Secession Research Articles

The power of social networks and social media’s filter bubble in shaping polarisation: an agent-based model

AbstractTthe role social media platforms play on the emergence of polarisation is an ongoing debate in the political communication literature. Social media’s filter bubbles and online echo chambers shape people’s opinions by curating the information they have available. However, the extent to which this is the case remains unclear. Social simulation scholars have provided valuable insights into the subject through opinion dynamics models and agent-based modelling approaches. This article proposes a social simulation approach to the topic of opinion dynamics from a political communication perspective to understand how social network configurations and the media environment contribute to the emergence of national identity polarisation. We built an agent-based simulation model of national identity dynamics with a multilayer multiplex network of interacting agents in a hybrid media environment of both, traditional media and social media platforms. We use the Catalan secessionist movement to ground, contextualise and empirically inform parts of our model. We found that the initial social network setup conditions had a large impact on the emergence of polarisation amongst agents. In particular, homophily-based social networks composed of a majority of like-minded individuals produced greater polarisation compared to random networks. This was aggravated in the presence of social media filtering algorithms, selectively exposing agents to supportive information. These results emphasise the importance of both the selective exposure by social media filtering algorithms and one’s social networks (echo chambers) for polarisation to emerge. This interaction reinforces the influence of social media platforms and social networks have on the emergence of polarisation.

Artifacts of Glory and Pain: Evolving Cultural Narratives on Confederate Symbolism and Commemoration in a New Era of Social Justice

The American Civil War has been commemorated with a great variety of monuments, memorials, and markers. These monuments were erected for a variety of reasons, beginning with memorialization of the fallen and later to honor aging veterans, commemoration of significant anniversaries associated with the conflict, memorialization of sites of conflict, and celebration of the actions of military leaders. Sources reveal that during both the Jim Crow and Civil Rights eras, many monuments were erected as part of an organized propaganda campaign to terrorize African American communities and distort the past by promoting a “Lost Cause” narrative. Through subsequent decades, to this day, complex and emotional narratives have surrounded interpretive legacies of the Civil War. Instruments of commemoration, through both physical and digital intervention approaches, can be provocative and instructive, as the country deals with a slavery legacy and the commemorated objects and spaces surrounding Confederate inheritances. Today, all of these potential factors and outcomes, with internationally relevance, are surrounded by swirls of social and political contention and controversy, including the remembering/forgetting dichotomies of cultural heritage. In this article, drawing from the testimony of scholars and artists, I address the conceptual landscape of approaches to the presentation and evolving participatory narratives of Confederate monuments that range from absolute expungement and removal to more restrained ideas such as in situ re-contextualization, removal to museums, and preservation-in-place. I stress not so much the academic debate but how the American public is informed about and reacts to the various issues related to Confederate memorialization. My main point, where my premise stands out in the literature, is that, for the sake of posterity, and our ability to connect and engage with a tangible in situ artifact, not all Confederate statues should be taken down. Some of them, or remnants of them, should be preserved as sites of conscience and reflection, with their social and political meanings ongoing and yet to be determined in the future. The modern dilemma turns on the question: In today’s new era of social justice, are these monuments primarily symbols of oppression, or can we see them, in select cases, alternatively as sites of conscience and reflection encompassing more inclusive conversations about commemoration? What we conserve and assign as the ultimate public value of these monuments rests with how we answer this question.

The Tragedy of the confrontation: the religious factor in the Russian Civil War

The article analyzes a collective monograph edited by A. S. Puchenkov and devoted to the consideration of the role and significance of the religious factor during the Civil War in Russia. According to the reviewer, the authors, based on the unique material collected in 22 Russian and foreign archives, were able to show and prove the need to take into account the phenomenon of the religious factor, rightly defining it as «a set of many components affecting the social, socio-political, spiritual, cultural and national life of society, determining the order of functioning of religion and its institutions in the system of relations between the state and society, as well as the influence of religion as a social institution on non-religious forms of public life». According to S. L. Firsov, the authors have made a successful attempt to draw a detailed picture of the state of religious denominations (primarily the Orthodox Russian Church) during the Civil War. In his opinion, the reviewed monograph can be called a kind of encyclopedia of the spiritual life of Russia during the Russian Troubles of the early 20-th century. The authors of the monograph made a worthy contribution to the study of the moral and moral state of Russian society by writing a deep and useful work for all those interested in both the history of the Orthodox Russian Church of the era of Revolution and Civil War, and the history of the Russian Troubles of the early twentieth century as a whole.

Why did Southern Christians maintain their pro-slavery stance before and during the Civil War

The paper explores the reasons behind Southern Christians’ staunch pro-slavery stance before and during the American Civil War, focusing on the religious perspective rather than the more commonly studied economic aspects. The paper examines how Southern Baptists, in particular, justified slavery as a part of their religious beliefs and identity, viewing it as a divinely sanctioned institution integral to their way of life. The paper highlights the role of the Southern Baptist Church (SBC) and its significant influence on the pro-slavery ideology, emphasizing the theological arguments made by Southern pastors and theologians. These religious leaders believed that slavery was morally and religiously justified and that the North’s attempts to abolish it were an infringement on their religious freedom. The study utilizes both primary and secondary sources, including speeches and letters from Southern Baptist leaders, to illustrate how deeply entrenched these beliefs were in Southern Christian thought, ultimately arguing that this religious justification was a central factor in the South’s resistance to abolition.

I Kings 12:1-24 and The Challenge of Religion and Ethnicity in Nigeria

This paper examines the account of segregation in 1 Kings 12:1-24, where the Kingdom of Israel divides into two distinct entities due to political, religious, and ethnic tensions. By analysing this biblical narrative, the study highlights the destructive consequences of division based on cultural and religious differences. The paper draws parallels to the contemporary context of Nigeria, a nation marked by diverse ethnic and religious identities. It argues that the story serves as a cautionary tale for Nigeria, emphasizing the dangers of allowing cultural and religious differences to foster division and conflict. This is a qualitative study using the narrative method. Data was obtained from secondary sources and analysed using the content analysis method of analyzing qualitative secondary data. The impacts of the culture of religion and ethnicity reveal that it affects electoral politics, governance and representation, conflict and instability, social cohesion, education and socialisation, and economic inequality. Emerged themes include a) leadership and consultation, b) economic disparities and grievances, c) responses to grievances, d) secessionist movements, and e) the role of mediation and reconciliation. Nigerian leaders might draw a cue from Rehoboam's failures by encouraging communication, attending to the economic requirements of all areas, and using mediators to help settle disputes amicably.

Book Review: Of Age: Boy Soldiers and Military Power in the Civil War Era by Frances M. Clarke and Rebecca Jo Plant

Book Review: <i>Of Age: Boy Soldiers and Military Power in the Civil War Era</i> by Frances M. Clarke and Rebecca Jo Plant

Predictors of Desertion: Analysis of the First Michigan Colored Infantry in the American Civil War

AbstractOver 180,000 black soldiers served in the Union Army in the American Civil War. They endured horrific deprivation and disease, and also substantial institutional discrimination in such areas as wage and promotion. Nevertheless, most never deserted their duties as soldiers. However, it is not clear what distinguished those who did desert from their counterparts. The present case‐control study fills this gap. It applies social bonds theory to explain desertion among blacks. The general hypothesis is the greater the bonds or stakes to the military unit, the lower the risk of desertion. Data refer to the First Michigan Colored Infantry (First Michigan) and are from the Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. They refer to the population of all 189 deserters in the First Michigan and a comparison group of non‐deserters. Available measures of social bonds include substitute status (substitutes received a bounty upon completion of service), receiving a wound (having “skin in the game”), and noncommissioned officer status. In addition, loyalty to family is framed as a risk factor. The dependent variable is desertion, a dichotomy (0,1). Results are adjusted for other measurable variables. A multivariate logistic regression analysis determined that measures of military social bonds were protective factors against desertion. Substitutes were 73% less apt, wounded soldiers 93% less apt, and noncommissioned officers were 79% less apt to desert than their counterparts. However, family bonds were a risk factor. The model correctly classified 77.95% of the cases. The results largely support a social bonds theory of deviance, but also may support views of the conflicting bonds between family and state as increasing desertion. The investigation is the first quantitative study of desertion among blacks in the Civil War.

Interpreting Collective and Individual War Memories in Borders in Anuk Arudprakasam’s The Passage North: Affective Memories in a Hot Spot Interpreting Collective and Individual War Memories in Borders in Anuk Arudprakasam’s The Passage North: Affective Memories in a Hot Spot

War memories are the patchwork of collective and individual memory, public and private remembrance and a recollection of current knowledge, and interpretation of the facts and events during and after the wars. The knowledge and interpretation of wars occur through the conscience, trauma, and injury which shapes the personal and public memory of an individual or an ethnic group. This paper deals with the effect of war memory in the post-Srilankan civil war state with the novel The Passage North by Anuk Arudprakasam. This novel narrates the oral testimonies, the ravages of the civil war and its effects on the survivors. The thoughts and personal memories of the protagonist, Krishan, concern how people live, yet become diminished in the aftermath of civil war, and the horrors Rani experienced during the Civil war reveal the memories, trauma and actions that have determined the scar in their lives as they cope up with displacement from borders and longingness for the lived land. This research paper employs the theoretical framework of Theodule Ribot’s affective memory and conceptualises it along with the collective and individual war memory of the survivor. The paper also moves towards the application of the theory of ethnic conflict in the borders where it does reveal the alien and dreadful memories and also transcends intermittently of reconnecting, of reimagining and of reconstituting the past as network or as archive or as present as Hoskins says (Hoskin, 05). This research attempts to probe the questions of civil war memory, and remembering and forgetting of violence and trauma in the mental borders.

IDENTITY CONFUSION IN DOROTHY WEST’S THE LIVING IS EASY

Literature is a media for conveying the authors’ ideas and feelings to the payers, or it is a mean of relief for them to bare their souls. In this context, literature involves an enormous place in human life. In this regard, African American literature has an important place in American literature and culture. It is also one of the strongest pillars of the literature produced by black writers in the United States of America. African American literature goes and continues in the course of history as oral literature from generation to generation. Since African Americans’ place changes gradually in the USA- due to racism in particular- their viewpoint of literature changes, too. African American history predates the foundation of the United States of America as an independent country, so their literature has deep roots, consisting of rich oral culture in poetry, including gospel music, blues, rap, and spirituals along with written poetry, and slave narrations. Although African Americans come from slave ancestors, they have been able to leave a deep effect on the literature of the United States when they are brought to the continent of America. African American literature is mainly based on autobiographical spiritual narratives, and before the American Civil War African Americans’ literature consists of memoirs of people who escape from slavery. So, African American literature has witnessed the problem of racial discrimination in its existential aspect. But in the progress of time, black writers go deep into verbal literature and perform their own experiences. Dorothy West, in her novel Living is Easy criticizes the blacks who mimes the whites. When we scrutinize, it is possible to penetrate that the writer wants to reflect her own experiences via narration and criticizes her own past. Writing is a kind of purgation for West since she writes about herself. In this study, we aim to point out the impulses that foster Dorothy West’s narration from a Freudian point of view.

The Latvian Lost Cause: Veterans of the Waffen-SS Latvian Legion and Post-war Mythogenesis

During World War II, tens of thousands of Latvians served in German-led military formations, primarily in the Waffen-SS Latvian Legion. After the war, around 25,000 former Legionnaires transitioned from prisoner of war camps run by the Western Allies to civilian life in a variety of Western countries. They created veterans’ organisations — such as Daugavas Vanagi (‘Hawks of the Daugava’) — which also functioned as political advocacy groups and heritage organisations for the Latvian diaspora. These post-war organisations and platforms then allowed former Latvian Legionnaires to shape public memory of the war. In writings after 1945, a cohort of veterans crafted a narrative of the war that (1) presents their military service as representing a righteous cause defeated either by forms of betrayal or by the overwhelming might of the Soviet Union, (2) develops a cult of the fallen soldier, and (3) mystifies German war aims and the relationship of Latvian Legionnaires to them. Through analysis of memoirs and periodical publications by veterans along with forms of public commemoration, I argue that these materials and practices collectively constitute a ‘Lost Cause’ narrative, which, similar to the Lost Cause of the Confederacy — developed in the U.S. South after the American Civil War — became predominant among the Latvian diaspora before spreading to Latvia itself. This framework allows for productive comparisons with other European countries that experienced traumatic military defeats, representing a new approach to this controversial subject with potential application to similar cases in Ukraine and Estonia.

How critical junctures shape secessionist movement cohesion: Strategies, framing processes, and interorganizational relations before and after the 2017 referendum in Catalonia

How critical junctures shape secessionist movement cohesion: Strategies, framing processes, and interorganizational relations before and after the 2017 referendum in Catalonia

Концепція прав національних меншин

At the very beginning it is important to define the main components that constitute the whole theory and idea as such of the minority rights. The concept of minority expresses how the legal regulation reflects the existence of minority, what is understood by the notion ‘minority’ and what criteria are used in order to identify certain social groups as minorities. Regarding the definition of the concept ‘minority’, until now there is no generally accepted definition, neither at the international level nor at the European one. It appears to be a certain agreement on some particular elements of the definition, though they are not fully accepted and interpreted in the same way. There are several important reasons concerning this phenomenon. The first one is that states are in fear of consequences after the recognition of minorities which may lead to secessionist movements. This can put at stake the territorial integrity of the State. Though, some rather successful efforts in this field were made by different representatives in order to make clarifications regarding the definition of ‘minorities. According to these facts the Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ), the UN Sub- Commission and some prominent authors attempted to define the concept ‘minority’. The Court stated that this concept has rather minoritarian character which makes it relevant in the meaning of ‘minority’. According to the court a ‘community’ is: a group of persons living in a given country or locality, having a race, religion, language and traditions of their own and united by this identity of race, religion, language and traditions in a sentiment of solidarity, with a view to preserving their traditions maintaining their form of worship, insuring the instruction and upbringing of their children in accordance with the spirit and traditions of their race and rendering mutual assistance to each other. Apart from the definition given by the Court, this guideline shows the requirement of numerical condition which means the group that is in minority in comparison with the prevailing part.

The Animal-Human Relationship in War

Issues germane to animal history and military history intersect in the study of cavalry horses and their riders during the American Civil War. Animal historians should understand that warfare created a very different experience for horses than was true of their peacetime experience. Military historians should understand that horses were not just tools of war but sentient creatures with needs and emotions of their own. Weaponized equines exercised a degree of agency by exerting some control over their situations. The military system and battle severely stressed horses and men. Repetitive riding affected cavalrymen and horses in ways that resulted in serious health problems. Nevertheless, the war experience fostered bonds of affection between animals and humans in many cases while leading to callous abuse in many others. It also led to an enhanced appreciation for animals among cavalrymen who had bonded with their mounts, possibly promoting awareness of animal rights after the conflict.

Of Age: Boy Soldiers and Military Power in the Civil War Era

Of Age: Boy Soldiers and Military Power in the Civil War Era

American Catholics and the Quest for Equality in the Civil War Era

American Catholics and the Quest for Equality in the Civil War Era

Lincecum’s law: white supremacy, castration, and Gideon Lincecum’s crusade in Texas during the long civil war era

ABSTRACT In 1854, prior to the American Civil War, Gideon Lincecum (1793–1874), an enslaver and physician from Texas, proposed a law advocating for the castration of criminals to prevent additional crimes committed by men, especially Black men, and to inhibit hereditary immorality. Shockingly, Lincecum also viewed his law as a “solution” to the “immorality” of abolitionists who supported freedom for enslaved African Americans. Lincecum inspired physicians and scientists promoting eugenics in the twentieth century who racially targeted Black men as candidates for castration. Lincecum’s castration law magnifies the ugliness of scientific racism and violent perceptions of justice as deriving from the same ideological white supremacy that persisted from before the Civil War into the twentieth century.

Justin S. Morrill and the meaning of protection

ABSTRACT Historians state that the protectionism that arose in the nineteenth century resulted from the new Republican party embracing its Whig roots while acquiescing to lobbyists and “greedy manufacturers.” Justin S. Morrill, Republican Congressman then Senator from Vermont, was the person most responsible for both the tariff and internal revenue measures enacted during the American Civil War. I argue that by studying Morrill, we find that there were many reasons for the extraordinary increase in tariff rates during the war. This is significant because the rise in tariff rates during the war has been associated with the pressure exerted by manufacturers through lobbying during the war to increase tariff rates, subsequently leading to the “new industrial order” of the late nineteenth century. Morrill’s attempt to balance internal revenue and tariff legislation played a significant role in this development. Morrill’s goal was to elevate farmers and “the interests of laborers” – he was never a shill for manufacturers. Protecting agricultural products and laborers remained at the heart of Morrill’s agenda. This can be seen in both the tariff and internal revenue legislation enacted during the Civil War.

Medicine, Science, and Making Race in Civil War America

Medicine, Science, and Making Race in Civil War America

New Perspectives on Civil War–Era Kentucky ed. by John David Smith (review)

New Perspectives on Civil War–Era Kentucky ed. by John David Smith (review)

Animal Histories of the Civil War Era

Animal Histories of the Civil War Era