This chapter introduces Complexity and Adaptive Peacebuilding and considers how it contributes to the contemporary hybridity debate. Following a brief introduction to Complexity theory, this chapter explores the utility of a complex systems perspective to expand our understanding of hybrid peacebuilding. Adaptive peacebuilding is then introduced as an approach that can help hybrid peacebuilding cope with the uncer- tainty dilemma that is a characteristic of complex social systems, as well as manage the relational dimension of hybrid peacebuilding through a collaborative approach. ; publishedVersion
Opportunity Costs and Conscription: An Unintended Progressive Tax? Throughout history to present days, policymakers, social commentators and others have oftentimes viewed conscription as a natural extension of secondary education, and an important institution for vocational training. This paper uses Swedish administrative data and exploits a reform in 2004, implying a sudden downsizing of the military, to identify the causal effects of peacetime conscription on later labour market outcomes and education. I find that unemployment increased in the short run, and lasted up to four years after service. There are no significant overall effects on income or educational attainment. However, these average effects hide a large heterogeneity. High ability conscripts fall behind their counterparts who did not start military service, both in terms of income and employment. Furthermore, the results suggest that the effect is attributed to high ability conscripts assigned as privates. In contrast, no such evidence is found for conscripts assigned to officer training, despite the fact that all of them have a high ability, and a longer time in service. Plausibly, high ability conscripts have high opportunity costs of doing military service, and the civilian benefits from training as privates are too small to counteract these costs. The results highlight the importance of precise matching of aptitude to type of training or education, an insight that might be generalized to other contexts beyond conscription. Citizenship, Social Capital and the Role of Conscription: Evidence from Sweden Many scholars have argued that conscription has played an important role as a nation-builder throughout history. Today, advocates of conscription often put forward its potential to induce citizenship and civic engagement. This paper addresses this claim by studying the causal effects of military service on civic engagement by using Swedish administrative data on election participation, blood donation, and the payment of a mandatory, but highly evaded, fee to the public broadcasting service. I study two qualitatively very different conscription systems from two different eras in Sweden, yielding a high external validity. To study the effects of universal conscription (almost all healthy and fit men serve) during the early 1990s, I use an empirical strategy similar in spirit to work using randomly assigned judges as an instrument. To identify the effects of selective conscription (a small fraction of motivated and positively selected men serve), I exploit a reform in 2004, implying a sudden downsizing of the military. In contrast to the previous correlational literature, the results show small and insignificant point estimates for all outcomes in both populations studied. Hence, I find no evidence of any causal effects of military service on civic engagement in either a selective-, or in a universal conscription system The Effect of Military Conscription on the Formation of Criminal Behaviour: Evidence from a Natural Experiment Conscription has been suggested to be a policy-tool to break young men's anti-social life-trajectories. This paper uses Swedish administrative data and exploits a reform in 2004, implying a sudden downsizing of the military, to identify the causal effects of peacetime conscription on contemporaneous, short- and medium-term crime. I find no evidence of any effects on criminal activity while in service. However, the post-service results show crime increasing effects of military service at the intensive margin (number of convictions), but not at the extensive margin (probability of conviction). The overall crime increasing effect seems to be primarily driven by thefts. This study finds no support for increased overall violent behaviour or that the military context per se induces anti-social behaviour. Rather, some suggestive evidence for worsened labour market opportunities for some groups is documented as a plausible mechanism behind the crime increasing results.
Structural Change and Intergenerational Mobility: Evidence from the Finnish War Reparations This paper presents evidence that government industrial policy can promote new industries, move labor out of agriculture into manufacturing, and have long-term effects via increased human capital accumulation and upward mobility. I use plausibly exogenous variation generated by the Finnish war reparations (1944-1952) that forced the largely agrarian Finland to give 5% of its yearly GDP to the Soviet Union in the form of industrial products. To meet these terms, the Finnish government provided short-term industrial support that persistently raised the employment and production of treated, skill-intensive industries. I trace the impact of the policy using individual-level registry data and show that the likelihood of leaving agriculture for manufacturing and services increased substantially in municipalities more strongly affected by the war reparations shock. These effects were persistent: 20 years after the intervention, the reallocated workers remained in their new sectors and had higher wages. Younger cohorts affected by the new skill-intensive opportunities obtained higher education and were more likely to work in white-collar occupations by 1970. This result is consistent with higher returns to education. Finally, I link parents to children to study how the policy affected upward mobility. I show that mobility in both income and education increased in the exposed locations, as people in lower socioeconomic groups benefited from the structural change. Tracing Out the Finnish Kuznets Curve: Famine, Threat of Revolution, and Democratization We study the long-run development of Finland with a particular focus on some causes and consequences of inequality broadly defined. We show that the Finnish famine of 1866-1868 led to increased inequality in the long-run and tighter coercion in the labor markets of the early 1900s. Economic inequality at the time meant political exclusion, as voting rights and vote counts in municipal elections were tied to taxable income. We provide evidence consistent with discontent theories of conflict that these factors contributed to the emergence of the Finnish Civil War in 1918. The threat of revolution became real with the civil war and further led to the successful extension of the franchise. Municipalities with higher levels of inequality and more insurgents experienced a more drastic shift towards equality and higher levels of redistribution after the conflict. Can You Make an American? Compulsory Patriotism and Assimilation of Immigrants This paper investigates the success of assimilation efforts in the U.S. during the Age of Mass Migration. I focus on a largely overlooked case of American nation-building, the introduction of compulsory patriotic acts, such as the Pledge of Allegiance, to American schools in the late 19th century. Using a legislative change in the State of New York as an experiment, I show that immigrant children exposed to compulsory patriotism in school were more assimilated as adults, measured by naturalization, the naming of children, military service, and intermarriage. These positive effects on assimilation hold for immigrants from all the large origin countries. Overall, this paper provides evidence that even softer, hearts and minds types of interventions that do not provide any new information can have long-lasting effects.
The challenges facing the nation-state in contemporary Africa are increasingly attracting the attention of scholars interested to understand how the decomposition and recomposition of popular political identities on the continent are affecting the post-colonial unitary project. The studies presented in this volume show that the challenges to the post-colonial nation-state project in Africa have mainly taken ethno-regionalist, religious and separatist forms. These challenges have been shaped by the long drawn-out economic crisis, zero-sum, market-led structural adjustment, and the legacy of decades of political authoritarianism and exclusion that dates from the colonial period. The contributors to this book present different suggestions to promote national unity and a supporting civic identity in Africa. ; CONTENTS: 1. The Crisis of the Post-Colonial Nation-State Project in Africa / Liisa Laakso and Adebayo O. Olukoshi -- 2. Changing Notions of the Nation-State and the African Experience: Montesquieu Revisited / Liisa Laakso -- 3. The Weakness of "Strong States". The Case of Niger Republic / Jibrin Ibrahim -- 4. The Deepening Crisis of Nigerian Federalism and the Future of the Nation-State / Adebayo O. Olukoshi and Osita Agbu -- 5. Ghana: Violent Ethno-Political Conflicts and the Democratic Challenge / E.O. Akwetey -- 6. The Nation-State Project and Conflict in Zimbabwe / Lloyd M. Sachikonye -- 7. The National Question in Zaire: Challenges to the Nation-State Project / Ernest Wamb-dia-Wamba -- 8. Christianity and Islam Contending for the Throne on the Tanzanian Mainland / Nestor N. Luanda -- 9. Resuscitating the Majimbo Project: The Politics of Deconstructing the Unitary State in Kenya / Mutahi Ngunyi
"This book provides cutting-edge insights on contemporary geopolitical toponymic policy and practice in post-Soviet countries. It examines the political features of place naming as a reflection of contemporary political discourse. With multidisciplinary insights from leading scholars, chapters explore a range of topics drawing on critical political toponymy and traditional methods. Contributions examine how the toponymic system can act as a symbol of national identity, the regional geopolitics of toponymy and geopolitical patterns in contemporary renaming. The historical roots of toponymic decolonization are analyzed, as well as indigenous toponymy and politics, and toponymic aspects of people's daily lives. The book explores a wide range of processes in the post-Soviet realm, including power, identity, economy, social order, and how political power is changing/transforming. It considers how these processes are distributed through various geopolitical and political-economic technologies. Offering empirically rich research from a variety of regions to give insights beyond 'Western' perspectives, this book is the first to provide an in-depth exploration of post-Soviet place naming. It will appeal to students and researchers in human geography, politics, sociology, Eastern European studies, onomastics and cultural studies"--
"When the Indonesian New Order regime fell in 1998, regional politics with strong ethnic content emerged across the country. In West Kalimantan the predominant feature was particularly that of the Dayaks. This surge, however, was not unprecedented. After centuries of occupying a subordinate place in the political and social hierarchy under the nominal rule of the Malay sultanates, Dayaks became involved in an enthusiastic political emancipation movement from 1945. The Dayaks secured the governorship as well as the majority of the regional executive head positions before they were shunned by the New Order regime. This book examines the development of Dayak politics in West Kalimantan from the colonial times until the first decade of the 21st century. It asks how and why Dayak politics has experienced drastic changes since 1945. It will look at the effect of regime change, the role of the individual leaders and organizations, the experience of marginalization, and conflicts on the course of Dayaks politics. It will also examine ethnic relations and recent political development up to 2010 in the province. Dr Taufiq Tanasaldy is a lecturer in Asian Studies and Indonesian language. He has a PhD in Southeast Asian Studies from the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies (RSPAS), the Australian National University. His main research interests are in ethnic politics, regionalism, conflict, regional history, and contemporary politics in Indonesia. He is currently completing a research grant on overseas Chinese politics in regional Indonesia"--Publisher's description
The project is centred on the idea that post-devolution Scotland is developing its own political and policy trajectory in the context of the nation-building project. Taking into consideration the multi-level system of governance created by the devolution process, the political discourse over immigration and integration has evolved and created an opportunity for the political elite in Scotland to shape their own integration model according to a civic form of Scottish identity. This consensus can also be related to the demographic specificity of Scotland making of immigrants an important asset to the country.Through a mixed-method approach relying mainly on the discourse analysis of political discourse this research project attempts to cater the multi-level dimension of party politics in Scotland, and in particular how the narrative advanced by the political elite on immigration and integration especially has resulted in diverging policy orientations that further reinforce the cleavage between Scottish and British parties. The multicultural orientation of Scotland's integration strategies is reinforced thanks to the promotion of civic form of national identity that is inclusive of minorities, as well as the celebration of Scotland's diverse heritage. ; Cette recherche est centrée sur l'Écosse qui après la dévolution développa sa propre trajectoire politique dans le cadre du projet de construction de la nation. Compte tenu du système de gouvernance créé par le processus de décentralisation, le discours politique sur l'immigration et l'intégration évolue et crée une opportunité pour l'élite politique écossaise de façonner leur propre modèle d'intégration d'après une forme civique de l'identité écossaise. Tenant compte de la spécificité démographique de l'Écosse, l'immigration devient un atout important pour le pays. Grace à une approche reposant principalement sur l'analyse du discours politique des manifestes, les élections parlementaires britanniques et écossaises ont permis de souligner les aspects de consensus entre les partis politiques en Ecosse. Ce projet de recherche vise à décrire et analyser le discours de l'élite politique sur l'immigration et l'intégration et la manière dont il a abouti à des orientations politiques divergentes qui renforcent d'avantage le clivage entre les partis écossais et britanniques. En tenant compte de la complexité de la politique partisane en Écosse, l'orientation multiculturelle des stratégies d'intégration est renforcée grâce à la célébration du patrimoine diversifié de l'Écosse et à la promotion d'une identité nationale civique qui englobe les minorités.
The project is centred on the idea that post-devolution Scotland is developing its own political and policy trajectory in the context of the nation-building project. Taking into consideration the multi-level system of governance created by the devolution process, the political discourse over immigration and integration has evolved and created an opportunity for the political elite in Scotland to shape their own integration model according to a civic form of Scottish identity. This consensus can also be related to the demographic specificity of Scotland making of immigrants an important asset to the country.Through a mixed-method approach relying mainly on the discourse analysis of political discourse this research project attempts to cater the multi-level dimension of party politics in Scotland, and in particular how the narrative advanced by the political elite on immigration and integration especially has resulted in diverging policy orientations that further reinforce the cleavage between Scottish and British parties. The multicultural orientation of Scotland's integration strategies is reinforced thanks to the promotion of civic form of national identity that is inclusive of minorities, as well as the celebration of Scotland's diverse heritage. ; Cette recherche est centrée sur l'Écosse qui après la dévolution développa sa propre trajectoire politique dans le cadre du projet de construction de la nation. Compte tenu du système de gouvernance créé par le processus de décentralisation, le discours politique sur l'immigration et l'intégration évolue et crée une opportunité pour l'élite politique écossaise de façonner leur propre modèle d'intégration d'après une forme civique de l'identité écossaise. Tenant compte de la spécificité démographique de l'Écosse, l'immigration devient un atout important pour le pays. Grace à une approche reposant principalement sur l'analyse du discours politique des manifestes, les élections parlementaires britanniques et écossaises ont permis de souligner les aspects de consensus ...
Almost all Western countries have recently implemented restrictive changes to their citizenship law and engaged in heated debates about what it takes to become "one of us". This article examines the naturalization process in Canada, a country that derives almost two thirds of its population growth from immigration, and where citizenship uptake is currently in decline. Drawing on interviews with recently naturalized Canadians, I argue that the current naturalization regime fails to deliver on the promise to put "Canadians by choice" at par with "Canadians by birth". Specifically, the naturalization process constructs social and cultural boundaries at two levels: the new citizens interviewed for this study felt that the naturalization process differentiated them along the lines of class and education more than it discriminated on ethnocultural or racial grounds. A first boundary is thus created between those who have the skills to easily "pass the test" and those who do not. This finding speaks to the strength and appeal of Canada's multicultural middle-class nation-building project. Nevertheless, the interviewees also highlighted that the naturalization process artificially constructed (some) immigrants as culturally different and inferior. A second boundary is thus constructed to differentiate between "real Canadians" and others. While not representative, the findings of this study suggest that the Canadian state produces differentiated citizenship at the very moment it aims to inculcate loyalty and belonging.
This book seeks to reassess and shed new light on pan-nationalisms in general and on Scandinavianism/Nordism in particular, by seeing them as possible futures and as interconnected ideas and practices across and beyond Europe. An actor- and practice-oriented approach is applied at the expense of more essentialist categorisations of what pan-nationalism is, or is not, to underline both the synchronic and diachronic diversity of various pan-national movements. A range of expert international scholars discuss encounters, transfers, similarities and differences among pan-movements in Norden and Europe based on a broad empirical material, focusing on Scandinavianism/Nordism, pan-Slavism, pan-Turanism, pan-Germanism and Greater Netherlandism, and the position of Britishness in Great Britain. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of nationalism, European history, European studies and Scandinavian studies, history, social science, political geography, civil society and literary studies.
The eastern edge of Europe has always been in flux. As a result, the nature of the Ukrainian-Russian relationship is both complex and ambiguous. Prompted by the countries' historical and geographical entanglement, Volodymyr V. Kravchenko asks what the words "Ukraine" and "Russia" really mean.
During the 19th century, up to the middle of the 20th century, the theme of national identity – and even more so of the absolute primacy of the nation – was firmly at the center of the educational projects of European states. Moreover, schools had and have been one of the fundamental instruments in the processes of nation building and, subsequently, in the establishment of nationalist perspectives, being used as a place of transmission of narratives aimed at legitimising the primacy of the nation, whether historically or ethnically based. A significant undermining of the absolute primacy of the nation emerged in the aftermath of the Second World War. A widespread desire to reduce the scope of national sovereignty, to fight against the drifts of nationalism, took on a new consistency. The ideological struggle centered on the two blocs, which characterized the age of the Cold War, contributed to strongly circumscribing the political space of nationalism, but the fall of the Wall has opened up new spaces both for the role of the nation and for the phenomena of micro-nationalism and neo-nationalism. Scholars of different European countries contributed to the reflection on the interrelation of nation(alism) and schooling with a special focus on educational media. This reflection is more urgent than ever and is central to our future and our social, civil, and cultural development.
The region of the Middle East has been called the cradle of mankind. This volume studies historical, cultural, religious, social and political legacies, which play a central role in obstructing intercultural dialogue in the Middle East. The region became home to numerous cultures, religions and ethnicities with long experience of living together in a multicultural environment and has an immense impact on the entire human civilization as first human civilizations were born there. Today, more than 50% of world population follow Abrahamic religions (e.g. Christianity, Islam, Judaism), which have their roots in the Middle East. This book focuses on multiple topics related to the Middle East, including ancient history, the religion and mythology of the Ancient Near Eastern regions, Arabic, Persian and Islamic studies, Persian, Turkish and Arab literature, as well as modern Middle Eastern issues related to politics, security, society and the economy. The volume includes papers by Amar Annus, Tanja Dibou, Peeter Espak, Yoel Guzansky, Ingrida Kleinhofa, Jaan Lahe, Lidia Leontjeva, Aynura Mahmudova, Yossi Mann, Kobi Michael, Holger Mölder, Limor Nobel-Konig, Sandra Peets, Üllar Peterson, Illimar Ploom. Yurii Punda, Itamar Rickover, Vladimir Sazonov, Vitalii Shevchuk, Krzysztof Ulanowski, and Viljar Veebel.