Study-Unit Description

Study-Unit Description


CODE SCR5219

 
TITLE Politics, Conflict and Violence

 
UM LEVEL 05 - Postgraduate Modular Diploma or Degree Course

 
MQF LEVEL 7

 
ECTS CREDITS 4

 
DEPARTMENT Centre for the Study and Practice of Conflict Resolution

 
DESCRIPTION This study-unit examines the relationship between politics and conflict, and in particular, how groups form, when do they turn to violence to achieve political objectives, and what such violence might look like in different contexts.

Further, this module will differentiate between the ingredients for political conflict, which lead to institutional instability, and the economic and political catalysts that spark violence. Through carefully selected case studies from Southern Europe, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa, this unit will provide students with the theoretical and empirical tools to assess political conflicts, as well as their diverse and similar manifestations.

The two week unit will take place in two parts, with Part I conducted during week 1, and dedicated to the examination of the relevant literature and theoretical frameworks. A possible breakdown would look as follows:
1: Intro / What is political violence? What means do groups use to achieve their aims?
2: Theories of Political Violence: Social Mobilization and Collective Action
3: Theories of Political Violence: Systems of Violence: The Colonial Legacy
4: Theories of Political Violence: Group Psychology and Identity Formation
Day 5: Theories of Political Violence: State Instability, the Economy and reversals in liberalization.

Part II of the unit will take up the second week of the study-unit and apply the theoretical frameworks to geographically disparate case studies.

Study-unit Aims:

This study-unit aims:
i. To examine the relationship between group formation, political contest and violent conflict;
ii. To critically evaluate impediments to democratization, particularly the relationship between democratic transitions, reversals in political liberalization and the onset of violent mass mobilization;
iii. To examine the different conflict types associated with political exclusion and situate them in different regional case studies;
iiv. Detangle the relationship between politics and conflict, challenging perceptions that democratic processes are automatically ‘good’ or appropriate, and instead noting that politic competition is often a key ingredient to violent mobilization.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Knowledge & Understanding
By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

i. analyse contexts related to conflict and politics;
ii. identify the role of politics in contributing to conflict;
iii. acknowledge differences in conflictual contexts via the lens of group psychology, systemic impediments, as well as political regime transitions and reversals;
iv. apply different frameworks on the basis of different political contexts to conduct an empirical conflict analysis;
v. address emerging cleavage dynamics that are often associated with politics and violence, such as political tribalism, religious extremism and identity based voting;
vi. demonstrate an understanding of how and when elections and the democratic processes turn violent.

2. Skills
By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

i. critically assess academic texts addressing politics and conflict;
ii. critically assess case studies associated with political conflict;
iii. relate the theoretical model and empirical case to conduct a conflict analysis;
iv. understand concepts and methodologies developed during the study-unit and critically evaluate their contributions and limitations as tools for conflict assessments;
v. work together to conduct a case study;
vi. compare and conduct comparative case studies across geo-political regions.

Main Text/s and any supplementary readings:

Main Texts:

- Vamik D Volkan, Bloodlines: From Ethnic Pride to Ethnic Terrorism (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997).
- Jack A Goldstone and Political Instability Task Force, A Global Forecasting Model of Political Instability (Arlington, Va.: Political Instability Task Force, 2005).
- Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 2006).
- David Held. (2006). Models of Democracy, 3rd Edition. Polity Press.
- Mahmood Mamdani, When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2001).
- Donald L Horowitz, Ethnic Groups in Conflict (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985).
- Michael Bratton and Nicolas Van de Walle, Democratic Experiments in Africa: Regime Transitions in Comparative Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Supplementary Texts:

- Paul D. Almeida (2007). Organizational Expansion, Liberalization Reversals and Radicalized Collective Action. Research in Political Sociology, Volume 15. --Available Online
- Sidney G. Tarrow. (2011). Power in Movement: Social Movements and Contentious Politics. Cambridge University Press.
- Andreas Wimmer (2013). Waves of War: Nationalism, State Formation and Ethnic Exclusion in the Modern World. Cambridge University Press.
- Dorina A. Bekoe. Edt. (2012). Voting in Fear: Electoral Violence in Sub-Saharan Africa. United States Institute of Peace Press.
- Lars-Erik Cederman, Kristian Skrede Gleditsch and Halvard Buhaug (2013). Inequality, Grievances, and Civil War. Cambridge University Press.
- Ho-Won Jeong. (2008). Understanding Conflict and Conflict Analysis. SAGE Publications.

 
STUDY-UNIT TYPE Lecture and Seminar

 
METHOD OF ASSESSMENT
Assessment Component/s Assessment Due Sept. Asst Session Weighting
Assignment SEM2 Yes 25%
Seminar Paper SEM2 Yes 75%

 
LECTURER/S Alexandra Schaerrer Cumming

 

 
The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints.
Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice.
It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2023/4. It may be subject to change in subsequent years.

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