Post-war Context Research Articles

Variations of Customary Tenure, Chiefly Power, and Global Norms for Responsible Land Investments in Sierra Leone

Abstract In response to debates around land grabbing, the international community has increasingly developed and promoted global governance norms and guidelines for more responsible land investments. This concern on the part of the international community has particularly taken hold in Sierra Leone—in a post-war context, in which international donor agencies are already steering much of the country’s politics. Yet, despite the enormous influence of international guidelines and the actors promoting their use, there is a spatial variation in the conformity to and effectiveness of such norms in cases of land investments. While some projects seem to resemble ‘showcases’ for their exemplary use, these guidelines seem to be absent in other projects. This article analyses the political economy of customary land tenure, land investments, and international ‘soft laws’ in Sierra Leone. Based on 6 months of fieldwork in Sierra Leone in 2019, I compare several cases of large-scale land investments. I argue that there are important variations in the customary tenure system in the degree to which political authority over land is centralized in the authority of the paramount chief or is devolved to landholding families. This, I suggest, holds important implications for the uptake of global norms for ‘responsible’ investments.

Multi-criteria sustainability risk management for post-war residential re-construction: the case of Damascus

The Syrian conflict nine years of destruction have had catastrophic influence on the built environment. Post-war Residential Re-construction Projects (PRRP) have been one of the most challenging and controversial responsibilities. PRRP play vital role in building back to better level of sustainability, mitigating risks and resilience, providing housing for traumatised displaced people while coping with the war consequences. Hitherto, more sustainable PRRP are found to be riskier for construction professionals compared to traditional projects. Sustainability Risk Management (SRM) can be a challenging mission where multiple interrelated criteria exist. This research is set to identify and assess sustainability risks associated with more sustainable PRRP in Damascus and to understand how the Syrian construction professionals perceive these risks. The research study enhances a survey and interviews’ findings to develop a multi-criteria SRM framework that can be perceived as a decision-support tool to assess sustainability risks in Damascus PRRP. The survey revealed that while the sustainability risk categories weightings are 38%, 24%, 39% for economic, environmental and social risks respectively, the overall response categories weightings are 44%, 31%, 25% for economic, environmental and social responses respectively. The top five risks found are: expenses exceed anticipated, absence of sustainable technology, delays in planning for alternative social homes, unclear allocation of responsibilities and lack of qualified professionals. The interviews looked beyond the current prevailing approaches to sustainability risks while assessing the proposed multi-dimensional conceptual framework. The research framework enhances interrelatedness in management principles among: sustainability assessment, RM and multi criteria decision making in the post-war context. These findings are significant as this is the first-hand experience gathered from Damascus PRRP. It symbolises a turning point in Syrian construction; from traditional to sustainable housing, which will positively influence construction companies’ sustainability awareness in reconstruction process.

Maternal Health Outcomes in a Somalia Post-war Context: a PhD thesis analyzing trends towards universal health coverage

Abstract Somalia has one of the highest maternal mortality ratios in the world and an inequitable distribution of maternal health outcomes and service utilisation. Like other developing countries, Somalia has adopted the global policy goal of attaining universal health coverage of health services and improved health outcomes across all populations. Although United Nations agencies track the progress towards achieving universal health coverage as part of health targets for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, empirical case studies are rarely documented, especially in developing countries and even more so in post-war contexts such as Somalia. Literature shows the overall progress towards globally agreed-upon targets for maternal health lagging in war-affected countries, with persistent socioeconomic gradients in health outcomes. However, little is known about the mechanisms through which the social determinants of health impact on the distribution of maternal health outcomes. The aim of this study is to examine the mechanisms through which social determinants contribute to inequities in maternal health outcomes in Somalia. Specifically, the study will analyse the policy context and progress towards achieving universal health coverage of maternal health services in Somalia; analyse trends in maternal health outcomes and inequities in Somalia; and examine the mechanisms through which social determinants contribute to inequities in maternal health outcomes. A mixed-methods case study design will be adopted, employing both qualitative and quantitative approaches to data collection and analysis. The findings of this PhD research will contribute to the evidence base on pathways for achieving universal health coverage of maternal health outcomes in post-war countries like Somalia. This will facilitate development of effective health care policies and those addressing the social determinants, which if implemented will improve maternal health outcomes in Somalia and mark progress towards achieving the goal of universal maternal health coverage.

Everyday Practices of Gender in the Serbian Community of Post-War South-East Kosovo

This article aims to explore the everyday practices of gender in the Serbian community of south-east Kosovo, in a post-war context marked by sudden and radical political and social changes that deeply altered everyday life after 1999 and the establishment of the UN administration. As family and kinship ties are strongly expressed in the researched community, gender practices have been considered within that framework. This article is based on extensive multi-sited fieldwork conducted with members of the Serbian community in south-east Kosovo, and with displaced people from this region in several towns in Serbia. The field research focuses on everyday interactions and perspectives ‘from below’. The sudden and complex social and political changes that occurred after 1999 resulted in the transformation of the family structure and family roles, and thus to changes in gender practices. With the establishment of the international administration, influences linked to globalisation intensified. The migration of part of the community to Serbia, and the life of many of its members as ‘both here and there’, played an important role. Influences from Serbia, community guidance from the Serbian Orthodox Church, and changes in the ethnic and social landscape because of the war all combined to create opposing processes within the family. In family and gender relations, intensive, oppositional processes unfolded. These generated tensions within the community: the nuclearisation of the family and, for certain aspects, the liberalisation of relations in it and, at the same time, repatriarchalisation.

For or against the molecularization of brain science?: Cybernetics, interdisciplinarity, and the unprogrammed beginning of the Neurosciences Research Program at MIT

It was no accident that the first neuroscience community, the Neurosciences Research Program (NRP), took shape in the 1960s at MIT, the birthplace of cybernetics. Francis O. Schmitt, known as the founding father of the NRP, was a famous biologist and an avid reader of cybernetics. Focusing on the intellectual and institutional context that Schmitt was situated in, this article unveils the way that the brain was conceptualized as a distinct object, requiring the launch of a new research community in the US. In doing so, this article moves beyond the dominant narratives on the triumph of molecularization of the brain at the beginning of neuroscience. Instead, it argues that what brought researchers together in the name of neuroscience was not just a molecule but an aspiration to develop biological theories of the brain/mind, which resonated with biologists in a postwar context and was materialized through support for basic research. The article highlights the tension over the computerization and molecularization of the brain, which shaped the interdisciplinary gathering of neuroscientists in the context of growing interest in basic research. Thereby, this article reveals the rise of theoretical concerns in brain science that reflect the distinct desires and concerns of biologists in the US at an intellectual and institutional level. By revisiting the launch of the NRP with a focus on Schmitt, the article sheds light on the historical contingencies in launching the new community as neuroscience in the US and their meaning for the locality and transiency of (inter)disciplinarity in brain science.

Institutional trust paradox: understanding the dynamics of trust among different ethnic groups in Sri Lanka

ABSTRACT The article explores institutional trust dynamics in Sri Lanka and asks what accounts for varying levels of trust different ethnic groups have in governance institutions in the post-war context. Three decades of ethnic conflict, the emergence of ethno-religious polarisation since the end of civil war, militarised ethnocracy, and the majoritarian ethnocratic state all highlight the need to understand these dynamics. The article presents the results of twonationally representative surveys on institutional trust in Sri Lanka (2015 & 2020), which showed a puzzling trend: in 2015, minorities had higher trust in public institutions, whereas, in 2020, the same minorities had lower trust. The study finds that citizens’ evaluation of public institutions is affected by ethnic cleavages, institutional fairness, and perceived performance. On the one hand, Sinhala–Buddhist ideology and dominance of ethnic majority in public institutions are more likely to determine institutional trust among the ethnic majority Sinhalese; on the other, perceived injustice and unfair treatment shapes institutional trust among the ethnic minorities. Overall, the study finds that an increase in institutional performance may not be sufficient; institutionalising equal treatment, fairness, and enhancing governance quality are necessary to enhance institutional trust among all ethnic groups in ethnically polarized societies.

Review: Avant-Garde in the Cornfields: Architecture, Landscape, and Preservation in New Harmony

Review: <i>Avant-Garde in the Cornfields: Architecture, Landscape, and Preservation in New Harmony</i>

Un-British No More: Torture and Interrogation by Britain in Germany, 1945–54

Among the thousands of camps Britain operated in the twentieth century were some that gained a notorious reputation for how they treated prisoners. Such places were often seen as aberrations within their individual contexts. Their recurrence across different places and times – including in Aden, Cyprus, and Northern Ireland – nonetheless renders it difficult to dismiss them as mere anomalies. This article examines one of the first post-war camps to have attracted such attention in Allied-occupied Germany, which was closed down following an investigation into its appalling conditions. Seeking to understand how an establishment ended up departing so drastically from accepted interrogation norms, which saw torture as unproductive and un-British, it finds that prisoners were subject to a combination of neglect due to difficult circumstances and malevolence. Tracing the camp's successors, the article also finds that political considerations ensured future camps in Germany did not step out of line; nevertheless, there was a failure to ensure the same for other cases more generally and to turn this into a one-off affair for Britain. Overall, while the camp existed within a unique post-war context, its history points to conditions and structures that may serve as units of analysis for investigating similar establishments.

Archival traditions in Latin America.

This paper surveys archival traditions coexisting in Latin America and identifies key moments in the region's development of archives and archival practices. First, different record-keeping practices in pre-Hispanic communities are identified. Second, an Iberian conception of the archive is described in the case of colonial archival practices between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. Third, changes resulting from independence movements and the subsequent arrival of the Latin archival tradition are documented. Fourth, the emergence of an Ibero-American archival tradition is posited, which is State-sponsored and institutional and the product of a postwar context. Lastly, the turns and shifts these traditions are experiencing due to social conflict and transformations taking place in the region since the late twentieth century are presented, associated with marginal practices and with close attention being paid to users.

Losing Hearts and Minds: Civil Conflict, Counterinsurgency Policing and Postwar Crime in Insurgent Strongholds

ABSTRACT Postwar countries often experience high levels of crime. A frequent explanation is that these countries exhibit inefficient and illegitimate state security apparatuses that cannot enforce law and order, and that contribute to an environment conducive to crime. Theoretical arguments outlining how an environment conducive to crime comes about as consequences of armed conflict have remained generic and empirical evidence is scant. Building on theoretical insights from the micro dynamics of civil wars, counterinsurgency policing and environmental criminology, this study makes a contribution by theoretically developing and empirically exploring how local conflict dynamics in insurgent strongholds shape police-community relations in a way that undermines the extent to which the police can handle crime in a postwar context. The suggested causal process is explored in the context of West Belfast (Northern Ireland) from 1969–2008. The analysis indicates overall support for it, though with important nuances.

Del no saber al saber (y viceversa): inseguridad e intimidad en El Salvador de la posguerra

Shortly after the end of El Salvador’s civil war (1980- 1992), Salvadorans began to experience a new kind of insecurity—an affective state of not knowing when to feel anxiety. Their war-era survival repertoire could not account for the new postwar context. Slowly, and then suddenly, gangs converted into the new principal danger in the Central American country. Today they have become figures of intimacy in El Salvador’s political and community life. As the thirtieth anniversary of the Peace Accords nears, in this article, based on a combined 30 years of ethnographic fieldwork, we consider transformations in senses of insecurity, from not knowing to knowing and back again, as well as continuing forms of unknowing, that perpetuate unequal distributions of power in urban San Salvador.

The role of architectural reconstruction in a post-war context: the case of Mosul

This work addresses the topic of architectural reconstruction in a post-war context, in this case in Mosul, Iraq. Heavily damaged during the war against ISIS, the city faces the immense task of cleaning, restructuring, and rebuilding. The damaged buildings are diverse, but the ancient monuments require specific care as they carry the memory and the heritage of a traumatized community. Both in the cases of partial or complete destruction, the architectural intervention needs to face both cultural and the preservation dimensions of reconstruction. This approach is based on interventions in strategic neuralgic points for the community life such as the market, a religious structure, and the baths. These symbolic spaces host the social, economic, and religious activities that gather the inhabitants. They are also the stages of the traditions and cultural life of Mosul. The reconstitution of the inhabitants' habits and sense of community is centred around these locations and planned to spread around the urban fabric following the redevelopment of the city. Our three different sites are the Souk, the Great Mosque and the Hammam. These projects address several challenges: the construction of a new building inspired by the existing urban fabric, the partial reconstruction of an ancient monument and the construction of a new building in dialogue with existing Ottoman ruins. The balance between tradition and modernization; memory and oblivion; reconstruction and restoration is the focus of the paper.

Experiences of Gendered Norms and Mobilizing for Rights of Women Living With Disabilities in the Post-war Context in Sri Lanka.

This paper juxtaposes existing legal/policy frameworks, national and international, with narratives of women living with disabilities in the post-war context in Eastern Sri Lanka. These narratives highlight their lived experience and needs. The paper draws from a process of consultations among women living with disabilities and the authors, who are long standing allies of this struggle in their capacity as activists and researchers. It focuses on key aspects of myriad gendered norms that were articulated during the consultations and describes the structural discrimination that emerges from such norms, as experienced by women living with disabilities. The paper ends with some thoughts and key proposals of women living with disabilities for the future of this struggle for justice.

K-pop. Os reflexos do hibridismo cultural na identidade e na música popular coreana

This article seeks to analyze how K-pop, (sub) musical genre born in South Korea, is able to portray reflexes of cultural hybridism in pop music and in South Korean identity. To this end, a survey of facts and historical data was carried out to demonstrate the cultural identity suppression suffered by the Korean people over the centuries, until its consolidation as an independent nation. Then, from the post-war context, an analysis is made of the North American influence on the country's trajectory in music and in the construction of its pop culture. Finally, the role of all these interferences in the solidification of the South Korean identity is investigated, as well as the role of globalization in the establishment of the K-popper subculture and the new position of the peninsular country in the world

OPTIMIZATION OF THE PROCESS OF RENOVATION OF THE KITCHEN OF A RESIDENTIAL APARTMENT USING MODELS AND METHODS OF OPERATIONS RESEARCH

This article discusses the topic of optimizing kitchen layouts by using a combination of methods such as mathematical modeling, user testing, and expert evaluations. The golden triangle rule, which states that the three main elements of a kitchen, the sink, the refrigerator, and the stove, should be arranged in the shape of a triangle to minimize the distance between them and improve the flow of the kitchen, is presented as a common method for optimizing kitchen layouts. Mathematical models such as linear programming and simulation models can also be used to optimize kitchen layouts by finding the optimal configuration of a kitchen that meets certain constraints, such as the size and shape of the room, the number of appliances, and the desired workflow. User testing and expert evaluations can also be used to gather feedback from users and gain insight into the latest trends and best practices in kitchen design. The article also touches on the importance of post-war reconstruction period in context of kitchen layout optimization, as well as the importance of gathering empirical evidence and statistics to improve the functionality and efficiency of kitchen spaces. Overall, optimizing the kitchen layout is a crucial aspect of designing and building a functional and efficient kitchen space, taking into account not only practical considerations, but also user needs, preferences and the post-war context. Using various methods and tools, you can create a kitchen layout that will be adapted to the needs of the user, that will be pleasant and functional for him.

Sri Lanka's Foreign Policy with Regard to America and China in the Post-War Context

Sri Lanka's Foreign Policy with Regard to America and China in the Post-War Context

A Study of the Influence of Asian Countries on Sri Lanka's Foreign Policy in the Post-War Context (With Special Reference to India and China)

A Study of the Influence of Asian Countries on Sri Lanka's Foreign Policy in the Post-War Context (With Special Reference to India and China)

The Royal Wave: Royal Interaction with the Public

In the modern mass media age, images of waving members of the royal family have become one of the most iconic and often reproduced pictures of royalty. This article presents the first detailed study of this aspect of the royal image. The waving of British royalty is particularly iconic and seems to have played a prominent role in the establishment of this gesture. This study traces the origins of their waving from its historical roots in the nineteenth century to its first appearance in modern times in 1922: in the post-war context, this was a time when royalty generally opened up to and interacted more with the people. By way of introduction, the article also looks at the “royal bow”—the earlier established form of greeting. The article furthermore describes the particular forms with which royal individuals have waved, up to the present day. This reveals some intriguing gender and status differences that were apparent in the earlier years, and the closer look at the practicalities invites us to think about the meaning and “function” of the royal wave, which may stimulate further research on how royal waving was perceived, and to what effect. Overall, the discussion of this popular royal gesture contributes to various strands of ongoing research on royalty’s interaction with the public. <em>Editorial Note: A corrected version of this article was posted on 20 January 2022. The editorial team would like to apologize to Dr Range and to the readers for the errata in the version which was originally published.</em>

Education permanente in post-war France, 1945–1960: Circulatory regimes and policy repertoires

The literature regarding the social organisation of ‘adult’ learning opportunities throughout the life course postulates different significations of policy concepts such as ‘lifelong education’, ‘permanent education’, ‘recurrent education’, and ‘lifelong learning’ in the 1970s. This paper examines policy formation processes in France during the 1950s when the development of éducation permanente was characterised by often-conflicting policy repertoires articulating arguments for redistributing opportunities to participate in organised (adult) learning throughout life. In the post-war context of rapid economic growth and technological change, it focuses on the policy repertoires articulated by the state, civil society organisations, and markets regarding individual and collective opportunities to continue to acquire knowledge, skills and sensitivities throughout life. Based upon a critical rereading of primary and secondary published texts, the analysis suggests that éducation permanente constituted a social field of problematic relationships between individual and collective interests regarding the acquisition of knowledge, skills and sensitivities. This constituted the dialectic between economic/vocational, technical reconversion practices in relation to social, cultural, and personal regeneration practices in a rapidly changing capitalist society. The conclusions identify a number of issues calling for further comparative historical research into often-conflicting policy repertoires that propagated policies to promote ‘long lives of learning’.

Youth radicalization and violent extremism: a study of pathways in the post-war context of Sri Lanka

ABSTRACT The article intends to explore the pathways from youth radicalization into violent extremism in the post-war context of Sri Lanka based on the qualitative evidence collected from four provinces in 2018. Our results show that lack of opportunities, fragmented social and ethnic identity, complex identity formation, corruption, low quality of governance, marginality in economic and political spheres, ethnoreligious politics, and securitization of state appear to be key potential driving factors that are more likely to propel radicalization and violent extremism in the post-war scenario. The article finds the causal mechanism among the potential push factors and how each of these drivers are interconnected and influence one another negatively. Based on the evidence, we argue that no single pathway implicates radicalization into violent extremism –various forms of vulnerabilities, including individual, group, and socio-economic and political, are more likely to increase the propensity to radicalization. It informs that post-war Sri Lanka’s youth radicalization into violent extremism is multifaceted, contextually driven, and constantly evolving and exist in a complex reality. In deeply divided societies, collective crisis plays a critical role in radicalization, suggesting that policy measures considering violence prevention must pay attention to address community grievances and marginalization.