Societal Cleavages Research Articles

Beyond Mannheim: Conceptualising how people ‘talk’ and ‘do’ generations in contemporary society

In the 1920s, Karl Mannheim developed the concept of generation in a treatise entitled 'The Problem of Generations' (1952/1928). His conceptualisation pertained to what Pilcher (1994) calls 'social generations', that is, cohort members who have similar attitudes, worldview and beliefs grounded in their shared context and experiences accumulated over time. It is often argued that social generation has been hollowed out as a sociological concept, yet it continues to feature prominently in policy debates, media, academic literature and everyday talk. This article develops a grounded conceptual framework of how the notion of 'generation' is employed by 'ordinary people'. We induct the meaning of 'generation' from how people use the term and the meaning they attribute to it. We contribute to the current scholarship engaging with Mannheim to explore how people's portrayals of their 'performance' of generation can help to develop further the concept of social generation. We draw on qualitative primary data collected in the Changing Generations project, a Grounded Theory study of intergenerational relations in Ireland. Far from outdated or redundant, generation emerges as a still-relevant concept that reflects perceptions of how material resources, period effects and the welfare state context shape lives in contemporary societies. Generation is a conceptual device used to 'perform' several tasks: to apportion blame, to express pity, concern and solidarity, to highlight unfairness and inequity, and to depict differential degrees of agency. Because the concept performs such a wide range of important communicative and symbolic functions, sociologists should approach generations (as discursive formations) as a concept and practice that calls for deeper understanding, not least because powerful political actors have been quicker than sociologists to recognise the potential of the concept to generate new societal cleavages.

The Dynamics of Liberal Indifference and Inclusion in a Global Era

Growing ethnic and economic diversity exacerbates a longstanding tendency for members of a modern, liberal democracy to disassociate from each other. On the other hand, a wide range of organizations and communities actively bring together members across societal cleavages. The dynamic of inclusion is exemplified among communities that expect a high degree of obedience to a set of beliefs and practices, but allow such authority to be limited and contested by different persons. Inclusion is also more likely among new or outsider organizations less associated with societal divides. To the extent that authoritative communities nurture diverse social networks, they contribute to bridging social capital and inclusive political attitudes. The essay draws on studies of various organizations and polities that articulate shared, moral goods (e.g., army, churches, martial arts schools, rural towns).

Unrest and State Response in Arab Monarchies

The turmoil associated with the Arab Spring in the region’s eight monarchies has received comparatively modest attention because, aside from Bahrain, the demonstrations were mostly small and nonconfrontational, there were few calls to overthrow the regimes, and states’ coercive powers were applied with relative moderation. Behind these generalizations, however, lies a more complex reality: the extent of the strife was quite different, as were state actions to counter them across the eight cases. What explains these disparities? This essay argues that the differences in the levels of unrest are largely illuminated by varying degrees of societal support for monarchical regimes, deep-seated societal cleavages, and the deficiencies of political mobilization. The variation in state responses, in turn, is mainly explained by divergent financial resources, the quality of political leadership, and external diplomatic, financial, and security assistance.

The Competition State, City-Regions, and the Territorial Politics of Growth Facilitation

As urban centres of agglomeration expand and compete for investment, new demands may arise for additional housing, infrastructure, and services. Failure to meet these demands imposes costs on firms and workers, stifles expansion, and potentially compromises the long-run economic competitiveness of the growth area. Drawing on evidence from Germany (Munich), Sweden (Stockholm), and the UK (Cambridge) this paper examines the organisational and political challenges of growth facilitation in the context of post-Keynesian political and economic restructuring. Particular emphasis is placed on tensions arising from changes in the form and function of European state social regulation. These tensions are not simply a matter of neoliberal regulatory deficit but reflect broader societal cleavages in relation to the uneven spatial impact of local economic growth. Deploying the concept of territorial structures of growth facilitation provides a conceptual framework for taking forward research on the relationship between state spatial regulation, state restructuring, and the competitiveness of city-regions.

Is the New Middle East Stuck in Its Sectarian Past? The Unspoken Dimension of the “Arab Spring”

This article focuses on the impact of the Arab Spring on pre-existing societal cleavages, specifically analyzing its impact on Sunni-Shiite relations. How have Sunni-Shiite relationships been reshaped by the ongoing social protests? Is there a rise in the inter-religious tensions among Sunni and Shiite communities across the region? And, if that is the case, what are the implications of this trend on both the region's potential for democratization, as well as on its overall stability and security?

Leisure corporations, beer brand culture, and the crisis of masculinity: the Speight’s ‘Southern Man’ advertising campaign

Leisure corporations and their brands are becoming increasingly signified to represent certain values and attitudes towards leisure and particular aspects of identity. One popular leisure product and practice is beer and its consumption, which also plays a role in constructing identity and, more specifically, masculinity. Within the context of contemporary promotional culture, beer advertising serves to reproduce the cultural links between masculinity, sport/leisure, and the consumption of beer, which form a theorised ‘holy trinity’. In this paper, we focus on Speight’s, one of New Zealand’s renowned breweries and beer brands, to explore the ways in which its promotional culture illuminates notions of a crisis of masculinity. Our multimethod, qualitative approach combines contextualisation with the critical textual analysis of two advertisements from the ‘Southern Man’ television campaign and interview data obtained from one key cultural intermediary, the campaign’s creator. From this, our analysis elucidates three key dimensions about the important role of the Speight’s ‘Southern Man’ advertising campaign as a site for understanding masculinities, in addition to how they are constructed and, ultimately, how they embody a crisis of masculinity. The first is the campaign’s exploitation of societal cleavages. The second is the campaign’s explicit use of nostalgia. And the third is the campaign’s omission of ‘other’ masculinities.

Christian Democratic Parties and the Domestic Parliamentary Response to European Integration

While numerous studies demonstrate the critical role Christian Democratic Parties (CDPs) played in the development of the European Union (EU), a less-studied factor is the influence of CDPs on the domestic legislative response to European integration.1 As more policy decisions take place at the European level rather than the national level, domestic legislatures have adjusted their oversight activities to encompass the European decision-making process. One of the ways domestic parliaments have responded to this challenge is by establishing new legislative committees that coordinate the oversight of European affairs (EACs).2 Research has revealed a strong negative correlation between the percentage of a country's population that belongs to the Catholic Church and the strength of that country's legislative oversight of European affairs.3 This correlation has been interpreted to represent general North-South cultural differences; however, the North-South cleavage includes several reinforcing cleavages, such as religious, social, cultural, and societal divisions. It is not immediately clear which of the overlapping cleavages are driving this correlation. In this essay, I argue that a driving force behind the strong correlation between culture and parliamentary oversight of European Affairs is the differing ways that Protestant and Catholic confessional parties interpret European integration. Protestant confessional parties tend to fall on the opposite side of the church-state societal cleavage from Catholic confessional parties.4

Party Systems in Post-Soviet States: The Shaping of Political Competition

Theories of democratic transition now seem to be outdated as most post-communist regimes have passed their points of bifurcation and can be considered either consolidated democracies or autocracies. However, some kind of transition is still going on in the ever-changing post-Soviet party systems. In most authoritarian states, ruling elites have created party systems with dominant parties, while in others authoritarian leaders formally control multi-party systems, or do without significant parties at all. The level of electoral competition in most post-Soviet states is falling. One way or another, parties as political institutions remain weak almost everywhere. Usually they are created by groups of ruling elites and/or business groups to serve as a tool of both electoral mobilization and elite structuring and consolidation. Dominant parties are dependent on state leaders and cannot be called truly ruling parties. It is high levels of elite competition that overshadows public participation and ideological or societal cleavages, but sometimes makes a political regime resemble a democracy. Post-Soviet party systems have not been fully formed yet; they have a long and winding road to go, led by factions struggling for resources.

The Politics of Constitutional Design in Divided Societies: The Case of Kosovo

This article discusses the politics of constitutional design in Kosovo as a means of softening societal cleavages. The article maps out the problem of societal cleavages in Kosovo, and explains their origins and implications for the state-building process. The article goes on to survey the constitutional law of Kosovo, and discusses its substance in light of the accommodationist-integrationist debate. While attempting to explain the choices that have been made in Kosovo’s constitutional law as regards the issue of ethnic cleavages, the article shows the international community’s crucial role in Kosovo’s state-building process. Having explained the main pillars of Kosovo’s constitutional law and its design, the article then argues that the international state-building process in Kosovo has been aimed at reaching harmony between the accommodationist and integrationist approaches to the politics of constitutional design. The article concludes that the international state-building process in Kosovo has been aimed at achieving a balance between the accommodation of ethnic minorities in the Kosovo polity and the efficacy and political stability of the newly formed polity/state.

Electoral Institutions and Ethnic Group Politics in Austria, 1867–1914

This article tests ethnic exceptionalist and non-exceptionalist theories of political behavior by analyzing parliamentary elections in the Western half of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Austria's gradual implementation of universal manhood suffrage before World War I provides an excellent opportunity to assess the effects of ethnic divisions in a democratizing country. Examining the interaction between political institutions and ethnic divisions affirms that voters’ choices and the resulting party system were no more likely to reflect ethnic than other societal cleavages.

From Data Problems to Data Points: Challenges and Opportunities of Research in Postgenocide Rwanda

Abstract:While interest in conducting fieldwork in conflict and postconflict societies continues to grow, literature addressing the specific challenges and dilemmas of this kind of research remains scarce. Based on four months of fieldwork and approximately seventy interviews, this article explores the complexities of conducting research in postgenocide Rwanda. I argue that what at first may appear to be data problems can also be important data points; problems such as historical memory, selective telling, and skewed participant demographics illuminate political structures, group relations, and societal cleavages. This article then illustrates this argument by examining how these challenges/opportunities help explain the difficulties involved in teaching history in postgenocide schools. These reflections on research in Rwanda suggest valuable lessons for fieldwork and data analysis in a number of settings by providing examples of pitfalls, dilemmas, and often unseen opportunities that are likely to present themselves in other divided societies.

The role of East Timor's security institutions in national integration – and disintegration

This article examines the interplay between security sector developments and national unity in East Timor since the Indonesian occupation ended in 1999. Particular attention is paid to the regional distinction between Loromonu and Lorosae – people from the west and east of East Timor, respectively. In 2006, East Timor experienced a crisis that saw the disintegration of the military and police forces, and widespread violence that led to massive internal displacement. It was during this crisis that the Loromonu–Lorosae distinction first emerged as a major societal cleavage. The article argues that the independence cause and the guerrilla force Falintil had been an important focus of East Timorese national unity in 1999. In the years that followed, however, the implementation of flawed security policies led to new military and police forces that were politicized, factionalized and lacking in cohesion. Prior to the 2006 crisis, the Loromonu–Lorosae distinction was primarily an issue within the army. As the crisis escalated, however, the violence was to a large extent framed by the east–west dimension, and popular perceptions of the military as ‘eastern’ and the police as ‘western’ hardened. A year after the crisis, little if any progress had been made towards reducing the increased salience of the Loromonu–Lorosae distinction in society. The main internal security challenges – gang activity, the unresolved issue of the so-called ‘petitioners’, and the destabilizing role played by fugitive former head of military police Alfredo Reinado – all had an east–west dimension. The article also finds that new initiatives aimed at reforming East Timor's military and police forces appeared to be lacking in both depth and relevance for addressing the country's new level of internal division, and its immediate, internal security challenges.

Ruptures, rights, and repair: The political economy of trauma in Haiti

This article analyzes the unintended consequences of humanitarian and development interventions in Haiti implemented to facilitate its postconflict transition following the period of military rule between 1991 and 1994. International and national governmental and nongovernmental initiatives to provide redress and healing to victims of human rights abuses from this period inadvertently contributed to the growth of a political economy of trauma. I argue that state-sponsored and non-state interventions aimed at truth seeking, acknowledging past ruptures, and reparations have intersected with the politics of local communities in ways that contribute to the commoditization of suffering in the political economy of trauma. The experience of a woman whose bodily integrity and personal sovereignty were violated by members of Haiti's terror apparatus demonstrates the presence of a terror economy. My witnessing of her interactions with the international and national humanitarian and development aid organizations that assisted her in the aftermath of violation revealed the contours of the compassion economy. It is the compassion economy that is the particular focus of this article. I evaluate whether rendering visible or audible the individual and collective suffering of the past truly aid processes of social reconstruction, democratization, and peace building, especially in states plagued with ongoing social, political, and economic insecurity. I argue that the forms of citizenship that these interventions engender are rarely permanent, especially in fragile or failed states, and may exacerbate the societal cleavages that gave rise to conflict.

Parties and Governance—Extending the Territory?

Multi-level governance has affected political parties as much as other institutions. Created within nation-states as the latter developed democratic structures, they sought to represent the interests of groups deriving from the societal cleavages found everywhere as modernization occurred across Europe. At the same time they developed material bases and interests of their own. To enhance these and to continue representing their core supporters, they have always been ready to move into new arenas, first the sub-national and latterly the EU level. The transnational parties (TNP) created by all political families at this level are vehicles for seeking new influence. But just as national governments have yielded sovereignty only with reluctance, so the national parties that run the TNP have kept for themselves most of the main facets of party activity. The main functions devolved to the TNP would seem to be elite networking, identity building and the socialization/induction of new members from enlargement states.

The Dilemma of Civil Society in Cameroon Since 1990: Which Way Forward?

The role of civil society in societal transformation and nation building in Cameroon has been compromised by political and social structures created during three decades of autocratic rule that still underline the practical and moral workings of the state today. Civil society remains mired in societal cleavages that find expression in parochial tendencies ranging from ethnicism to regionalism. As a result civil society’s ability to mobilise all and sundry towards a meaningful democratic culture is limited. In this context the quest for good governance has remained, for the vast majority of Cameroonians, a platitudinous utopia. This paper argues that only a civil society that transcends narrow social and political boundaries and identifies with the daily and legitimate struggles of ordinary citizens can serve as a signpost pointing towards meaningfulquantitative and qualitative development in Cameroon.

Variations on a Theme

Lipset and Rokkan argued that in the West the societal cleavages that developed out of the national revolution and the industrial revolution created tensions that shaped party systems. They also argued that the critical moment for the establishment of party systems came before mass mobilization; after that time, even changes to election laws had little effect. In applying these hypotheses to the multiple transitions to democracy in Thailand, I find that despite a lack of continuity of specific political parties there was remarkable continuity of the political tendencies created by social cleavages manifest in various short-lived parties. However, in the late 1970s, constitutional engineering and harsh suppression did shift the Thai party system out of the patterns that had survived multiple coups and transitions in the past. More recently there are signs of a return to the political tendencies created by the two revolutions.

Social Capital and Social Entrepreneurship in Asia: Analysing the Links

In recent years, the term “social capital” has received much currency and interest from researchers and public policy makers, and has been studied for its impact on development, resource management, and service delivery in different societies. Social capital does not exist independently in the realm of civil society. Rather, governments, public policies, societal cleavages, economic conditions, and political institutions channel and influence social capital. In many cases, social entrepreneurs, as public officials or actors beyond government, have been catalysts to social capital formation. This article analyses the links between social capital and social entrepreneurship with reference to Asian experience.

LABOR HISTORY SYMPOSIUM

LABOR HISTORY SYMPOSIUM

An internalist perspective on party consolidation and the Bulgarian Union of Democratic Forces

Abstract. Scholars have traditionally held political parties to be indispensable to democracy, and recent studies of democratic consolidation have reaffirmed their importance. Yet analysis of the development of political parties in Eastern Europe and elsewhere has tended to understate the role of internal, organizational factors at the expense of external factors, such as the selection effect of electoral markets and presence of societal cleavages. We argue that creating effective governance and bargaining mechanisms inside party organizations are more important for institutionalizing parties than external pressures. We draw support for this thesis from an analysis of the Bulgarian Union of Democratic Forces, which after a series of internal splits and subsequent rounds of restructuring, moved from a loose umbrella formation toward an institutionalized party.

Reconciliation in Post-Genocide Rwanda

AbstractNational reconciliation is a vague and 'messy' process. In post-genocide Rwanda, it presents special difficulties that stem from the particular nature of the Rwandan crisis and the popular participation that characterized the Rwandan atrocities. This article outlines the main approaches being used in Rwanda to achieve reconciliation, highlighting some of the major obstacles faced by these institutions. It then goes on to argue that certain 'Silences' are being imposed on the reconciliation process, including the failure to prosecute alleged RPA crimes, the lack of debate on, and the instrumentalization of, Rwanda's 'histories', the collective stigmatization of all Hutu as génocidaires, and the papering over of societal cleavages through the 'outlawing' of 'divisionism'. The role economic development can play in the reconciliation process is also discussed. Given the Government of Rwanda's central role in the reconciliation process and its progressive drift towards authoritarianism, the article ends with a reflection on the worrisome parallels between the pre and post-genocide socio-political contexts.