Minority Reconsidered: Towards a Typology of Latvia’s Russophone Identity

Abstract

Latvia’s Russophones are often seen as a consolidated ethno-linguistic unit. The goal of this essay is to test this assumption by exploring Russophones’ in-group differentiation over an extended period of time. Conceptually, the essay combines social representation theory with the quadratic nexus model. By analysing cross-sectional survey data it is argued that citizenship of Latvia and generational belonging are two major factors that explain the deviation from the standard model of identification that is primarily imposed by Russia as a symbolic homeland. The essay also suggests that the standard model has experienced inconsistent support over the years and this has opened up space for identification with a more emancipated in-group representation.     

Automatic Gait Recognition and its Potential Role in Counterterrorism

ABSTRACT

Closed-circuit television footage can be used to assemble an often-complex picture of an incident and aid in the identification of suspects after a crime or terrorist attack has occurred. For example, such footage allowed the police to not only identify the 7/7 London bombers but also to piece together the details of the bombers' movements prior to the attack. In the case of the London bombers little attempt was made to disguise their identities but where such identities are concealed it is possible to identify suspects based on other unique biometric characteristics such as the style of walk, referred to as gait. Gait feature–based individual identification has received increased attention from biometrics researchers. In this article, we propose a novel gait biometric methodology that could contribute to the counterterrorism effort and the identification of individuals involved in crime.     

L’érosion de l’autorité musulmane à Ouagadougou: le discours de militants de l’Association des Elèves et Etudiants Musulmans au Burkina

Abstract

Whilst religious radicalism is at the heart of media and scientific preoccupations, this study shows that, in Burkina Faso, Muslim authority has experienced a steady regression in the urban environment of Ouagadougou. On the basis of interviews conducted with young Muslims at the University of Ouagadougou, the article proposes a reflection on the factors that are causing such an erosion of authority. If the spiritual dimension of this authority is not being called into question, the temporal dimension is undergoing a process of de-legitimisation, which is increasing in line with the interpenetration of the religious and political spheres as well as the discrediting of the semi-authoritarian regime of Blaise Compaoré. In addition to highlighting the fragmentation of the sectors of authority, the study allows for better identification of the position of youths (“cadets sociaux”) in the religious field.     

Trafficking in pain: genealogies of witnessing slavery in Francesco Bartolozzi and concluding with Lalla Essaydi

Abstract

This paper examines the ways that slave bodies have been rendered visible in visual representation. I argue that African diasporic slave bodies are firmly located in a history of viewing imbued with a sentimental erotics of pain. Through a careful examination of the engravings by Francesco Bartolozi that accompany John Stedman's Narrative of a Five Years Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam, I argue that even abolitionist images of slaves traffic in pain, exploiting the wounded captive body through a sexualized identification that reinscribes black subjugation. I suggest that contemporary African diasporic artists such as Lalla Essaydi can navigate this genealogy of viewing by strategically moving through hurtful images in order to resituate and recite them. Such a re-citation as Essaydi accomplishes in her painting Duty Free allows for an ethical viewership that does not simply ignore or repress a painful legacy of visual representation but that rethinks it in the name of redress.     

Another final battle on the stage of history

Abstract

Taking its point of departure in remarks made by Ulrike Meinhof during the 1972 trial in West Germany of Horst Mahler, this paper goes on to examine some of the ideas and assumptions of the members of the terrorist group to which he belonged. Meinhof's as well as Mahler's views of the Jews in Germany and their fate, including their charge of a conspiracy on the part of the malevolent powers, are quoted and make it clear that as terrorists they conformed to a grandiose millenarian tradition. This millenarian tradition has had a long history in Germany, comprising anarchic, egalitarian, and communistic elements. Examples are the followers of John Hus and Thomas Müntzer. The need for group identification is also strong in the millenarians of the present day who believe in and act unquestioningly upon tenets such as those of terrorist groups like the Red Army Faction which, fortunately, has not gained the following of such predecessors as Hitler's Third Reich.     

The terrorists' dilemmas: Some implicit rules of the game 1

Abstract

Knowledge of certain dilemmas faced by terrorists may serve to narrow the options available to the opposing parties and aid in varying government response to terrorist acts. Such dilemmas are the identification with violence, the problem of attacking or seeking a negotiated incident, choice of level of terror, maintenance of one's objectivity within a group characterized by conformity, and retaining one's identity as a historic victim.     

Privatisation,contracting-out and inter-municipal cooperation: new developments in local public service delivery

ABSTRACT

We briefly review recent advances in the empirical analysis of the privatisation and inter-municipal cooperation of local public services and discuss the potential of these studies. The core issues examined include the identification of factors driving delivery choices and the effects of privatisation and cooperation on service provisions. In addition to reporting the specific empirical findings of each study, we highlight the innovative methodologies that they each adopt. Finally, we outline a number of potential avenues for further research.     

APPLICATIONS OF PRINCIPAL-AGENT MODELS TO GOVERNMENT CONTRACTING AND ACCOUNTABILITY DECISION MAKING

ABSTRACT

This paper surveys literature from Economics, Accounting, and Management to address theoretical issues in Public Administration regarding government provided services in order to contribute to a formal connection between principal-agent models in these disciplines and public policy administration decision-making. In particular, it addresses the question: What theoretical properties of the services themselves might guide (a) the choice of producer of the services (government or outsourcing firm/contractor), and (b) the accountability imposed for the work produced. It is found that a theoretical framework of principal-agent models that includes the decision of whether to contract out can be useful as a first step in systematically formulating the government's decision for a variety of goods/services. This provides an alterative to the identification of key decision properties “from the ground up” for each good or service the government provides.     

Ethno‐political activity and the psychology of terrorism

Abstract

Studies of terrorist psychology have typically focused either on single individuals or group dynamics within the organizations that these individuals have joined. Less attention has been paid to the background conditions which give rise to these individuals and organizations, even for environments in which generalization appears to be feasible. This paper focuses on one such environment. Its principal goal is to highlight the theoretical connections between a society's ethnic cleavages; the development of ethno‐political activity, especially organized violence and terrorism; and the implications of this activity for the functioning of institutions in “democratic” and “non‐democratic” societies. A related objective is the identification of policy responses to latent or manifest ethno‐political activity and an assessment of their potential efficacy. These points are illustrated by examining a small ethnic group, the South Moluccans in Holland, which would appear to have had little motivation to engage in violence or terrorism, but some of whose members nevertheless did.     

Use of Accounting Information by Mayors in Local Governments

ABSTRACT

The use of accounting information in the public sector is gaining more attention in recent years, both in literature and among politicians. In particular, it is still necessary to shed light looking at those that have responsibility to make the final decision: politicians. This article attempts to help understand the role of accounting information in decisions made by mayors by analyzing the results of a national survey to which Italian mayors responded. The survey questioned mayors about their use of accounting information during the policy cycle. The use of accounting information by mayors is quite varied, especially if we consider the different phases of the political cycle. The clustering of the results led to the identification of three different groups of mayors with respect to different ways of using accounting information.     

PUBLIC GOVERNANCE IN SMALL CONTINENTAL EUROPEAN STATES*

INTRODUCTION

In this article a historical overview will be presented of public governance in some small continental European countries. The aim is to broaden up the present debate about public management developments in Western administrations, by placing it in an international comparative perspective, as well as a historical institutional one.

     

The dancing body in peace education

ABSTRACT

This article discusses the potentials of the dancing body in peace education seen from a transrational perspective. The author explores how the multifaceted and creative body as worked with in the conscious dance and movement practice Open Floor can be tapped into and drawn upon to engage the multiple potentials of humans as contact boundaries at work. She reflects in this regard upon her own experiences as an Open Floor teacher. The article first discusses how the experience of dancing in Open Floor unfolds a creative process that is 1) both intrarelational and interrelational, and 2) always in transformation. Further, the article discusses how the dancing body is engaged as holistic, relational and dynamic through the Open Floor teaching tool 4 × 4, and how this dancing body supports a creative engagement with intra-inter dynamics in peace education.     

Chapter 3. Mental Health Care of Hispanic Immigrant Children

Abstract

This chapter addresses the mental health care of Hispanic immigrant children within a school-based context. The school system is presented as a natural support agent that is psychologically, culturally and geographically accessible for the delivery of culturally competent mental health services. The development of a multifaceted New York City public school-based program created, by the first author of this chapter, in response to the psychosocial needs of Hispanic immigrant children is discussed as a viable approach that may be used in the provision of ethnic-sensitive mental health care.     

Assassination and the law: A policy memorandum

Normally, assassination is a crime under international law. Yet there are rare, residual circumstances where it may be not only permissible but law enforcing. Insofar as international law is part of United States law, assassination might—in these very extraordinary circumstances—not be unlawful. Drawing on the explicit expectations of international law and the natural law foundations of U.S. municipal law, this article acknowledges that assassination must always be impermissible as an instrument of Realpolitik, but that in a world that continues to confront innocent populations with terrible harms (terrorism, war, genocide) assassination does have a proper place. Throughout this examination, philosophical and jurisprudential perspectives are fused with both pertinent tactical considerations and utilitarian calculations.     

Russian Views of Stalinism as a Negative Satellite of Capitalism

Abstract

The conflation of Stalinism with socialism was a key aspect of the relationship between Stalinism and capitalism. The Russian Marxist Nodari Simoniya exposed that conflation in his book What We Have Built, which is discussed in this essay in the context of Russian historiography about Stalinism. The main themes of Simoniya’s critique of Stalinism as a historical reversal are elaborated and linked to political images during the Cold War that distorted the meaning of socialism. Stalinism is revealed as a negative satellite of capitalism, constituting an external economic zone, not an alternative form of world order.     

Gendering the border effect: the double impact of Colombian insecurity and the Venezuelan refugee crisis

Abstract

In the Colombian–Venezuelan borderlands, the reconfiguration of armed group presence and mass migration create and reinforce conditions of high violence and risk. Against this backdrop, we ask: What are the gendered security implications of the double crisis in the borderlands? Based on fieldwork in four regions along the border, this article argues that the border effect is gendered; the very factors that coalesce to produce this effect exacerbate existing gendered power dynamics, particularly as these relate to gender-based violence. Accordingly, this article demonstrates the specific ways in which the border – as a facilitator, deterrent, magnet and/or disguise – reinforces experiences of gendered insecurity in this region. The article finishes by outlining the implications for other international borderland settings.     

Retaking the Middle Passage: glimpses of a modern African diaspora in Brazil

Abstract

Enticed by the various economic, academic and social promises offered by this new ‘metropole’, Africans have begun to form a new diaspora in Brazil, the country with the largest concentration of Afro descendentes outside of Africa. This paper aims to explore, through interviews, the various motivations and experiences of these Africans, as well as to examine the official attitude of the Brazilian authorities and that of the society at large to the new residents of this modern African diaspora.     

Patterns of Ethnic Homogenisation,Fragmentation and Polarisation and the Vote Shares for Nationalist Parties in Latvia

Abstract

The focus of this article is on ethnic diversity and polarisation in Latvia after 1989. Our fundamental question is that if we interpret diversification as a dynamic process, and include polarisation as a potential direction of diversification, how much will the results differ, compared to the explanations usually proposed in the literature? The recognition that apparent homogenisation results, in particular cases, in polarisation (in this case in 35% of Latvia’s entire population) is the major contribution of our empirical analysis. Taking into account the broad scale of the potential impact of polarisation, our findings raise significant questions for the classification mechanisms that may be employed in further investigations.     

Regime resilience and presidential politics in Indonesia

ABSTRACT

This article builds on insights from the coalitional presidentialism literature and a more ideational regime-based approach to examine the reasons behind Indonesia's ongoing democratic stagnation. It argues that this stagnation is not, as institutionalists might posit, an ultimately inevitable result of the institutional setup of multiparty presidentialism. Nor is it merely a manifestation of unchallenged oligarchic domination or the cartelization of party politics as other influential approaches to Indonesian politics have argued. Instead, this article argues that presidential politics in Indonesia is above all a reflection of a complex regime configuration in which presidents need to navigate between popular demands from the electorate, the interests of powerful veto actors who use democratic procedures only as an instrument to defend their predominantly material interests, and a constantly evolving but still inefficient set of political institutions that has largely failed to ensure accountability and transparency.