Cosmopolitanism and the relevance of ‘zombie concepts’: the case of anomic suicide amongst Alevi Kurd youth

Against Beck's claims that conventional sociological concepts and categories are zombie categories, this paper argues that Durkheim's theoretical framework in which suicide is a symptom of an anomic state of society can help us understand the diversity of trajectories that transnational migrants follow and that shape their suicide rates within a cosmopolitan society. Drawing on ethnographic data collected on eight suicides and three attempted suicide cases of second‐generation male Alevi Kurdish migrants living in London, this article explains the impact of segmented assimilation/adaptation trajectories on the incidence of suicide and how their membership of a ‘new rainbow underclass’, as a manifestation of cosmopolitan society, is itself an anomic social position with a lack of integration and regulation.     

With/Out a State,Kurds Rising: The Un/Stated Foreign Policy and the Rise of the Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq

Abstract

Located in northern Iraq, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) rules over an autonomous province in Iraq. Constitutionally, ‘Kurdistan Region’ is not independent, but empirically the KRG behaves as if it is a sovereign entity. With an elected parliament, a president, a prime minister, a cabinet, a flag, a national anthem, schools taught in Kurdish, and a booming economy, the ‘Kurdistan’ embodied by the KRG clearly exists empirically while unrecognized internationally. In this paper, I examine the rise of the KRG as an agent in international relations since the first Gulf War in 1991. I argue that foreign policy as a field of conduct and discourse has been central to the KRG's effective agency. In my analysis, I employ and interrelate Robert Jackson's work on ‘quasi-states’, Doug McAdam's argument on ‘political opportunity structures', and Giorgio Agamben's discussion on ‘indistinct zones of politics’ as in Iraq and the Middle East. Ultimately, I contend that while less than a full state in constitutional legal form, the KRG is more than a quasi-state in substance.¹1 See the official site of KRG at: http://cabinet.gov.krd/?l=12     

Political violence,asabiyya and identity

This article investigates the relationship between asabiyya (esprit de corps) and political violence within the context of the Kurdish experience, which relies heavily on the presence and activities of armed groups within the society. Furthermore, this article reveals different possibilities for how an armed group can be diffused into a close ethnic unit and transforms its collective solidarity and consciousness by orienting it towards the use of violence. Lastly, it concludes that this engagement changes the content and forms of asabiyya while reshaping social identities in a complex way.     

The Renewal of an Ethnic Tradition and Its Role in Shaping the Kurds Immigrants’ Identity

The article discusses the Seharane celebrations of the Jews of Kurdistan whose immigration to Israel is a case of ‘ethno-national homecoming’. The immigrants from Kurdistan express an Israeli identity in the public renewal of these celebrations. Their leaders demanded a right to ethnic otherness that is included in Israeli society, and attempted to position themselves anew within the national space. The syncretic dynamics that were created indicate that ethnic traditions continue to serve as a resource for minority groups of immigrants and their offspring, and that a liberal state must afford their customs public legitimisation and must recognise their leaders.     

2010年大选：伊拉克前途命运的转折点

2005年大选之后的经历给伊拉克国内各政治力量留下了深刻教训,他们意识到国家的安全和稳定需要一个有什叶派、逊尼派以及库尔德人代表参加的联合政府。2010年大选产生了一个联合政府,该政府将有机会实现国家统一,并向邻国传递积极的信号,即伊拉克不会对它们产生威胁,同时新政府也将面临巨大挑战。选举产生的政府将承担起领导国家走向主权独立的历史责任,并努力提高伊拉克在该地区的地位和影响力,尤其是在2011年底美军撤出伊拉克之后。2010年12月21日,新内阁获得国民议会投票表决通过,从而开启了多党派联合执政的架构。     

Local Armed Uprisings and the Transnational Image of Claim Making: The Kurds of Turkey and the Zapatistas of Mexico in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to explore why and how some local armed uprisings are able to go global with a transnational image of ‘social justice’ while others fail to build such image despite becoming transnational. The cases to be analyzed in the article are the pro-Kurdish mobilization in the leadership of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Turkey and the pro-Mayan Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) movement in Mexico. In explaining the relative success of the latter, the study seeks to make connections with the globalization literature in general and the transnational social movement literature in particular. Particularly, the article focuses on the ability of social movements to market their causes in international arena with a good image. Overall, this study lays out several key strategic differences between the two movements such as the holding and the use of arms, duration of armed resistance, and the leadership and organizational structure to unpack why some social movements are more successful to market their causes as a just cause within ‘global civil society’ and why others fail to do so ending with being listed as a terrorist organization.     

Visualizing ‘community’: an experiment in participatory photography among Kurdish diasporic workers in London

Most accounts of research methods in academic journals give an impression that research progresses in an orderly, logical and linear manner. Yet, in reality it is often more ‘messy’ than we admit. This paper reports on an experiment on the use of visual photographic methods in a study of Kurdish migrant workers in London who have had problems at work. The aim was to understand the type of problems workers faced and how they attempted to solve or deal with the issues they encountered. We were interested in the extent to which workers looked to local communities for support and if or how their identity impacted on the actions they took. The use of participant‐generated photography developed while the research was in progress and was utilized in addition to individual and group interviews in order to explore if this was helpful (to us and to research participants) in explaining issues, such as identity and ‘community’, which can often be difficult to verbalize or articulate. As a first foray into incorporating visual methods we struggled at first with ways to explain to participants the type of data we wanted, before learning that it was important to ‘lose control’ and allow participants to ‘speak’ for themselves using the lens of their cameras. The paper explores theoretical justifications that influenced our approach in our first attempt at participatory photography. It will look at the use of images constructed by research participants and how these were used in focus group situations to explore how or whether individual meanings of work, identity, community and belonging have resonance in the wider Kurdish community.     

伊拉克战后库尔德人分离主义倾向的变化与发展

建立自己的独立国家是伊拉克库尔德人多年来的政治目标。伊拉克战争结束后,面对周边国家对于库尔德分离倾向的压力和反对,再加上库尔德地区内部存在各种问题,库尔德领导人在伊战后政治重建中采取了务实的态度。为争取更大程度的区域自治,他们在宪法草案中确定了伊拉克国家的联邦主义性质。并利用和美国政府的密切关系,在伊过渡政府中占据了大量重要职位。但这并不意味着库尔德人彻底放弃了分离主义目标。从目前来看,库尔德人对分离主义的取舍将和伊战后重建的成败紧密联系在一起。如果伊战后重建最终失败并爆发内战,库尔德人依然会寻求自己的独立道路。     

伊拉克"后重建时期"的库尔德分离主义新危机

随着美军2011年撤退期限临近,伊拉克即将进入一个没有美军直接干预的"后重建"时代。与此同时,伊拉克库尔德人的分离主义危机也再次出现。究其原因,主要是美国政府干预下伊拉克建立的"合作性民主"制度缺乏内在凝聚力,伊拉克阿拉伯民族主义者强调中央集权和反对联邦制宪法的倾向威胁到库尔德人的自治,伊拉克国内不同种族和宗教派别之间因核心利益差异而导致的各种冲突难以和解,还有库尔德斯坦自治以来与周围国家地缘政治关系的有利改变。这些因素都为库尔德人争取独立提供了重要契机,从而使得伊拉克库尔德分离主义危机再次成为国际社会关注的焦点。     

叙利亚库尔德人的政党政治研究

自从1957年第一个叙利亚库尔德政党建立以来,库尔德政党经过多次分化、重组和联盟,一直是叙利亚库尔德运动的主导力量。作为叙利亚库尔德人的代表,库尔德政党提出了维护库尔德人政治文化权利、承认库尔德人少数民族地位、给予库尔德民族一定程度自治等不同层面的政治要求。尽管长期以来受到政府的压制,而且-9当前叙利亚国内的反对派在民族问题上也存在分歧,但库尔德政党始终坚持要实现自己的政治要求。