or losing identity. This interpretation, however, is an unrealizable utopia. Human rights are completely helpless in the face of national reification or, rather, are indifferent to it. The reason is a fundamental denial of the collective principle. Therefore, international law does not solve the problem of national reification. On the contrary, all the structures of the modern order (statehood, legitimacy, democracy, human rights, international law, etc.) generate this problem. The solution of the problem is vitally important and, at the same time, extremely difficult. It cannot be cosmetic, but should affect the very foundations of international law.

Reflection and Diffusion of Mbaise Culture through African Traditional Music: Abigbo Musicians’ Social Responsibility Model

The study of Abigbo musical development in a rural setting aims at creating awareness on the functional values of a traditional Igbo customary music performance practice. It appends more recognition to African music demands as it affects a homogeneous society such as Mbaise. Through this study, new generation and posterity of African music researchers will encounter wider range of reference material to justify their African music research interest. This is possible as the work draws attention to attributes typical of Abigbo which serve as basic challenges to limited residual knowledge of African music. The work further unfolds traces of peculiar ethnomusicological thoughts inspired by captivating musical ideas propagated in Abigbo. It facilitates the appreciation of African musical touch divorced from Western or Euro-American music dominant influence. This is evident in the insight it provides on how and why Abigbo makes a showcase of the indigenous lifestyle in the course of its rendition. By exploring music creative possibilities and the fundamental skills in Abigbo verbal and instrumental communication, the study serves as a springboard for new learning, cross-cultural interactions and broad societal focus on African traditional music. This indispensably makes a broad-minded society open to unlimited ideas of music in local tradition. Thus, negligence of such an aboriginal African folk communities musical heritage and resorting to any other readily available pieces of domestic but foreign music that make immediate appeal to the indigenes is contrary to Abigbo musicians’ role model in Mbaise. In another development, Uzoigwe’s research on Ukom references Abigbo musical functions with predominant emphasis on the areas of aged women interment rites, marriage issues and unnamed celebration of daily affairs. By these hanging statement of claims, he considered Abigbo music only strictly or majorly for checking marital misconducts in all their ramifications; gracing of adult feminine burial ceremonies et alia. This part-reference resolve can be misleading and therefore needs further inquisition through this scholarly review. Doing so will provide guidelines for adjustment and development that reflect the true position of Abigbo in Mbaise scheme of things. Keywords: Reflection and Diffusion, African culture, Traditional music(ians), Abigbo, Mbaise, Social responsibility Publication date:September 30th 2020 DOI: 10.7176/ADS/85-01

Longing is in the memory of the beholder: Collective nostalgia content determines the method members will support to make their group great again

Across four studies, we tested whether the content of collective nostalgia has untapped utility for understanding intergroup relations. In Study 1a, we demonstrated variance in the content of the nostalgizing American Christians report—variance that influenced attitudes towards outgroups. Participants who reported longing for a more open society expressed less anti-immigration sentiments and less blatant prejudice against Muslims compared to those longing for a more homogeneous society. In Study 1b, we replicated these results using a representative sample of Poles, thus extending them to a different socio-political context. In Study 2, we demonstrated that the content of collective nostalgia experienced can be experimentally manipulated. Specifically, experimentally primed openness-focused nostalgia (relative to a control condition) weakened American Christians' anti-immigration sentiments (but not blatant prejudice against Muslims). Study 3 replicated the results of Study 2 with an improved experimental manipulation. Overall, the findings show significant effects that content of collective nostalgia has on anti-immigration sentiments as well as some indication that the content of collective nostalgia influences blatant intergroup prejudice. These results have theoretical relevance for the study of collective nostalgia (i.e., content matters) as well as practical relevance in demonstrating that variations in nostalgia-inducing rhetoric can shape intergroup attitudes.

A Theory of Strategic Uncertainty and Cultural Diversity

AbstractWe identify a new mechanism through which cultural diversity affects economic outcomes, based on a model of culture as shared cognition. Under this view, cultural diversity matters because it increases strategic uncertainty. The model can help better understand a variety of disparate evidence, including why homogeneous societies can be more conformist, why diverse societies may get stuck in a low-trust trap, why companies with a strong culture may fail to adopt superior work practices, and why autocratic rulers in diverse societies may overinvest in state capacity.

Visible Religion and Populism: An Explosive Cocktail

Populism frequently uses the visibility of religious majorities and minorities as polemically charged references in the political controversy about cultural identity. Visible signs are evoked as positive identity markers and representations of the fiction of a homogenous society. The visibility of religions coming from an immigration background is more likely to be attacked as an invasion of foreigners who do not fit in the frame of an imagined authentic model of cultural unity. As the debates on the construction of mosques and minarets in European cities show, Islam becomes a synonym of differences perceived as problematic. Depending on the political agenda, invisible and quiet religions are preferred to the visible and politically more demanding ones. However, the opinions for or against a high degree of visibility are not necessarily shared within the religious communities. Their members can ask for discrete individual practices or for a strong collective presence in the public sphere. Populist discourses try to argue against manifestations of ostentatious visibility and use this fight as a platform for identity-driven propaganda that is interested in the exclusion of those who are considered as the threat to the well-being of the “people”. The visibility of religion thesis has to be dealt with carefully in the context of right-wing populism because of the toxic effects of all kinds of identity politics in the political as well as in the religious sphere. The conventional implications of the public–private split must be rearticulated in a context in which secularism is challenged by the return of visible religion and by the emergence of political ideologies playing with the fire of strong and exclusivist identity claims that are in conflict with ideals of tolerance, pluralism, and diversity management.

An Assessment of Public Opinion in Balochistan about Federal Form of Government in Pakistan

Almost every state or society particularly a pluralistic one is composed of various nationalities or sub-national groups whereas every segment has its own distinct identity being a source of pride and strength for its survival. In relatively homogenous societies, the process of nation-building though not easy is at least less cumbersome whereas in pluralistic societies this process demands a lot of hard work on the part of the elite who must exhibit vision, wisdom, foresight and patience; because such societies are always fraught with the danger that any of the nationalities or sub-national group may dominate the others. The societies having a considerable level of social, cultural and linguistic heterogeneity hence horizontally/vertically divided and cross-divided in the pursuit of their distinct preferences and priorities can hardly be united under a single administrative structure nevertheless they can be persuaded to form a union under some common government. For this purpose, a federal arrangement may be suitable option because it provides for unity in diversity rather than unity in its absolute terms. The federation of Pakistan, since its vey inception, is struggling to create the said unity particularly with reference to the situation in Balochistan which is facing a long and multi-faceted unrest posing a substantial challenge for the federation. The present study empirically explores the nature of grievances of the people of Balochistan with respect to the federation of Pakistan by conducting a field survey and establishes that majority of the people of Balochistan do not believe that the federal design in Pakistan is functioning in its true letter and spirit with reference to Balochistan.

Transferring differentiation and integration through picking up students’ speech by hip-hop and its appreciation

Janiec Jerzy, Transferring differentiation and integration through picking up students’ speech by hip-hop and its appreciation. Culture – Society – Education no 2(16) 2019, Poznań 2019, pp. 23–44, Adam Mickiewicz University Press. ISSN 2300-0422. DOI 10.14746/kse.2019.16.2.
 The main aim of this paper is to demonstrate the Hip-hop based Education (HHBE) and Hip-hop Pedagogy (HHPED) as two accommodating strategies that may be utilized fourishingly to differentiate a teaching-learning process further to integrate learners in any education-like environment, as the example the IB World School No. 006654 International School of Bydgoszcz (ISOB) has been chosen. This is the first study presenting international community in a truly homogeneous society (ca. 98% of Polish inhabitants in their country). The author enlists affirmative methodologies beginning with a hypothesis that the Hip-hop cultureis gaining popularity among adolescents in greater numbers. As a result of observations, interviews and survey he is acquainted with students’ wants and needs. There is a necessity to put them in a bigger picture by analyzing the phenomenon from a historical, sociological, political, economical and intercultural viewpoint on a local (Bydgoszcz’s) and global scale. And finally, the author is describing a use of the aforesaid strategies through transfer skills that are taught in the IB History and Social Studies classes.

Revisionisme Sejarah Jepang terhadap Peristiwa Pembantaian Nanjing

This study examines Japan's historical revisionism related to the Nanjing Massacre during its 1937 invasion in the People's Republic of China. In 2015, UNESCO's response to include the Nanjing Massacre in the "Memory of the World Register" received backlash from Abe's government, resulting in a budget suspension from Japan. Japan wanted to be seen as a good country, leaving behind its past image as a war aggressor through historical revisionism. Using the concept of Shared Beliefs and Therapeutic Value, this article analyses homogeneous Japanese society that regards the Nanjing Massacre as something the Japanese government should not be apologetic about and the heterogeneous historical facts of the massacre itself. Finding suggests that Therapeutic Value from the denial comes from the failure of the U.S. and its allies to provide a deterrent effect post-WWII that resulted in victimization and melodrama promoted by the Japanese government. The government also uses narratives such as Toa Renmei Ron and Kami no Kuni as the main argument to boost Japanese superiority as a country. However, such revisionist strategy of the Nanjing Massacre is proven a failure to promote peace among the younger generation.

Imagined homogeneity: Identity and geopolitical and geoeconomic influences in the linguistic landscape of Seoul

Despite South Korea's long reputation as a homogeneous society, recent research suggests that it is facing transitions in ethnic composition and language use. This paper explores this proposition by studying the linguistic landscape (LL) of Seoul. The survey offers a varied account of and new insight into many issues, including Korean homogeneity, that are influenced and transformed by contact with superpowers. By adopting the frame-analytic perspective suggested by Scheff (2005) and Coupland (2012), we provide an interpretive and critical analysis within the frames of geopolitics, geoeconomics and identity. Each frame has specific historical, political, cultural and socioeconomic underpinnings that are sometimes in tension with or overlap each other. This study highlights the need to reconsider the increasing impact of geopolitics and geoeconomics, which continue to make their presence felt in the LL of Seoul and contemporary debates regarding Korean identity. The tendency to imagine South Korea as a homogeneous society is no longer accurate. Inherently, the LL reveals that the call for a common vision of ‘multilingualism and multiculturalism’ in traditionally homogeneous societies can be hegemonic and that maintaining identity in the face of pressures from internationalism can be difficult, representing issues that we frequently naively overlook.

The Willingness to Employ Immigrants in Polish Organizations

Abstract Objective: For a long time Poland has been perceived as a rather homogenous society. However, cultural diversity and differences started to become visible after 1989 and have gained on importance since then. Combined with an increasing shortage of native workforce, the question of immigrants’ employment by Polish organisations becomes a burning issue. We have therefore decided to determine whether the fact of employing immigrants or the intention to do so in the foreseeable future affects the perception of foreign workers and the necessity of hiring them Methodology: For this purpose, we conducted a survey among 263 entrepreneurs from the Opolskie Voivodship. Findings: The study has demonstrated a very strong, statistically-relevant correlation between the willingness to employ immigrants and the attitude towards an employee’s country of origin. Also correlations between other analysed variables have been found statistically relevant Value Added: The paper is an introduction to a debate on the role of immigrants on the Polish labour-market as it presents the point-of view of employers and their willingness to employ immigrants. Recommendations: It is recommended for decision-makers to facilitate access of a wider group of immigrants to the Polish labour market, especially since a significant group of employees recognises the upcoming issue of workforce shortages and the necessity to reach for foreign employees in order to stay competitive.

Impact of Cultural Diversity on Western Balkan Countries’ Performance

In 2005 the relations of EU and Western Balkan countries were passed from “External Relations” to “Enlargement” policy. As WB countries make steps forward in the future membership of the EU, the diversity in society within the WB is expected to further increase. The aim of this paper is to find out the relationship between cultural diversity and ethnic fractionalization from one side and governance, competitiveness and human development from the other side. The paper opted to explore the ethnic diversity within the Western Balkan countries based on the latest data of census for each country and on the Distance Adjusted Ethno-Linguistic Fractionalization Index proposed by Kolo (2012). Furthermore, it compared the economic performance of these countries with the indicators of the ethnic diversity. Even though the literature argues that cultural diversity has negative impact on countries’ performance, the study finds out that highly homogenous societies in WB are no more prone to good governance, global competitiveness and human development than highly heterogeneous societies within the region. In other words, countries with lower fractionalization index (such as Kosovo and Serbia) do not show a significantly higher performance than countries with higher fractionalization index (such as Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina). To sum up, the influence of regional geographic distance seems to be much more significant compared to cultural diversity because the economic capacity and performance of WB countries are found to be positive but still modest. The Western Balkan countries are having a considerable mixture of ethnicities, languages and religions. These varieties can push this group of countries to have a consensus among them in the economic aspects or to increase the gap among each other.

On The Road To Fairness For All

Equitable economic development is an essential element in order to achieve justice and equality in a multi-ethnic society. The reality of Malaysia, which is a country of multi-ethnicity, multi-religion and multi-cultural societies, demands a concept of justice and equality that is different from other countries, particularly the ones with homogenous societies. The highest law of the land places Islam, the religion associated with one of the main ethnicity, as the official religion of the nation and allowed the duality of economic system, in particular banking system, whereby conventional banking system exists side-by-side with the Shariah-compliant, Islamic one. By reviewing the pertinent literature on the development of Islamic banking, the reviewed cases on Islamic banking and its contributions to Malaysian society regardless of ethnicity and religion. The discussion in this paper therefore will be directed towards highlighting the laws and cases on Islamic banking and its implication to enhance the application of Islamic banking laws to consumers regardless of ethnicity and religion, in order to maintaining fairness and justice in a multi-ethnic society.

AWING PROVERBS: FROM PATRIARCHY TO FEMINIST REVOLT


 Awing is a village found in the North West Region of Cameroon with a population of about 60000 inhabitants according to A wing Palace statistics (Shedmankah 2009:3). Awing society has moved from a patriarchal and hierarchical society to egalitarianism, from homogeneous society to heterogeneous one within the same indigenous set up. The patriarchal and hierarchical society in which the man takes initiative alone and controls production is now changing to one in which the woman has started taking initiative thus revolting against chauvinism and assuming her independence. This paper demonstrates though proverbs that there is a shift /move from the ideology of conservatism to that of egalitarianism in the Awing society as a result of the influence of contemporary issues. It also illustrates the role of the Awing female in social cohesion as spelt out in their proverbs. Proverbs are the wisdom of the ancestors and the best way of preserving language. So analysis of proverbs will show the present male hegemony and how women are revolting against it. The problem this paper raises is that there is a shift in ideology in Awing society. This will create confusion and destroy social cohesion. The moral value of proverbs will diminish in Awing community and people will become less interested in the use of proverbs, the excesses of the feminist movement is going to destabilise the Awing society. The African man has a role to play as well as the woman. If these roles are destabilised, there is no unity or social cohesion. Social cohesion takes place when each person plays his role. The fact that the feminist movement is attacking the traditional tenet of unity is dangerous and can never bring unity. About 90 proverbs are analysed using the (post) Marxist approach. Through these proverbs, the African thought in relation to the on-going struggle for women emancipation is expressed. These proverbs are collected from the Awing society and transcribed in the Awing language. The free translation method is used to bring out the English version with concentration on the context of the proverb and not on Grammar.