Colonial Legacies and Repertoires of "Ethnic" Violence: The Case of Western India, 1941–2002

The post-colonial state is held to be a weak state whose ease of capture reduces its capacity to suppress violence. The focus on the state, however, risks neglecting the ways in which violence is deployed to render the state weak in popular perception. This perception in turn legitimates claims for a foundational shift in the basis of power. In this paper, the concept of "repertoire" as first used by Charles Tilly, is used to analyze continuities and discontinuities in the development of the "ethnic riot" in urban, western India. As an "extreme" case in which riots have shown considerable durability over time, it highlights a key point, namely, that riots can form part of a strategy of power by simultaneously projecting themselves as popular insurrection and constructing a perception of the state as weak. The persistence of this repertoire, it is further argued, derives from the historical specificities of colonial state formation which promoted an ethnically imagined and hierarchized polity, as well as political struggles which weakened alternative forms of community.     

Ethnic Violence,Local Security and Return Migration: Enclave communities in Kosovo

Forced migration has become commonplace in the international political landscape. In 2015, 60 million people were displaced by violence, more than ever before recorded (UNHCR, 2015). While we know that violence leads to displacement, we know little about return migration after conflict – who comes back and where they settle. This article seeks to engage and supplement the literature on return migration after conflict, advocating for a broader understanding of the security choices made by displaced people. Emphasized here is the importance of a local understanding of safety and the role played by enclave communities in providing a secure context in which people can enjoy the society of their co‐ethnics.     

Racial/Ethnic Composition and Violence: Size‐of‐Place Variations in Percent Black and Percent Latino Effects on Violence Rates

According to racial invariance positions and mainstream sociological perspectives on race and crime, race differences in structural conditions should account for most if not all of the racial composition (or percent black) effect on aggregate‐level violence rates. However, prior research (mostly conducted prior to 1990) generally provides mixed or contrary evidence for this position, showing instead that greater concentrations of blacks are linked to increased violence even after accounting for racial differences in socioeconomic conditions. The current study uses recent data and a novel unit of analysis to go beyond extant research in two ways. First, we include percent Latino in our examination of the extent to which both racial and ethnic composition effects on violent crime rates are mediated by racial/ethnic disparities in socioeconomic disadvantage. Second, we test whether racial/ethnic composition effects are conditioned by size of place, through the use of census places as a uniquely varying unit of analysis. We find that both black and Latino composition effects are partly explained by controlling for structural conditions (especially structural disadvantage), but this characterizes smaller places much more than the largest, most urbanized places.     

Variation in Perspective: The Employment Success of Ethnic Minority Males in the Netherlands, 1988–2002

This article investigates the job chances of ethnic minority males in the Dutch labour market. Using information from the Social Position and Use of Facilities by Immigrants (SPVA) surveys for the years 1988, 1991, 1994, 1998, and 2002, we trace the employment pattern of various ethnic minority groups and Dutch natives, and study some determining factors for the job chances in the Netherlands during this period. The analysis reveals a clear variation in the employment patterns for different ethnic minority groups. Individual characteristics, such as marital status and especially educational level, turn out to be important factors in explaining the job chances for all groups. Moreover, support is found for the effect of the regional demand for labour on the employment chances for most of the analysed ethnic groups, which implies that no support is found for the queuing theory.     

Shifting Identities: Chinese Muslims in Malaysia

This paper concerns Chinese Muslims in Malaysia, and attempts to explain the phenomenon behind the shift in their identities towards either religion or ethnicity. It proposes that, upon arriving in Malaysia, the Chinese Muslims, finding themselves overwhelmed between a majority non-Chinese Muslim community and a majority non-Muslim Chinese community, have, for survival purposes or by political design, rather quickly assimilated into one group or the other. The paper takes as examples a few Chinese Muslim clans or families from different regions of Malaysia. It also briefly narrates the situation of the Chinese converts, and discusses the development in their status from a ‘social anomaly that exists in an ethnic limbo’1 ?1?Judith Nagata, ‘The Chinese Muslims of Malaysia: New Malays or New Associates? A Problem of Religion and Ethnicity’, in Gordon P. Means (ed.), The Past in Southeast Asia's Present (Secreteriat, Canadian Society for Asian Studies, Ottawa. Ontario, 1978), pp. 102?–?13. View all notes to a small community of Malaysian Chinese who are Muslim, and who are accepted as such by all segments of society.     

The urban background of Enslaved Muslims in the Americas

Enslaved Muslims constituted a relatively small proportion of the enslaved population in the Americas, and that population was largely male. This article explores an unappreciated dimension of the background of these enslaved Muslims, the fact that most came from towns and had traveled widely, between towns; that is enslaved Muslims tended to come from urban settings, no matter where they ended up in the Americas. This urban background has implications in terms of the experiences and expectations of the enslaved. The urban context was associated with commerce, craft specialization, literacy, and political and social consciousness of slavery and its meaning within west Africa. The study examines available biographical information on enslaved Muslims from the Western Sudan, usually referred to as Mandingo or some variant in the Americas, and those from the Central Sudan, including Hausa, Yoruba, Nupe and people from Borno. The urban setting of Muslim areas of West Africa is then compared with other towns and cities in the Atlantic world during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in terms of size of towns and multicultural backgrounds of urban populations, further demonstrating that the urban background of many enslaved Africans and the extent to which the enslaved population was moved between towns has not been appreciated.     

Overcoming temptation: on masculinity and sexuality among Muslims in Stockholm

Abstract In this article I deal with transnational processes in contemporary Stockholm and focus on notions of masculinity and sexuality among transmigrant Arab Muslims. A key idea among the men is that their desires have to be controlled. Five ways to overcome temptations are presented: visions of paradise, polygamous marriages, storytelling, sermons in the mosque, and stereotyping Swedish women. The emphasis placed on resisting temptation is understood to be a result of transmigration and an expression of a gender‐based cultural logic. Men, in contrast to women, can restrain their desires and thereby also establish a stable relationship with God. For this reason they can both assume responsibility for public life and be the leaders of their families. The legitimate foundation of this power position is their ability to resist temptation.     

Perception of Aggression as a Function of Ethnic Affiliation: Moral Judgment of Violence Among Jews and Arabs in Israel

Following previous findings which showed differences between Israeli citizens of Oriental and European descent in regards to moral judgment of aggression, a recent replication studied moral judgment in 358 ordinary Israeli citizens of Oriental (132 Jews and 121 Arabs) and of European (75 Jews) descent. Each participant was individually asked to imagine a series of incidents where a stimulus person inflicted (with little, some, or much intent) physical harm (little, some, or much) on another stimulus person. The participants rated the blameworthiness of the perpetrator's behavior in each of the nine incidents included in the complete bi-factorial design (3 × 3). It was found that Israelis of European descent tended to balance the weight of intent and damage while Israelis of Oriental descent from both ethnic-national backgrounds placed a greater emphasis on the damage that occurred. A psycho-sociological conception of the findings is suggested.     

The Criminalization of Muslims in the United States, 2016

The criminalization of Muslims—framing an Islamic religious identity as a problem to be solved using state crime control logic—is undeniably in process in the United States. Local, state, and federal statutes target Muslims for surveillance and exclusion, and media sources depict Muslims as synonymous with terrorism, as others have shown. This paper analyzes the public’s role in the criminalization of Islam, which I call “cr-Islamization.” Drawing on in-depth, qualitative interviews in a major Southwest city during the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election, I detail how the majority of 144 politically, racially, and economically diverse interviewees talk about Muslims as a potential “racial threat,” using “fear of crime” language indicative of the mass incarceration era. This suggests that criminalization theory should be central to sociological studies of Muslims in the contemporary United States, and that criminalization rhetoric remains powerful, despite mainstream enthusiasm for criminal justice reform. I argue that criminalization’s power might reside in its ability to mutate in the “post-racial” era. The mechanisms supporting crimmigration, the criminalization of black Americans, and cr-Islamization are related but not identical. Muslims are religiously and racially subjugated, but more economically secure compared to other criminalized groups. This paper’s findings should prompt scholars to re-examine the relationships between racialization, criminalization, religious subjugation, and economic exploitation in the twenty-first century United States.

     

Debating Appropriate Approaches to Violence in Lihir: The Challenges of Addressing Gender Violence in Papua New Guinea

Recent years have seen a proliferation of initiatives aimed at addressing gender violence both at the national and local levels in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Numerous studies in PNG have noted high levels of violence. This paper takes a range of initiatives in the Lihir Islands, New Ireland Province (NIP), as a case study to discuss the challenges of speaking about, creating policy and attempting to manage gender violence. In Lihir there have been marches against violence, business initiatives to combat violence, outreach programs to villages and training programs for individuals and groups. These changes occur locally within the national context of the establishment of the Family Protection Act in 2013 and the Family Violence and Sexual Action Committee in 2000. Despite the seeming groundswell against gender violence in Lihir, the plans and programs are often met with debate about the terms used, the value of programs or events and their appropriateness. Initiatives are critiqued as externally imposed, colonial or inappropriate for the local context which has implications for programs at both local and national levels.     

Inside Rebellion: The Politics of Insurgent Violence

The public demonstrations by Thailand's Red Shirts in early 2010 have been explained as a labour-based movement resisting Bangkok's entrenched elite, or as a mob mobilized by the deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in order to destabilize the current government. This profile looks into the protests' origins and nature. It argues that there are elements of truth to both explanations, but also that the protestors adopted powerful forms of symbolism of poverty and victimhood to draw attention to their needs, and to delegitimize the force used against them. This symbolism allowed both Thaksin and the protestors to gain political ground.