Technology appropriation and Mapuche self-communication: An interpretation of indigenous e-communication in Chile

The use and appropriation of digital information and communication technologies by Mapuche communicators and activists has turned into a new process of political and identity innovation in the context of the Chilean–Mapuche intercultural and interethnic conflict. This study aims to understand the Mapuche intercultural dialogue. Based on a corpus of semi-structured interviews with Mapuche communicators, we interpret and analyze their discourses in relation to the dissemination and/or analysis of the indigenous digital informative media. The results are built upon the valorization and recognition of the mediations that the Mapuche agents develop around their own e-communication praxis. This interpretation derives from applying theoretical–conceptual categories which have enabled us to address technological, technopolitical, (inter)cultural, and communicative dimensions regarding the Mapuche e-communication work.

The Ethos of Intractable Interethnic Conflict: Research Approaches and Prospects

The present article deals with the concept of ‘ethos’ as applied to intractable interethnic conflicts - this topic has hardly ever been addressed in Russian scientific literature. The ethos of conflict is defined as a system of social beliefs and myths shared by a large group of people involved in a long-term intractable conflict and closely connected with the history of the conflict that dominates in this society, i.e. the collective memory of it. The concept of ‘intractable interethnic conflict’ was introduced into Russian psychology by T.G. Stefanenko, who began to study the phenomenology of such conflicts at the Department of Social Psychology of Lomonosov Moscow State University. Following the line, the article introduces the reader to modern research in this area. In the first part of the work, the author gives a definition of an intractable conflict, analyzes D. Bar-Tal’s theory of the ethos of conflict and describes methods for studying it applied in foreign social psychology. The author also describes the content of eight topics, around which the beliefs that make up the ethos of conflict are grouped. The second part of the article deals with the critics of contemporary ethos of conflict researches and new approaches to this phenomenon. The following three current trends in studying the ethos of conflict are highlighted: the first one is associated with an attempt to explain the ethos of conflict stability within the categories of J. Jost’s system justification theory (SJT); the second one is based on the assumption that the beliefs of members of a conflicting group are not uniform; therefore, it is important to study not only the prevailing social point of view on the conflict but also alternative views of minor or even outsider groups (rather opposing the ethos), because it is often an alternative view that can help out of a seemingly insoluble situation; and the last one is connected with research at the intersection of the phenomenology of the ethos of conflict and collective memory.

“The World is Made for Men”

Canvassing the criminal and civil courts of Quebec, this chapter uncovers the patterns of male assault, both against other men and against women, with a focus upon the ways in which quotidian social practices defined a variety of modes of masculine behavior, which reinforced and subverted cultural codes of normative manhood built around patriarchal authority. This chapter argues that there was considerable state and non-state violence within the colony, which was used as a primary instrument by which to demarcate small differences of rank, and that while insults and assaults largely occurred within ethnic enclaves, over time these became increasingly characterized by interethnic conflict.

Islamaphobic Discourse and Interethnic Conflict

This chapter examines the Islamaphobic discourse that is perpetuated by the news media coverage of the ISIS beheadings to explain the potential influence of news media on viewers' dissociative behaviors, and the justifications made by social actors for such behaviors. Specifically, this chapter seeks to explore the ways in which intragroup identities are strengthened (ingroup bias) through outgroup derogation. The authors conducted a thematic analysis of news coverage from five major news sources. Findings revealed four themes of problematic discourse: (1) naming the enemy, (2) establishing intergroup threat, (3) homogenizing Islamic peoples, and (4) accentuating the negative. The authors then describe several ways in which media can function as a buffer to alleviate intergroup hostilities through the creation of positive contact situations.

Language in Bulgarian Legislation

The article aims to analyse Bulgaria’s provisions of the laws and international treaties that regulate the use and functioning of languages in the country since the restoration of the Bulgarian statehood at the end of the 19th century to the present day (that is, monarchical, socialist and modern periods). The evolution of this aspect of the Bulgarian national law is analysed depending on the form of government in the particular era of the state’s existence. The article examines Bulgaria’s relations with neighboring Balkan countries throughout their development, including numerous wars, which were primarily based on attempts to solve ethnic problems. Based on the results of the censuses of the population of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia, data are provided on the dynamics of the absolute and relative number of Bulgarians and major national minorities and on the number of those who indicated their native languages. The significance of the study is due to the fact that the Balkan Peninsula, although being on the periphery of current processes in the modern geopolitical paradigm, not being their actor and being divided into a dozen states, still played and is playing one of the leading roles in the European and world histories. The study of language legislation, as one of the key elements of language policy, makes it possible to identify a variety of aspects of interethnic relations both in the historical, retrospective and long-term perspective. In addition, the study of this issue may be in demand when considering interethnic conflict situations in other problem areas. The article concludes that the language legislation of Bulgaria is characterized by significant minimalism in comparison with similar aspects of law in many European countries, and the linguistic rights of national minorities in Bulgaria are minimally reflected in the considered laws of the state.

PROBLEMS OF SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH: INTER-ETHNIC AND INTER-CONFESSIONAL CONFLICT IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

The specific character of interethnic and inter-confessional conflicts in the university environment is studied. The key tasks that arise before those who by virtue of their duties or for other reasons try to settle the arising conflicts are defined. It is considered that interethnic conflict is often actually understood as a conflict of quite a different nature. Selected elements of a mechanism for ‘redressing’ such conflicts or moving them from a situation of confrontation to one of dialogue or even constructive cooperation, which is much more difficult but more effective in the long term, have been proposed.

Introduction

The Introduction discusses the aims of and inspiration for the book, and outlines its methodological approach. It situates the book’s focus on conflict between African Americans and Cubans, generations of Cuban immigrants, and black and white Cubans in Miami within broader scholarly concerns related to the investigation of how race operates in multicultural America. Introducing the theoretical concept of “worthy citizenship” and its application to interethnic conflict, the chapter contextualizes the issue of conflict between groups of color as rooted in a larger foundational framework of an elite-white-male-dominance system. The chapter further contends that the day-to-day lived experiences of marginalized or racialized groups reveal possibilities for challenging the logic of worthy citizenship, offering alternative forms of identification and interethnic cooperation.