Democratization and Violence: European and International Perspectives

It is a startling fact that when in the mid-80s a ‘third wave’ of democracy took hold in Latin America and Eastern Europe, both democracy and violence were simultaneously on the rise worldwide. Almost by definition democracies represent an institutionalized framework and a way of life that ensures non-violent means to share power between communities of people with widely differing values and beliefs. As Keane (2004) points out, ‘violence is anathema to [democracy’s] spirit and substance’ (p. 1). Accordingly, the process of democratization was accompanied by expectations that violence would generally decrease, and that these countries would embark on a process of reducing levels of violence as Western European countries had done earlier in the 19th and 20th century.

Introduction: Is a General Theory of Violence Possible?

"There once was a man who aspired to be the author of the general theory of holes. When asked ‘What kind of hole—holes dug by children in the sand for amusement, holes dug by gardeners to plant lettuce seedlings, tank traps, holes made by road makers?’ he would reply indignantly that he wished for a general theory that would explain all of these. He rejected ab initio the—as he saw it—pathetically common-sense view that of the digging of different kinds of holes there are quite different kinds of explanations to be given; why then he would ask do we have the concept of a hole? Lacking the explanations to which he originally aspired, he then fell to discovering statistically significant correlations; he found for example that there is a correlation between the aggregate hole-digging achievement of a society as measured, or at least one day to be measured, by econometric techniques, and its degree of techno- logical development. The United States surpasses both Paraguay and Upper Volta in hole-digging; there are more holes in Vietnam than there were. These observations, he would always insist, were neutral and value-free. This man’s achievement has passed totally unnoticed except by me. Had he however turned his talents to political science, had he concerned himself not with holes, but with modernization, urbanization or violence, I find it difficult to believe that he might not have achieved high office in the APSA." (MacIntyre 1971, 260)

Reinvigorating the domestic violence sector : systemically addressing conflict, power and practitioner turnover

The purpose of this exploratory Australian study was to consider methods of retaining skilled and experienced staff within the domestic violence sector. The antecedents that might influence turnover of practitioners were investigated and analysed. Antecedents broadly included the work-related factors, organisational factors and professional factors. The changing nature of the domestic violence sector was also examined, in particular, feminist identity and feminist practice frameworks. It became evident, however, that the primary reasons for the turnover of study participants can be described as parallel power processes. The concept of parallel power processes as developed through this research aims to capture how workplace behaviours can strongly mirror, or parallel, behaviours used by domestic violence perpetrators. As such, it appears that some domestic violence practitioners are experiencing their own abusive relationship, not within the confines of their home, but within their workplace. Additionally, parallel power processes are compounded by ineffective conflict management processes within the workplace. These concepts directly contribute to practitioners leaving their workplace and, sometimes, the sector. This qualitative study utilised a feminist research epistemology and focused strongly on practitioners' stories. Interviews were undertaken with fifteen domestic violence practitioners from three services within South-East Queensland, Australia. Two sets of semi-structured interviews provided in-depth information based on practitioners‘ experiences of working within this specialised sector. Analysis was conducted using a thematic analytical frame, drawing attention to the key themes as mentioned above. From these findings, it is suggested that in order to retain practitioners, domestic violence services must identify and address parallel power processes through effective conflict management processes. In an operational sense, it is recommended that education and training be undertaken within all staffing levels, in particular management committees. Lastly, it is recommended that the sector itself places greater attention on the re-invigoration of the feminist principles and philosophy that has traditionally guided the sector.

The iatrogenic reflex and belief that repression can coercively suppress asymmetric coercive violence : does very robust action by the government decrease functional support for insurgents?

Non-state insurgent actors are too weak to compel powerful adversaries to their will, so they use violence to coerce. A principal objective is to grow and sustain violent resistance to the point that it either militarily challenges the state, or more commonly, generates unacceptable political costs. To survive, insurgents must shift popular support away from the state and to grow they must secure it. State actor policies and actions perceived as illegitimate and oppressive by the insurgent constituency can generate these shifts. A promising insurgent strategy is to attack states in ways that lead angry publics and leaders to discount the historically established risks and take flawed but popular decisions to use repressive measures. Such decisions may be enabled by a visceral belief in the power of coercion and selective use of examples of where robust measures have indeed suppressed resistance. To avoid such counterproductive behaviours the cases of apparent 'successful repression' must be understood. This thesis tests whether robust state action is correlated with reduced support for insurgents, analyses the causal mechanisms of such shifts and examines whether such reduction is because of compulsion or coercion? The approach is founded on prior research by the RAND Corporation which analysed the 30 insurgencies most recently resolved worldwide to determine factors of counterinsurgent success. This new study first re-analyses their data at a finer resolution with new queries that investigate the relationship between repression and insurgent active support. Having determined that, in general, repression does not correlate with decreased insurgent support, this study then analyses two cases in which the data suggests repression seems likely to be reducing insurgent support: the PKK in Turkey and the insurgency against the Vietnamese-sponsored regime after their ousting of the Khmer Rouge. It applies 'structured-focused' case analysis with questions partly built from the insurgency model of Leites and Wolf, who are associated with the advocacy of US robust means in Vietnam. This is thus a test of 'most difficult' cases using a 'least likely' test model. Nevertheless, the findings refute the deterrence argument of 'iron fist' advocates. Robust approaches may physically prevent effective support of insurgents but they do not coercively deter people from being willing to actively support the insurgency.

Heterosexual and nonheterosexual young university students’ involvement in traditional and cyber forms of bullying

Research has consistently found that school students who do not identify as self-declared completely heterosexual are at increased risk of victimization by bullying from peers. This study examined heterosexual and nonheterosexual university students’ involvement in both traditional and cyber forms of bullying, as either bullies or victims. Five hundred twenty-eight first-year university students (M= 19.52 years old) were surveyed about their sexual orientation and their bullying experiences over the previous 12 months. The results showed that nonheterosexual young people reported higher levels of involvement in traditional bullying, both as victims and perpetrators, in comparison to heterosexual students. In contrast, cyberbullying trends were generally found to be similar for heterosexual and nonheterosexual young people. Gender differences were also found. The implications of these results are discussed in terms of intervention and prevention of the victimization of nonheterosexual university students.

Impact of physical, psychological, and sexual violence on social adjustment of school children in India

and sexual violence on the social adjustment of Grade 8 and 9 school children in the state of Tripura, India. The study participants, 160 boys and 160 girls, were randomly selected from classes in eight English and Bengali medium schools in Agartala city, Tripura. Data were collected using a self-administered Semi-structured Questionnaire for Children/Students and a Social Adjustment Inventory which were custom-made for the study based on measures in the extant research adapted for the Indian context. Findings revealed that students experienced physical (21.9%), psychological (20.9%), and sexual (18.1%) violence at home, and 29.7% of the children had witnessed family violence. Boys were more often victims of physical and psychological violence while girls were more often victims of sexual violence. The social adjustment scores of school children who experienced violence, regardless of the nature of the violence, was significantly lower when compared with scores of those who had not experienced violence (p<0.001). Social adjustment was poorer for girls than boys (p<0.001). The study speaks in favour of early detection and intervention for all child maltreatment subtypes and for children exposed to interparental violence, and highlights the crucial role of schools and school psychology in addressing the problem.

Family violence or woman abuse? Putting gender back into the Canadian research equation

Research on violence against women has been among the most scrutinized areas in social science. From the beginning, efforts to empirically document the prevalence, incidence, and characteristics of violence against women have been hotly debated (DeKeseredy, 2011; Dragiewicz & DeKeseredy, forthcoming; Minaker & Snider, 2006). Objections that violence against women was rare have given way to acknowledgement that it is more common than once thought. Research on the outcomes of woman abuse has documented the serious ramifications of this type of violence for individual victims and the broader community. However, violence against women was not simply “discovered” by scholars in the 1960s, leading to a progressive growth of the literature. Knowledge production around violence against women has been fiercely contested, and feminist insights in particular have always been met with backlash(Gotell, 2007; Minkaer & Snider, 2006; Randall, 1989; Sinclair, 2003)...

Submission to the Joint Select Committee on Cyber Safety. Inquiry into the Cybersafety of Seniors.

This submission addresses the following terms of reference: 1) the nature, prevalence and level of cybersafety risks and threats experienced by senior Australians; 2) the impact and implications of those risks and threats on access and use of information and communication technologies by senior Australians; 3) the adequacy and effectiveness of current government and industry initiatives to respond to those threats, including education initiatives aimed at senior Australians; 4) best practice safeguards, and any possible changes to Australian law, policy or practice that will strengthen the cybersafety of senior Australians.

Programming with time : cyber-physical programming with Impromptu

The act of computer programming is generally considered to be temporally removed from a computer program's execution. In this paper we discuss the idea of programming as an activity that takes place within the temporal bounds of a real-time computational process and its interactions with the physical world. We ground these ideas within the con- text of livecoding -- a live audiovisual performance practice. We then describe how the development of the programming environment "Impromptu" has addressed our ideas of programming with time and the notion of the programmer as an agent in a cyber-physical system.