Media in conflict or conflict in media: examining media coverage of conflict in Northeast India

The paper looks at how media engages with the issue of framing movements in the northeastern state of Manipur. The focus of the paper is on the demand for Inner Line Permit in Manipur that landed the state into conflict between the communities of the state. The passing of the three bills, as discussed in the paper, by the state government has snowballed into ethnic tensions and re-opened the hill–valley divide in this northeastern state. By using frame analysis, the paper intends to explicate the issue of media framing within the socio-political context of the state. The paper then engages with the process in which local media frames movements that are diametrically opposed to one another. The study further reveals that the local media in Manipur are greatly influenced by the local politics and remain integral to it.     

The changing dynamics of land conflict in the Brazilian Amazon: The rural-urban complex and its environmental implications

The Brazilian Amazon is an area of both serious environmental degradation and social instability. Despite billions of dollars spent on economic development and the rapid pace of urbanization, deforestation is extreme and violent land conflict is intense. Although episodes of conflict over land are common in Brazilian history, this paper focuses on agrarian issues that arose with the opening of the Amazon frontier in the 1970s. The paper argues that the nature of land conflict in the eastern Brazilian Amazon is dynamic, and proposes a two-stage model to illustrate how the struggle has evolved from an agrarian phenomenon to an organized resistance that is urban-based. Recognizing the interaction between cities and rural areas in the frontier reaches of the Brazilian Amazon is key to understanding the land struggle in the face of urbanization. The analytical framework deployed considers the transformation of the region from an agrarian frontier to an urbanized frontier, assessing the dynamic nature of the land struggle and examining the implications for land cover change.     

Cooperation or conniving: How public sector rules shape the decision

To what extent will decision makers in the economy use their time, energy, and imagination to cooperate in production and productive exchange? To what extent will they instead devote their efforts toward simply redividing the economic pie to arrange bigger slices for themselves at the expense of others, and ultimately at the expense of the size of the pie? This paper explains the case to be made that added collectivization since 1960, embodied in the growth industries of regulation and tax collection, have significantly shifted entrepreneurial efforts nationally toward pie redividing and away from pie enlarging activities. Empirical evidence is provided to support this assertion.     

Words matter: The impact of workplace verbal aggressiveness on workgroup relationship conflict,work-life conflict,and employee-organization relationships

Workplace verbal aggressiveness is detrimental to employees and organizations and is perceived as unwanted and unproductive. This study examined whether and how verbal aggressiveness from supervisors and coworkers influences workgroup relationship conflict, employees’ work-life conflict, and employee-organization relationships. An online survey was conducted with 392 full-time employees in the United States. The key findings of this study showed that when verbal aggressiveness abounds in a workgroup, it creates workgroup relationship conflict, which triggers individual employees’ work-life conflict and tarnishes their trust, satisfaction, commitment, and sense of shared power with their organizations.     

Arenas of comfort and conflict: peer relationship events and young people's educational attainment

Previous research suggests that developments in young people's peer relationships may either compound or alleviate the adverse impacts of other major life changes during adolescence. We explored this proposition with respect to young people's educational attainment upon leaving high school, using longitudinal data from a large cohort of Australian secondary school students (n?=?1612) who have taken part in the Our Lives research study between the ages of 12/13 and 19/20 years. Our analysis focused on the role of peer relationship events such bullying, friendship problems, falling in love, and breaking up with someone. Bullying and romantic involvement were associated with lower odds of receiving a competitive tertiary entrance rank at the end of high school. However, close, resilient friendships – in which status and identity conflicts may be more easily tolerated and resolved – may help to offset the role of these other events. As well as reviewing the consequences of our findings for young people's educational and occupational trajectories in the longer-term, we highlight their implications for future research and policy in this area.     

The treatment relationship: Real or symbolic?

In response to an article by Gerald Schamess (1981) in which he examines reciprocal interaction between patient and therapist, behavioral responses evoked in the therapist by the client are further explored within a developmental conceptual framework. An attempt is made to assess their effects on the client's development.     

The changing relationship between university education and intergenerational social mobility

This paper examines the intergenerational occupational mobility patterns for five cohorts of male and female university graduates who received degrees between i960 and 1976. After 1964 there is a marked decline in the prospects of both males and females for upward intergenerational mobility. Males still experience more mobility than females in all time periods, although the sex difference appears to be diminishing over time. This pattern reflects worsened mobility prospects for males rather than any improvement for females. Regional comparisons in the 1976 national data identify differences in the distribution of father's occupational prestige across Canada and, therefore, different structural conditions by region for intergenerational occupational mobility.
This paper examines three issues in intergenerational social mobility as measured by occupational achievement. Using new and earlier published data on five cohorts of graduates, we examine the extent to which university education has declined over time as a route to upward intergenerational mobility. Changes in the labour market for graduates are identified as the major reasons for such declines. Second, we examine the extent to which sex differences in intergenerational mobility have diminished over time and the extent to which this is a consequence of worsening mobility prospects for males rather than improving prospects for females. Third, we examine some differences in intergenerational mobility patterns for the five economic regions of Canada.     

When publics collide: Developing the dual orientation conflict model in inter-public conflict

Inter-public conflict has largely been neglected in PR research. When left to fester, such conflict may perpetuate prejudice, injustice, inequality, and other societal ills. From a PR standpoint, organizations may find it increasingly difficult to operate in the resulting climate of hostility. This piece aims to shift focus from managing direct, organization-public conflict to navigating indirect, inter-public conflict, thus broadening conflict management perspectives. Based on contingency and social identity theories, we test the dual orientation conflict model (DOCM) in the field of government public relations. The model posits two dimensions (embracing/excluding and in-group/out-group) and categorizes four types of conflict orientation (adaptation, in-group adoption, out-group adoption, and avoidance). The proposed four-factor model, comprised of 16 items, was found to be reliable and valid in an online survey of 2498 South Korean citizens across different conflictual problems. Theoretical and strategic implications are discussed.     

Industrial conflict in post-war Ontario or one cheer for the Woods Report*

Le rapport Woods sur les Relations de Travail au Canada proposaient certaines conclusions quant aux changements qui marquerent les rapports patronat - travailleurs au cours des années soixante, Les auteurs du rapport soutiennent que les aspirations des travailleurs se sont modifiées, tant au niveau qualitatif que quantitatif, et ces changements expli-queraient, en partie du moins, L'agitation ouvrière et le militantisme accru de cette période. Cette position fut critiquée par Douglas Smith (1972,1976). Dans les pages qui suivent, les facteurs déterminants des conflits de travail en Ontario durant la période de L'apres guerre sont analysés. Jen' conclus que bien que certaines affirmations du rapport prê-tent le flanc á de sérieuses critiques, il nen' demeure pas moins que L'interprétation offerte par les auteurs du rapport repose sur une compréhension de facteurs bien réels. The Woods Report on Canadian Industrial Relations made a number of claims concerning significant changes in the character of the relations between employers and employees during the mid-1960s. The authors of the report claimed that workers' aspirations were changing both qualitatively and quantitatively in a way which created substantial industrial unrest. This position has been criticised by Douglas Smith (1972, 1976). Through a close examination of the pattern of determinants of industrial conflict in postwar Ontario, this paper shows that though some of the claims made in the Woods Report are indefensible, there was at least an important element of truth in the interpreta-tion of the authors of that Report.     

An exploration of gender differences in the relationship between work family conflict and gambling problems

The current study is an examination of gender differences in the experience of problems as a result of gambling. Using the framework of work–family conflict, this study compares men and women in terms of how their participation in work and family life relates to gambling problems as measured by the Problem Gambling Severity Index. Data from the 2008 Canadian Community Health Survey, a large representative sample of 28,687 participants in three Canadian provinces, is analysed with generalized linear modeling. The findings of this study show that simultaneously occupying the roles of married spouse and working spouse is associated with more gambling-related problems for women, but fewer for men. The study concludes with a discussion of how the intersection of problem gambling and important aspects of social life presents different problems for men and women due to gendered expectations surrounding work and family life. Implications for the findings in relation to trends of increased use of electronic gaming machines by gambling providers are also discussed.     

Capital,conflict and convergence: a political understanding of neoliberalism and its relationship to capitalist transformation

ABSTRACT

In this article we argue against influential analyses of neoliberalism that prioritize variegation and the role of ideas as key theoretical foci relevant to understanding neoliberalism’s diffusion into myriad national and political settings. Rather, we contend that crucial to understanding neoliberalism is the role of politically-produced convergence around market rationality that reflects two core processes: the reorganization of production and the ascendency of financialization. We present a theorization and analysis of neoliberalism’s political production and diffusion over time, explaining its contested evolution and impact across diverse settings (both ‘North’ and ‘South’) and emphasizing its ever-intensifying symbiotic relationship with the consolidating world market in which the former has increasingly come to serve as the latter’s operating system (OS). Further, we posit that neoliberalism’s form, function and impact demand analytically prioritizing the leverage of constellations of ideological and material interests within the contradictory context of consolidating relations of production and financialization. Our analysis thus challenges many previous expositions of neoliberalism for their failure to locate neoliberalism’s manifestation as arising out of social conflict within particular junctures that privilege certain social forces and ideas over others. We also distinguish our position by highlighting how manifestations of neoliberalism in various settings have combined to yield a greater world market in which variegation has gradually given way to ever-intensifying disciplinary pressures towards market-policy conformity (mono-policy). While current populist movements may well turn out to be important counter movements to neoliberal hegemony, especially if they can internationalize, the disciplining effect of the world market renders many nationally-oriented policy alternatives costly and politically fraught.     

The effect on inequality of changing one or two incomes

We examine the effect on inequality of increasing one income, and show that for two wide classes of indices a benchmark income level or position exists, dividing upper from lower incomes, such that if a lower income is raised, inequality falls, and if an upper income is raised, inequality rises. We provide a condition on the inequality orderings implicit in two inequality indices under which the one has a lower benchmark than the other for all unequal income distributions. We go on to examine the effect on the same indices of simultaneously increasing one income and decreasing another higher up the distribution, deriving results which quantify the extent of the ‘bucket leak’ which can be tolerated without negating the beneficial inequality effect of the transfer. Our results have implications for the inequality and poverty impacts of different income growth patterns, and of redistributive programmes, leaky or not, which are briefly discussed.     

Moral conflict and dynamic equilibrium: Public relations as strategic conflict management

In the literature review and proposed theoretical models, the author argues that we often engage in advocacy in public relations on behalf of causes we hold dear, much like a strong defender on a soccer field becomes physical in defending the goal without violating explicit rules or our sense of what is right and appropriate in a competitive world. The author presents this image of an athlete contending in fair competition as a metaphor for a rejection of canonized thinking about accommodation in public relations in favor of public relations as strategic conflict management. This research is offered to continue the discussion in the field of public relations from the contingency theory of strategic conflict management and consider the ethical challenges faced by public relations practitioners in an ongoing cycle of conflict. This article is included in the special issue on the contingency theory of strategic conflict management.     

Yellow or blue ribbons: analysing discourses in conflict in the televized government-student meeting during the Occupy Movement in Hong Kong

In this commentary, the legal discourses in conflict evolving around the 2014 Occupy Movement in Hong Kong are analysed with Lemke’s theorization of textual semantics and Goffman’s participation framework. Specifically, I analyse the thematic patterns of “democracy” and “rule of law” in the televized meeting between the HKSAR Government officials and the representatives of Hong Kong Federation of Students on constitutional reform on 21 October2014. It is revealed that both sides not only construct dramatically different representation of “democracy” and “rule of law” but also show different orientational stances towards Hong Kong and China. I then propose a more plural understanding of each other and exploration of the other’s discourse histories as one strategy and the first step to going beyond binarism on the road of constitutional development in Hong Kong.     

To serve and protect: Textualizing the Falklands conflict

ABSTRACT

This article examines the roles and functions of narratives in the conduct and prosecution of the Falklands War. It looks at how, and with what degree of success the Falklands conflict was emplotted into potent definitions of national identity; how it was constructed as the embodiment of certain cherished ideals of nationhood, and thus slotted into what Patrick Wright calls the ‘mythical Histories’ of Britain and Argentina. It considers how the languages of diplomacy and sport were articulated within a discourse of war. It examines how participants in the conflict, journalists and combatants, made use of narratives cognate with the tradition of the romance quest in an effort to make sense of the conflict, promote its aims and provide themselves with reassurance at times of uncertainty, if not naked terror. It also considers how opposition to the war, dissenting opinions about the legitimacy of its aims and prosecution, and a more critical view of its costs, was most often and most effectively articulated in narratives which contested and deconstructed the discursive norms of the romance quest, or which challenged the coherence of the narrative or the narrative subject itself.