Post-war Contexts Research Articles

ORGANIZATIONAL AND ECONOMIC MECHANISMS FOR ADDRESSING WAR-INDUCED ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES IN EUROPEAN POST-WAR CONTEXTS

Abstract: The article focuses on the development of organizational and economic mechanisms for addressing environmental problems caused by war in European post-war contexts and the implementation of the germinative development concept in these conditions. The tools for mitigating the negative environmental impact on business entities are identified. Overall, the article employs innovative approaches to effective management of environmental, resource-based, and germinative factors of economic development. The strengths and weaknesses of each approach are identified, and the appropriateness of their application to specific factors is demonstrated. Methodology: The study employs logical and dialectical methods; methods of synthesis, comparison, grouping, generalization of the systemic approach, as well as expert evaluation, questionnaires, planning, forecasting, and mathematical modeling methods. Scientific Novelty: A mechanism for managing the factors of ecological and resource influence on business activities is proposed, which ensures the efficiency of implemented innovations and the coordination of both material resources and financial flows, based on modeling these processes. Scientific approaches to their formation and post-conflict management tools are proposed, based on process modeling to ensure the stable functioning of business entities in post-war conditions, in accordance with EU requirements and standards.

Anocha Suwichakornpong, film festivals and the institutionalization of art cinema auteur

ABSTRACT This essay tries to interrogate the intertextual relationship between auteurism, art cinema and the mode of institution which was first acknowledged by Steve Neale in his study of the European post-war contexts, by applying it in the contemporary mode of global art cinema address. Through the film festival circuits, the institutionalization of authorship is relocated from national to transnational dialogues and enhances the birth of emerging director Anocha Suwichakornpong faster than her senior fellows had encountered. Mobilizing both the director and the institutions equally, I explore her mode of production—financing, distribution and exhibition in relation to film festivals. With the geopolitical encounter between Asian and European contexts, it can be argued that both the filmmaker and the institutions are mutually and bilaterally interdependent with each other. Film festivals have chosen Anocha, but she has also chosen them. Each arthouse auteur has their network, just as the film festivals do, and that Anocha has deliberately constructed her professional route through them since the very beginning, from film student to professional feature filmmaker. While Anocha Suwichakornpong can enter the global recognition shortly, her strong political uniqueness is also hindered within the institutional contexts of film festivals and auteurism.

In a Stranger’s House: Social Isolation of Internally Displaced People in Ukraine During Wartime

Abstract This article explores the impact of internal displacement during wartime in Ukraine on individuals’ social isolation. This study focused on understanding and comparing feelings of isolation in two different contexts: the native community in territories temporarily occupied by Russian troops since the full-scale war and the host community. The research reveals a consistent pattern of isolation characterized by feelings of loneliness, anxiety, and emotional exhaustion among internally displaced people (IDPs), irrespective of their location. Cultural disconnection emerges as a significant factor in both settings, with war-induced changes in social norms and practices leading to a sense of alienation in native communities, and the challenge of adapting to new cultural environments in host communities. Furthermore, it highlights IDPs’ increased vulnerability to bias, stigma, and anxiety in social interactions. Overall, this qualitative study advances the understanding of the effects of displacement on social isolation and provides insights that can inform effective recovery strategies and foster a resilient, cohesive national identity in post-war contexts in Ukraine.

Anthropological Dimension of Wartime Ecocide: Ecofeminist Methodological Assessments

Purpose. The authors aim to disclose the anthropological dimension of ecocide during and after Russia’s war against Ukraine, relying on the multidisciplinary practices and intellectual production of ecofeminist women thinkers, including philosophers, sociologists, historians, psychologists, and others. The theoretical basis methodological approaches in philosophical anthropology, phenomenology, analytical philosophy, communicative philosophy, existentialism, ethics of justice, and ethics of care determine the study’s theoretical basis. Originality. For the first time, a systematic analysis of the anthropological dimension of ecocide has been carried out based on ecofeminist methodology. The specifics of the Ukrainian resistance to ecocide were revealed as part of a single struggle – an anti-imperial and ecological struggle for independence and prosperity. It is emphasized that during the war, the opposition to ecocide is a component of the fight for national sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country, and therefore, the ideas of pacifism in this period are subordinated to this primary goal. After the war, preventing threats of ecocide should become an integral part of the struggle for stable peace and prosperity. Ecofeminist pacifist perspectives should be a priority among the most essential goals for that period. Conclusions. Ecofeminist methodological assessments offer valuable insights into the anthropological dimension of ecocide in wartime and post-war contexts, highlighting the complex interplay between gender, violence, and environmental destruction. By focusing on the experiences and perspectives of women and marginalized communities, ecofeminist analyses contribute to a more holistic understanding of ecocide and its impacts on both human populations and ecosystems.

Cicely Saunders and the Literary and Cultural Heritage of "Total Pain".

In this article, I present some of the literary and cultural influences behind hospice pioneer Cicely Saunders's idea of "total pain," a term she used from the 1960s onwards to promote the holistic approach which has since become palliative care. Existing studies imply "total pain" emerged from Saunders's own mixed career experiences and her attention to patient narratives. However, I explore how the term originates not only in Saunders's direct encounters with her patients but also in her readings of literary, philosophical, and theological texts from a range of European post-war contexts, from Viktor Frankl and Simone de Beauvoir to Martin Buber and Ladislaus Boros. Examining "total pain" in light of Saunders's reading reveals the particular intellectual milieu-often ignored-from which palliative care emerged.

War, Women and Post-conflict Empowerment: Lessons from Sierra Leone

War, Women and Post-conflict Empowerment: Lessons from Sierra Leone, edited by Josephine Beoku-Betts and Fredline A. M’Cormack-Hale uses an African Feminist theory to explicate how issues such as class, race, gender, religion, ethnicity, and heteronormativity intersect and are shaped by women in the African context, specifically in the war and post war contexts. The book offers conceptual frameworks embedded in “African centred gendered analysis” which privileges African lived realities and localised understandings of empowerment and development over dominant Western neoliberal conceptual frameworks. It does this by showcasing various womanhood and motherhood strategies used by women in Sierra Leone to end the 11-year Civil War (1991–2002). Equally so, the book divulges various ways women’s mass mobilisation has contributed to post-war Sierra Leone which saw the passage of landmark laws that protect women from patriarchal violations that predate the 11-year Civil War.

BAC, U KRY! Space, Albanian Commemoration and the Gheg Variety as a Linguistic Symbol of State Independence in Postwar Kosovo

Abstract This paper investigates the reconstruction of Albanian identity in Kosovo after the region's transformation to state independence in 2008. The cultural environment emerged as a site of ethnic appropriation and contestation in the longstanding interethnic struggles between the Albanians and the Serbs. The study examines the socio-symbolic and linguistic manifestations of national identity in Pristina, the capital city of Kosovo, through the lens of Linguistic Landscape Studies. The first aspect of the study investigates M. Theresa Boulevard, the central promenade of the city and a site of memory and commemoration, to highlight how the period of South Slavic hegemony in Kosovo and the recent interethnic war resulted in a redefinition of Albanian identity. The second aspect of the study focuses on the written manifestation of the Gheg variety of Albanian as a symbol of Kosovo's independence. Through this dual focus on memory and language, the study aims to arrive at an understanding of how new national and political self-identifications are shaped in contexts that have undergone ethno-political conflicts and socio-political shifts. We argue that the symbolic configuration of Kosovo suggests a redefinition of Kosovo-based Albanian identity following the transformation to state independence. The study contributes to an understanding of the multi-layered redefinition of Albanian identity in Kosovo, calling attention to language and memory in the process of constructing national identities in postwar contexts.

Exploring inclusive victimhood narratives: the case of Bosnia-Herzegovina

Narratives are essential tools for communicating thoughts about competitive and inclusive victimhood socially and politically. In reconciliation processes, promoting narratives of inclusive victimhood (an understanding that ‘we all suffered together’) has been suggested as one way to overcome competitive victimhood (the idea that one ethnoreligious group or nation is the sole or primary victim in a conflict or war). However, the notion of inclusive victimhood remains understudied in post-war contexts in which exposure to violence was relatively imbalanced between former adversaries. This article traces the potential narrative variation from competitive to inclusive victimhood in post-war Bosnia-Herzegovina. It draws on (1) the competitive victimhood typology as an analytical tool and (2) a mapping of narrative sites as a methodological tool for tracing collective victimhood. The article scrutinises less competitive and inclusive accounts of victimhood identities in Bosnia-Herzegovina by examining the narratives that recognise outgroup victimhood and acknowledge ingroup responsibility for harmdoing. It suggests that there is potential for peaceful coexistence realised through the narrative of shared suffering, especially in post-war contexts where the exposure to violence was not entirely unidirectional. However, shared responsibility is less likely to be observed when the exposure to violence was highly asymmetrical.

Women’s sexual and reproductive health in war and conflict: are we seeing the full picture?

ABSTRACT It is well established that women’s sexual and reproductive health (SRHR) is negatively affected by war. While global health research often emphasises infrastructure and systematic factors as key impediments to women’s SRHR in war and postwar contexts, reports from different armed conflicts indicate that women’s reproduction may be controlled both by state and other armed actors, limiting women’s choices and access to maternal and reproductive health care even when these are available. In addition, it is important to examine and trace disparities in sexual reproductive health access and uptake within different types of wars, recognising gendered differences in war and postwar contexts. Adding feminist perspectives on war to global health research explanations of how war affects women's sexual and reproductive health might then contribute to further understanding the complexity of the different gendered effects war and armed conflicts have on women’s sexual and reproductive health.

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.

Protests in Postwar Societies: Grievances and Contentious Collective Action in Kosovo

AbstractMost research on protests has been conducted in peaceful societies, whereas we know far less about contentious collective action in postwar contexts. To fill this gap, we offer a theory that perceived ethnic grievances related to group security and group status are particularly likely to generate protest mobilization in postwar societies. To test this theory and alternative hypotheses, we investigate trends in protest behavior in postwar Kosovo using an original protest event dataset and existing survey data. We find that protest behavior in postwar Kosovo is significantly shaped by perceived ethnic grievances: the majority of protest grievances center around group security and group status concerns. Protests about economic justice or good governance demands are significantly rarer. Using data from existing surveys, we also investigate the determinants of variation in individual protest participation. Our analysis reveals that perceived ethnic discrimination is strongly associated with individual protest participation in Kosovo.

Official Risks and Everyday Disasters: the Interplay of Riskscapes in Two Unplanned Settlements in Monrovia

Monrovia’s unplanned settlements provide a window into the diverse rationales and practices that go into planning and managing urban space. Even though unplanned settlements are economically, spatially, and socially integrated into cities, the desire to eliminate or formalise them persists. In the essay, I examine how everyday risks are addressed in the coexistence and co-evolution of planning and unplanned urbanisation in postwar contexts. As well as showing how expert-recommended risk management approaches cross over into local practices, I explain how and why multiple understandings of ‘risk’ and ‘resilience’ can influence practice. The unequal power dynamic suggests that the practices of state actors influence the residents of unplanned settlements, in a manner that is discernible of governmentality. As riskscapes, and by extension resilience, represent multiple realities to stakeholders, the question of coalescing the mosaic of practices into a common risk governance framework is critical. The essay emphasises that resilience-building should evolve from a thorough understanding of the dynamics of the multiplicity of riskscapes. Finally, the paper argues that an evolutionary approach to risk governance, paying attention to the interacting elements and configurations that link discourse, actors, institutions, power, and knowledge, will provide a platform for negotiating the links between risk perception and risk assessment within the emerging riskscapes. This will be the basis of a deliberative and negotiated resilience pathway that will integrate the priorities and interests of all stakeholders in the planning and decision-making process.

“One Man’s Meat Is Another Man’s Poison’: Marungi and Realities of Resilience in North West Uganda

ABSTRACT Approaches to resilience in post-war contexts prioritise systems-based thinking above everyday realities. This paper explores reconstruction through marungi (khat) in North-West Uganda. Presenting ethnographic evidence, we chart connections between marungi and resilience among growers, traders and “eaters”. Firstly, we argue for a consideration of the actual resources through which individuals and households build capacity to withstand shocks following war. Secondly, we explore inequities within production lines and the effects of criminalising khat, to demonstrate trade-offs within prospects for post-war prosperity. Ultimately, we argue for process-based analyses of how resilience is negotiated in contingent circumstances.

The Absence of Tragedy in Ifigenia (1950) by Gonzalo Torrente Ballester

Gonzalo Torrente Ballester’s novella, Ifigenia (1950) has been read consistently as a critique of the consolidating Francoist state of the 1940s and an early example of his ‘demythologizing’ technique. This article seeks to open discussion on aspects of the text that have not attracted critical attention to date. It traces the unacknowledged legacies of Euripides’ Iphigenia in Aulis in the text, most visible in both authors’ emphasis on the capacity of language for deceit. Drawing on Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism, it argues that Torrente’s Ifigenia should be read not only in the context of post-Civil War Spain but also in the wider socio-political context of post-Second World War Europe. It argues that the consistent suppression of expression of emotion throughout the text produces an absence of tragedy in Torrente’s retelling of the myth, and outlines how this relates to the post-war contexts of Spain and Europe.

Righting the Aftermath: On the Ethics of Recognition in the Postwar Novels of Alonso Cueto and Julien Kilanga Musinde

Abstract This article discusses the texts La Hora Azul by Alonso Cueto and Jardin Secret by Julien Kilanga Musinde within the context of postwar narratives emerging from histories of armed conflicts in Peru and Congo. The article focuses primarily on both authors' interweaving of formalistic aspects and complex narrative motifs in order to articulate an ethics of recognition that is indispensable in the reimagination of an inclusive nation in postwar contexts. Through an intertextual analysis of salient aspects such as the face-to-face encounter of self-other a la Levinas and the conceit of family–nation, the article argues that the preoccupation of the authors is less with the epic violence from which these narratives historically emerge than with the normalized forms of violence that have pitted sociopolitical relations in postcolonial nations. Thus, inclusive processes of reconciliation in the sense propounded by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Peru can only be possible through a self-reflexive examination of the sociopolitical habitus of the nation and the sedimented cultures/politics of exclusion that are responsible for the cracks within the imagination of the nation that make the resurgence of violent conflicts a persistent and immanent reality.

Introduction: (Re)integrating Feminist Security Studies and Global Political Economy: Continuing the Conversation through Empirical Perspectives

Attempts to integrate feminist security studies (FSS) and feminist global political economy (GPE) were first meticulously studied in the Critical Perspectives sections of the June 2015 and December 2017 issues of this journal. Although the debate has gained presence in workshops, at international conferences, and even on dedicated websites, the diverse contributions have remained rather theoretical (e.g., Bergeron, Cohn, and Duncanson 2017; Hudson 2015). The aim of these Critical Perspectives essays is to take the integration of FSS and GPE one step further by presenting empirically grounded contributions that help us contextualize the existing theoretical debates. By focusing on postwar contexts, the pieces here take seriously the material conditions of women's empowerment from a perspective attuned to the gendered and racialized logics structuring social orders in postwar states. We believe that these are the spaces where war economies and peace economies meet and where (gendered) structural transformation of societies is possible. Like the two previous collections, we do not understand FSS and GPE as additive (Chisholm and Stachowitsch 2017). Rather, we understand them as traditions that share a common goal, namely, to undermine the racialized neoliberalism and patriarchal capitalism underpinning international intervention and postwar reconstruction projects.

La representación de los géneros en el imperio romano del siglo I y su impacto social hoy

El objetivo de esta investigación es analizar, a partir de la cultura visual aplicada a la iconografía imperial de Roma, la representación de los géneros en los contextos posbélicos de la Roma Imperial del siglo I y su impacto social hoy. Se visibiliza que el género masculino está vinculado al poder y al dominio mediante unas imágenes, y, que, por el contrario, la mujer es excluida de la vida social mediante una representación en la que su cuerpo es utilizado por el imperio como “símbolo natural” de las naciones conquistadas y sometidas. Dichas imágenes y representaciones se utilizan, porque producen –por el poder evocativo y performativo del lenguaje visual–determinados esquemas jerárquicos, legitimadores del dominio imperial y de la sumisión de los pueblos vencidos.

Violence, Trust, and Public Support for the Colombian Peace Agreement

ObjectiveAs peace agreements have increasingly been put to a popular vote in places such as Northern Ireland, South Sudan, and Colombia, there is a corresponding practical and theoretical interest in understanding what factors influence public opinion toward the peace? We contend that support for peace in Colombia, as in other postwar contexts, is most powerfully shaped by individuals’ assessments of two critical factors—the level of violence experienced and trust in the conflict actors. More specifically, we hypothesize that greater experience with violence by the conflict actors and greater levels of trust regarding these actors are the critical dimensions of support for peace.MethodsWe use a regression model of support for the Colombian peace agreement more generally, as well as voters' intentions regarding the peace agreement vote.ResultsWe find that support for peace is most heavily dependent on contextual violence and trust. However, those who most trusted the conflict actors were among those least likely to indicate they intended to vote, which may help explain why the peace referendum failed.ConclusionMaintaining public support for the Colombian peace agreement will depend on rebuilding trust and providing government security and assistance in previously marginalized areas.

Insecurity, Dispossession, Depletion: Women\u2019s Experiences of Post-War Development in Myanmar

This article explores the gendered dynamics of Myanmar’s post-war economic reforms through an analysis of women’s experiences of development in Kayah (Karenni) state. In Myanmar, ceasefires and a reduction of armed violence combined with state-driven economic liberalization reforms are conditioned by, but also contribute to remake, gendered relations of power, privilege and marginalization. While new land legislation and development projects have contributed to loss of land and livelihoods among rural populations in general, our study demonstrates that women living in conflict-affected border areas are disproportionally affected. Drawing on interviews and participant observation, we show how this is directly related to an overarching gendered political economy defined by legacies of conflict, discrimination and uneven processes of development, which positions women as particularly vulnerable to new forms of insecurity, dispossession and depletion generated by post-war economic transformations. We argue that the political and economic legacies of war in the state has produced a gendered division of labor that positions women as responsible for unpaid and underpaid informal and social reproductive labor, weakens women’s access to land, and results in physical, material, and emotional depletion. Through this focus, our study adds to research on development and economic restructuring in post-war contexts in general, and to emergent scholarship on Myanmar’s economic reforms in particular.

A continuum of participation: rethinking Tamil women’s political participation and agency in post-war Sri Lanka

ABSTRACT In post-war contexts, attention is given to women’s participation and barriers to their participation in formal processes (for example, peace talks, economic initiatives, and elections). Yet, women have engaged in various activities to exercise collective and individual agency to impact political participation. This article examines how Tamil women’s political participation in post-war Sri Lanka exists along a continuum, from formal participation within state structures and party politics to informal community participation. Scholarship about Tamil women’s political participation is framed within discourses of “militants,” “ex-combatants,” “political mothers,” or “victims.” Using narrative interviews, we argue that – based on their awareness of unequal gendered power relations, structures, and norms impacting their lives in post-war Sri Lanka – Tamil women in Mannar exercise agency to challenge these constraints and promote a broader transformative political arena. Some women attempt to expand the agency of others and to promote a collective voice through which women can be better represented in politics. Drawing on feminist international relations and gender and development knowledge, this study demonstrates how political agency is constituted within informal arenas, disrupting masculinist assumptions about who is considered a political actor and what counts as political agency by examining the spectrum of political participation in post-war contexts.