Ideological Conflict Research Articles

Toward a Generalizable Understanding of Rightist Movements: Utilizing the Revolutionary Right’s Value Wars in Iran (1995–2009) as a Case Study

Bringing rightist movement studies into the Iranian context, this study advances a generalizable understanding of the ideological, moral, and cultural activism of Islamist movements and their rightist counterparts. While numerous studies have discussed the economic explanation of rightist movements, I integrate Islamist movements in the Muslim world and rightist movements in the West to develop a generalizable cultural and moral explanation of rightist movements. Value and ideological conflicts, as well as moral outrage, drive this integrated understanding of rightist movements. The rise of innovative and contentious forms of millennialism in Iran—especially the increasing salience of the Jamkaran mosque, the rise of new media outlets and millennial discourses, and pertinent policies—provide evidence for proposing this generalizable understanding. I argue that the rise of performative contentions surrounding millennialism, known as Mahdaviat, within the pro-regime revolutionary rightist movement in Iran was Islamists’ ideological response to liberal threat perceptions. These threat perceptions were activated before the liberal Reform era (1997–2005). After the ascent of Ahmadinejad to power in 2005, ideological millennialism became the dominant discursive field in Iran’s state politics. Drawing on narratives of prominent Islamist figures and media personalities in Iran and events surrounding Mahdaviat, this paper advances a generalizable argument of the moral and cultural explanation of rightist movements.

Faith-Based Domestic Violence Training: Building Community Responses with an Islamic Perspective in Palestine

Domestic violence or intimate partner violence affects 1 in 3 women internationally, but despite impacting women from all nations, it has somehow become a point of contention between more secular factions in the western world and traditional Islamic countries under Muslim majority rule. This perceived conflict of ideology has led to a polarization serving to separate affected communities and slow progress on needed resolutions. In Palestine, a long-awaited proposed Family Protection Act has been paralyzed due to public outcry that it is not representative of the cultural and religious context of the country. The following study introduced a training in domestic violence for mental health and social service providers in Palestine that was created by the Peaceful Families Project, a non-profit educational and advocacy organization. The study aims to introduce the understanding that domestic violence is in fact a Muslim issue with clear directives for prevention using a faith-based methodology. Despite having professional experience working with domestic violence over years, participants demonstrated significant changes in knowledge, attitude, and stated potential behaviors after the training. Qualitative data enriched the discussion with participants stating that such efforts could change the narrative and overcome the perceived western bias of domestic violence awareness currently offered in Palestine. It also opens the door for indigenous perspectives and creative, culturally generated solutions to this critical issue. Using faith-based initiatives that correspond to the native culture of a community can increase motivation, ownership, and the opportunity for unique programming and innovative methodologies.

“Their End Is Destruction”: Reading Philippians as Philosophical Dialogue

Paul’s address to the ekklesia in Philippi evidences an ideological conflict within the community. The letter encourages the community to persevere in a prescribed philosophy while simultaneously recognizing the presence of “opponents” (Phil 1:28) and “enemies” (Phil 3:18) against whom the community must “stand firm” (Phil 4:1). Building on Pierre Hadot’s work in identifying ancient philosophy as a “way of life”, this article examines the nature of this ideological conflict by reading Philippians in light of the conventions of ancient philosophical dialogue. While the letter does not take the strict literary structure of a formal dialogue, it can rightly be understood as a philosophical text that is engaging in a critical conversation about competing philosophical “ways of life”. In this philosophical dialogue, Paul critiques the alternative way of life on offer to the Philippian ekklesia by portraying it as an insufficient way of life that will lead to destruction. He simultaneously presents his own philosophy as the one that is consistent with the appropriate “goal,” the right “mind,” and a consistent “way of life” that will help the community attain their ultimate telos.

Memahami Dinamika Administrasi Publik dan Implementasi Kebijakan

Abstract. This study aims to explore and analyze the factors that lead to the persistent discrepancy between policy formulation and effective implementation in public administration.
 By utilizing secondary data obtained from various scientific sources, this study uses qualitative research methods to provide insight into the complex dynamics that influence the outcome of policy implementation.
 The findings of this study emphasize several key factors influencing policy implementation. First, bureaucratic structure and organizational processes are identified as elements that significantly affect implementation results. This study reveals that inefficient bureaucratic practices and systemic barriers often hinder effective policy translation into practice. Moreover, the role of leadership in ensuring the successful implementation of policies in public administration emerges as another important factor. Effective leadership, with its ability to mobilize resources and inspire commitment, plays a critical role in driving successful policy implementation. Furthermore, political factors were found to greatly influence the dynamics of policy implementation. Research shows that political instability, self-interest, and ideological conflict can hinder effective policy implementation, leading to sub-optimal outcomes. To bridge the gap between policy formulation and implementation, this study outlines the main strategies. This strategy includes improving communication channels, stakeholder engagement, capacity building, and cultivating a culture of accountability and transparency within the administrative system.
 In conclusion, this research sheds light on the complexities surrounding policy implementation in public administration. By understanding the multifaceted nature of the problem and adopting strategic interventions, policymakers can work towards achieving a more effective and efficient policy implementation process.
 Keywords: Bureaucratic structure; Organizational processes; Policy implementation; Political factors, Public administration

Neo-humanism and the Modern World: A Philosophical Perspective through the Lens of Philip Roth's Everyman

Everyman by Philip Roth is a realistic work that covers the life of an unnamed Jewish American from childhood to adulthood in a bildungsroman style, slowly revealing mundaneness in every element of life and potentially being related to "Everyman" who exists in the world. An individual's self-centered focus and an abundance of ideas that examine his very existence and the proportion of significance he has had in the lives of those around him relate to the exciting phases of life that parallel the universal narrative of marriage, divorce, betrayal, sex, regret, emptiness, introspection, anxiety, ageing illness, and death. Everyman by Philip Roth makes many allusions to the memories and experiences of immigrants. It speaks to people who live lives torn between the past and the present, between freedom and religion, and between finding transcendence through humanism rather than via faith in God. It also talks on the ideological conflicts that have developed between dads and sons as a result of contemporary upheavals. The potential conclusion of the study is that modern humanism is founded on this through negation in the creation and consumption of texts, on the notion that human civilization is not monolithic but rather multifaceted and dynamic, meaning that understanding it requires a long gaze through immense time and the novel perspectives of modernity.

Operationalising Progressive Ideas About Property: Resilient Property, Scale, and Systemic Compromise

Property theory is at a crossroads. In recent decades, scholars seeking to advance progressive ideas about property have embraced ‘Progressive Property’ theories that seek to advance the goals of social justice and the common good, offering a vital counter-weight to utilitarian and neo-conservative accounts of property. Progressive Property theories seek to correct an imbalance in American property discourse which—across the temporal scale—has sustained a range of narratives and normative commitments, but which has veered towards extreme acquisitive individualism and the rhetoric of property absolutism since the 1970s. The idea that individual property rights are not absolute but defined by the requirements of social justice is uncontroversial in many European jurisdictions, reflecting their normative foundations in traditions of European social welfarism and Catholic social teaching. In Property Rights and Social Justice: Progressive Property in Action, Walsh foregrounds a system designed for normative hybridity, and evaluates the practical possibility of balancing commitments to social justice within a system that upholds private property rights.
 In this Article, we build on Walsh’s account to consider the implications of her insights for scholars seeking to advance progressive ideas about property in the U.S. context across three registers of scale: rhetorical, jurisdictional, and physical. Applying Resilient Property Theory (“RPT"), we reflect on how the dominance of rhetorical methods in the last half-century has foregrounded ideological conflicts between competing normative commitments in U.S. property scholarship, locating scholars seeking to advance progressive ideas about property on a battleground that has been prepared to benefit others. Building on Walsh’s approach of “widening the doctrinal lens,” we argue that RPT offers a new methodological toolkit for advancing progressive ideas about property: by widening the legal lens; widening the contextual lens; and widening the methodological lens. We argue that each of these approaches, as they engage with material and hierarchical scales, offers opportunities to identify and advocate for compromise positions between respect for private property rights and social justice considerations, enabling active political and legal engagement with normative diversity and respecting and taking seriously different legal conceptions of the good.

Christian Worldview and Cosmic War: Contexts and Origins of a Religious Combat Concept

AbstractThis paper explores the origins of two different emergences of the Christian worldview concept, and their relationship to understandings of cultural conflict. It will offer an analysis of the historical, cultural, and theological context for each emergence. In both cases, worldview was what Ian Hunter has termed a “combat concept.” Section I of the paper will offer an overview of the origins of Christian worldview thinking in the late nineteenth century through the thought of James Orr (1844–1913) and Abraham Kuyper (1837–1920). Section II will deal with the second major emergence of Christian worldview as a combat concept in the 1970s, focusing on figures like Francis Schaeffer (1912–1984), Chuck Colson (1931–2012), and Nancy Pearcy (1951–). Both contexts exhibited increased cultural and religious pluralism, and conservative Christians displayed a heightened sense of ideological conflict. Worldview became a tool for differentiation from, and contention with, the “other.”

A futures study of life satisfaction among Iranian students

Both anecdotal and empirical evidence strongly suggest that the current circumstances are leaving the younger generation in Iran dissatisfied. In light of that, this article embarks on a comprehensive exploration of this predicament through a mixed methods design. The focal point of this investigation rests on a selected cohort of graduate students from the University of Tehran. The administered questionnaire survey, encompassing a sample of 237 students, revealed a significant deficit in both their present and future life satisfaction measures. To delve deeper into the origins of this issue, a series of 32 in-depth interviews were conducted, providing invaluable insights. This qualitative phase was accompanied by a Thematic Analysis and the application of the Causal Layered Analysis methodology. The research findings uncovered an intricate web of factors contributing to youth discontentment. While systemic factors like injustice, corruption, and lack of civil liberties play a significant role, there are deeper layers at play. These include ideological conflicts between the younger generation and the government, the pervasive escalation of social comparison bias, and the spread of loss of meaning in life among the youth. Moreover, this study sheds light on their deepest level of perception and illuminates how they are unable to nurture a positive perspective on their life and society.

The 1948 Soviet-Yugoslav Conflict in the Public Discourse of Montenegro

The article analyzes Montenegrin public discourse in the first years after the Second World War in the context of the political conflict between the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia in 1948. The research has been based on archival material, daily press, and texts in literary journals, and is focused on the change of public discourse towards the ussr, conditioned by the political and ideological conflict between Yugoslavia and the ussr. The historical and semantic-pragmatic analysis of the text, as well as the analysis of lexical cohesion and taxonomy, indicate all changes in public discourse that result from the political conflict between the two countries. The critical analysis of public discourse points to the justification of the initial research hypothesis that political processes had a dominant influence on the formation of postwar public discourse in Montenegro.

Politics of popularity in the November Uprising (1830–31)

ABSTRACT This paper seeks to explore the cultural politics of the November Uprising through the lens of popularity. It investigates both the idea of popularity that pervaded the discourse of the time and the social practice of using popular reputations to shape the politics of the Uprising. Instead of treating popularity as just another manifestation of the ideological conflicts typical of the age of revolutions, this paper posits that the discourse surrounding popularity became a crucial axis of conceptualizing public individuality during the uprising. The debates surrounding popularity, including those concerning the dangers of hasty political ambitions, the increasing importance of personality in public life and the search for alternative sources of legitimacy, fostered an evolving political landscape in which it became possible to envision a different way of being a public figure and to reconsider the tools available for shaping public opinion.

Ideological Conflict in Rembang (Case Study: Cement Mining Conflict in Rembang)

The ongoing conflict in Watuhputih has escalated into a contentious and complex issue that continues to capture public attention. The debates have given rise to a fierce clash of ideas, concepts, and interpretations of laws, ultimately leading to numerous lawsuits. This study uses a qualitative research approach with Wehr and Bartos analysis to analyze conflict dynamics in the cement factory conflict case in Rembang, Central Java. The qualitative method used a case study. Data collection techniques used in-depth interviews with sources from 20 informants and documentation from various mass media. The results of this study indicate that conflict dynamics are divided into pre-conflict, confrontation, and crisis. This study concludes that the conflict in Rembang has turned into an ideological conflict. Each group claims that the ideology understood the most correct between environmental sustainability, traditional and modern, capitalist. A dark history of conflict and prolonged dynamics causes ideological conflicts. The record of the conflict’s journey into a social movement in Rembang is a series of conflicts between the community and small-scale mining companies previously in conflict areas from the 90th year.

Content policy and access limitations on commercial neural networks as an incentive to artivism

This article employs a case‐study method to investigate the artivism neural network community concentrated on Twitter (since renamed X), which has been ideologically influenced by the content policy and limitations of OpenAI. Today, many young artists using machine learning technologies in their artworks (Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, Kandinsky) note that despite significant progress in the field of neural network generators of image through prompts present in museums and exhibitions of contemporary digital art, a significant number of artworks are still made chiefly using outdated text-to-image algorithms created in 2021. These neural networks continue to be popular in art to this day. The reasons for the sustainability of such practices can be found in the soft ideological conflict between artists and OpenAI in 2021. At that time, neural networks had not yet become mainstream, and the dominant theme was deep fakes, which became the basis for a comprehensive discussion about the possibilities and consequences of implementing AI algorithms in modern society. A series of scandals related to the work of neural networks alerted businesses, which feared the reputational costs of neural network errors and biases. At the same time, the existing discourse on freedom of speech, thought, and self-expression in contemporary art has led to ideological conflict, as the creators have introduced constraints on tools of artistic expression. Previously, the actions of artists were not moderated by technical means. Thus, the community did not accept this state of affairs, and as a result of cooperation and “collective intelligence” created, on the GitHub and Google Colab platforms, their own algorithms with open code, with which everyone could carry out their visual experiments. Artists face the ideological question of fighting globalism and anti-progress in art to be outside the system but to riot against it. This process led to a division of artistic practises in neural network art, outlined by media artist Ryan Murdock as a gateway to text-guided visual art by the hacker effort of 2021 or the modern generation of algorithm text-to-images (after 2022).

The politics of commerce in eighteenth-century Bengal: A reappraisal

This article broaches a simple question: Was there a politics of commerce within Bengali society in the eighteenth century, or was such politics limited to disputes between the British East India Company (EIC) and the Bengal nawabs? I begin by discussing the literature on markets in eighteenth-century Bengal and argue that the relationship between commerce and politics has been too narrowly defined in this body of work. A one-sided focus on determining the impact of the early colonial state, coupled with an uncritical acceptance of Peter Marshall’s Namierite story about the origins of the British empire, has led historians to downplay ideological conflicts within the EIC and British society. To show why these divisions matter, I build on the recent work of James Vaughn and Spencer Leonard, who have shown that between 1750 and 1770, political and ideological conflicts in both Britain and Bengal had far-reaching effects on the character of the British empire. Through an extended discussion of a dispute over market access in 1778 in the city of Calcutta, I show that petty merchants and shopkeepers often opposed arbitrary impositions by regional elites. To fully understand the motivations behind such challenges, I argue that we need to seriously consider divisions within Bengali society as well: namely, the reproduction of caste hierarchies through differential access to markets (and land).

Политический подтекст романа Б. Переса Гальдоса «Донья Перфекта»

The article analyzes the political subtext of the novel Doña Perfecta by the Spanish writer Benito Pérez Galdós. The novel, first published in 1876, just after the end of the Third Carlist War (1872–1876), tells the story of a young engineer Pepe Rey who comes to the fictional provincial town of Orbajosa to visit his aunt, Doña Perfecta. The ideological conflict between the protagonist and the inhabitants of Orbajosa leads to the death of the hero. The article reviews scientific works dealing with the novel. It is shown that some ideas about the political meaning of the novel that exist in literary criticism need to be corrected. Basing on the analysis of the text of the novel, it is concluded that the novel is set in April 1872, in the last days before the start of the Carlist uprising. An analysis is made of the images of Pepe and Doña Perfecta. Benito Pérez Galdós, who had liberal views at the time of writing the novel, endowed the protagonist of the novel with a similar worldview. The protagonist’s ideology is considered in the context of various social and political movements in Spain of the 1870s: Liberalism, Krausism, the ideology of the Cantonalist movement participants, and Anarchism. It is shown that Doña Perfecta and her entourage are supporters of the Carlist movement. The thoughts expressed by Doña Perfecta are analyzed in the context of the political discourse of the Spanish Carlists of the 1870s and compared with the memoirs of the era. The article refutes the notion existing in literary criticism that Doña Perfecta embodies the political regime existing in Spain. It is concluded that the novel can be interpreted as the author’s political manifesto directed against the Carlists, who lost the war of 1872–1876.

Legal pluralism, ideology, and institutional change: the evolution of institutions for coastal resource governance in Ghana

Abstract Co-management regimes are institutional innovations that hold the promise of achieving sustainable common-pool resource governance. However, the transition to such institutional regimes in coastal resource systems has faced challenges in many countries. This article examines the processes and outcomes of such institutional changes in coastal fisheries in Ghana, where the transition to co-management was unsuccessful. Combining theoretical perspectives from legal pluralism in legal anthropology and ideational theories of institutional change within institutional economics, the paper uses process tracing to examine the role of ideology and historical institutional dynamics of the resource context in the institutionalization and failure of co-management arrangements for governing coastal fisheries. The study finds that ideological conflicts and historical legacies of legal pluralism hindered the practice and outcomes of coastal fisheries co-management in Ghana. The article argues for particular attention to the historical institutional dimensions and underlying worldviews of the resource context in institutional interventions for sustainability in coastal resource systems.

The Paradoxical Sources of Illiberalism: A Synoptic Approach to the Genealogies of Illiberalism

This paper aims to explore the implications of the essentially contested nature of the concept of liberalism in the conceptualization of illiberalism in order to understand the existence of misunderstandings and contradictions in the delimitation and definition of the concept within illiberalism studies. To this end, we seek to show that the contributions of linguistic political theory, inspired by the work of Wittgenstein, are are to describe and understand the conflicts that illiberalism can raise. Indeed, since liberalism is both an ideology and an analytical concept, it is difficult to define the latter without arbitrating the ideological conflicts between the “liberals pretenders”. As the synoptic comparison of the genealogies of illiberalism found in the literature shows, these conflicts are transcribed in the conceptualization of illiberalism, in a more or less imperceptible way, and are sometimes instrumentalized to invert the function and content of the concept. Consequently, our hypothesis is that the notion of "grammar" is useful in clarifying the fact that the concept of illiberalism has a different function and purpose depending on what is considered liberalism and the liberal tradition, which ultimately allows us to assess the coherence and relevance of the concept's use.

Propaganda aspects of cultural liberalization in the conflict between the Western and Communist systems

The author examines the processes of transformation of Western culture during the conflict between the West and the East (1949-1989); the determinism of these changes and neoliberal economic transformations that began in 1970s. The subject of the research is the technology of using cultural phenomena and scientific research in order to promote the ideology of globalism. The purpose of the study is to identify and analyze the genesis and development of the cultural transformation of Western society, the connection with the neoliberal economic paradigm of the Chicago School of Economics and the transition of power in Western countries to a new generation of globalist politicians. The material under study is reports of the Trilateral Commission, the Club of Rome, the IMF, Senate commissions, and the laws. The analysis of factual material is carried out by descriptive, analytical historical, systematic, comparative methods using abstracts and quotations from scientific literature. The scientific novelty of this article is to identify a new vision of the determinism of the stages of globalization: the cultural liberalization of Western society in the 1960s and 1970s, the neoliberal economic revolution of the 1970s and 2000s and the modern stage of globalization and the green agenda. The mechanisms of cultural liberalization, including three parallel youth revolutions in Anglo-Saxon countries, are shown, and the consequences of these revolutions, including the new values of the Western post-war generation, are analyzed. For the first time, the analysis of the report of the Club of Rome "The First Global Revolution" was carried out, new aspects of the ideological conflict between the communist and Western systems were identified and proposed for discussion. The data obtained are used to analyze the post-cold war: the unipolarity of the 1990s-2000s and the reverse process of regionalization that began in 2010s.

Early Buddhist perspectives on social memorialization

Social disasters are more than just accidents or technological disasters, they are defined as disasters stemming from a variety of causes that affect human life, property, and the stability of a country or society. These disasters can take many forms, including terrorism, crime, and violence, and have a profound impact on individuals and the public. How we respond after an event, especially how we treat victims, is crucial. In cases such as the 1989 Hillsborough stadium disaster in the United Kingdom and the 2022 Itaewon tragedy in South Korea, we see a lack of adequate and sufficient response, and the nature of the problem becomes an ideological conflict. This is the result of a misperception of reality and intentional distortion of the problem, which in turn leads to social conflict and increased costs. In Buddhism, these problems can be solved through compassion and right view. Resolution is about effectively healing the aftermath of a disaster and changing our consciousness to prevent it from happening again. When the social memorialization and healing of a disaster is done properly, our society can regain stability and the victims can return to their daily lives. In particular, we can effectively respond to social disasters through four immeasurable states of mind based on the Four Noble Truths.

해방 전후 순수문학 논쟁 연구

This study examined the controversy over pure literature before and after liberation. Ideology was internalized by Japanese imperialism in the time before liberation. During this period, the pure literature debate was linked to the generational debate and was accomplished with the participation of Jin-oh Yoo, Dong-ri Kim, and others. However, owing to the limitation of being an extension of the latter, the former itself could not be greatly deepened or expanded. However, the concept of pure literature discussed by Yu Jin-oh and others is significant in that it inherited the humanism debate and is connected to the pure literature debate after liberation. After liberation, the debate began amidst ideological conflict between the left and the right. Purity was divided into the logic of left- and right-wing literature, depending on whether purity was understood in relation to the situation of the times or as an attitude toward the literary spirit itself and toward literature itself. As it was developed based on the political logic, it was able to deepen and expand the discussion with the participation of many commentators. However, this debate failed to reach an agreement and ended in an emotional fight, which caused disappointment. The above discussion is significant in that it comprehensively considers the pure literature debate before and after liberation.

Paying for Legitimacy: Autocracy, Nonmarket Strategy, and the Liability of Foreignness

Although the liability of foreignness has been shown to present real economic barriers for foreign firms in various contexts around the globe, scholars continue to debate what drives this liability in different market contexts: lack of information due to institutional distance, lack of social embeddedness, discrimination, or something else. In this study, we propose a new theory, that in corporate lobbying within the nonmarket strategy context, the liability of foreignness is driven in no small part by a values-based ideological conflict stemming from the divide between democracy and autocracy. Private-sector firms from autocratic countries face costs of illegitimacy in Washington, D.C., and professional corporate lobbyists charge such firms a fee premium, in effect, to pay for legitimacy. We conduct an empirical study of the lobbying fees charged by professional corporate lobbyists in Washington, D.C., to their domestic and foreign firm clients, and the results strongly support the predictions of our theory. We also show that the liability of foreignness in this context endures for foreign firms from autocratic countries over the 15-year length of our sample period. Offering a new theoretical perspective as well as new empirical findings regarding the liability of foreignness, our study has practical implications for managers of foreign firms and may also generalize to other market contexts.