Reflections on Resilience (Asynchronous Session)
Armed Conflict and Women: Narratives of lived experience
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Marshline Purti
The world has witnessed the long history of armed conflict, starting from the conflict between Israel and Palestine to the conflict in Syria to the existing conflict in Kashmir. The present paper is based on the armed conflict prevailing in Kashmir and how women are impacted by the conflict. The researcher has collected the voice of women who are direct and indirect victims of this armed conflict. Although conflict is gendered, collection of victims voices serve to include women in peacebuilding and conflict resolution processes.
Featured People of the Peace: A Transnational Analysis of United Nations Police Officers View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Tabitha Espina, Angelo Brown
The United Nations Police (UNPOL) is a multinational police branch within the intergovernmental organization of the United Nations whose primary function is to reform, restructure, and rebuild host countries’ police forces in national crisis. Despite the significant global impact of UNPOL and the recruitment of officers from over ninety countries, the lived experiences of these officers have yet to be explored through a transnational lens. This research brings together the methodologies of the humanities and social sciences, Cultural Rhetorics and Criminology (decolonial theory, narrative theory, and grounded theory), to offer an analysis of how the multiple subject positions of UNPOL officers—race, culture, gender, and class—affect officers’ perceptions of training, peacekeeping practices in host countries, and reintegration to home countries upon the completion of peacekeeping missions. The findings of this comparative analysis of forty UNPOL officers from twelve developed and developing countries illuminate critical issues faced by officers, their families, host countries, and UNPOL policies. These include issues in 1) disparities in training and treatment due to race, class, and gender; 2) cross-cultural communication; 3) interpersonal relationships with family, locals of host nations, and colleagues; and 4) officers’ physical, mental, and emotional health throughout the deployment process. This work follows the imperatives of the 2000 Brahimi Report to increase the effectiveness of future peacekeeping by examining the potentials for ethical, culturally-responsive UNPOL peacekeeping practices through the eyes of its officers.
War and Migration: A Critical Analysis of the Conflict in Southern Cameroon in the Context of Emigrating to the USA
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ransom Tanyu Ngenge
According to Sylvie Bello, CEO of the Cameroon American Council, and Cameroonian American immigration lawyer Pryde Ndingwan, some 10,000 Cameroonians have fled to ask for asylum in the U.S. since 2016; majority of whom migrated as a result of the ongoing armed conflict in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon otherwise known as Southern Cameroon. This study critically examines the stories of these migrants amongst which are those who have successfully entered and sought asylum in the U.S., those trapped at the Mexican border, those who have settled in South America other than Mexico, and those repatriated to Cameroon by the U.S. government. This is achieved through in-depth interviews contacted using the snowballing method. The research also makes use of archival materials from books, peer-reviewed journals, national as well as international immigration databases to offer a balanced narrative. The review concludes that there is a nexus between the ongoing armed conflict in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon and movement to the U.S. since and recommends appropriate measures to be taken by actors involved to resolve the conflict as it will help reduce the number of Cameroonians moving to the U.S.
Challenges and Resources Influencing Older Adults’ Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Does the Caregiving Role Make a Difference? View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Cherrie Park, Miri Kim
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought numerous challenges to people’s lives globally. Particularly, the elderly population is faced with more challenges as they are the most susceptible to the severity and fatality of the virus, and social distancing practice puts them under immense stress. The current study aims to explore the challenges and resources of older adults during the pandemic in relation to coronavirus-induced stress, and examine the role of caregiving. A cross-sectional data from COVID-19 Supplement to the National Health and Aging Trends Study were used, and a total of 1,897 participants aged 65 or older were analyzed using multiple regression analysis. Level of stress for older adults with caregiving role was positively associated with financial difficulties (β=, p<) and social distancing (β=, p<), and was negatively associated with change in the number of people who provide aid during the pandemic (β=, p<). Older adults without caregiving role were at higher risk of stress with increased financial difficulties (β=, p<) and healthcare delays (β=, p<). The results demonstrate that older adults with caregiving role could experience less stress if they could get help from more people. Whether the number of people providing help increased after the pandemic matters rather than the number of people in and of itself. As the COVID-19 pandemic is prolonged, the results of this study will contribute to a better understanding of significant resources and challenges that affect coronavirus-induced stress of older adults.
Interdisciplinary As Disruption: "In the Time of COVID" as Pivotal Moment View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Stephany Peterson
“Let me tell you a story…” It’s the ultimate hook: the promise of being welcomed into memorable experience. This is arguably the first form of knowledge mobilization. It is how we have evolutionarily developed a manner in which to foster common ground. Stories shape our identities and social norms. This threshold of shifting dialogues from caustic polarity to common purpose is what we are hardwired for. The field of interdisciplinary is from ‘the spaces between’: disruption at the thresholds and liminalities of disciplinary boundaries. If a problem is sufficiently complex, it cannot be addressed from one perspective. To contextualize complexity, I establish an epistemology of interdisciplinarity as a disposition; interdisciplinary as a state of disruption. We articulate our most pressing problems, rooted in identities expressed as stories, that influence behaviour. These are not from singular perspectives or fields, but at levels of scale, focusing on the emerging future. We are experiencing disruption at a global scale. Its impact is shared experience. ‘In the time of COVID’ is code for ‘pivotal moment’. How we have shaped ourselves as society is experiencing disruption to those systems. If we shift our focus from addressing symptoms, beyond systems, to paradigmatic level change, the system can see itself, and we can see ourselves within it. It is with a disposition of disruption that interdisciplinarians explore broadly and widely; then, rigorously and ruthlessly articulate the questions to effect change. Let me tell you a story… it is one you will recognize, because together, it is ours.
Xenophobia and Racism in Public Transport: The Case of Athens View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Lila (Evangelia) Mastora, Georgios Stamoulos
In this paper we analytically explore phenomena like xenophobia and racism, which we argue have been expanding rapidly in Greece and particularly in public transportation in Athens. We approach public transportation as a space where members of diverse cultural and national groups interact, and is, therefore, considered as a space of active negotiation of inter-group relations, group-based attitudes and beliefs. Not least, patterns of inter-group behavior, as well as discourses whereby dominant stereotypes about race and colour are being frequently reproduced and/or formed in this context. Passengers test the legitimacy of or actively support xenophobic and racist views in the presence of the Other, through victimizing members of the migrant and refugee population of the city, while the rest of the passengers become witnesses or bystanders of racist attacks. Conducted as part of the REVERT: REsilience without ViolencE, Resistance without haTe in public transport project co-funded by the “Rights, Equality, and Citizenship (2014-2020)” Programme of the European Union, this study maps practices of xenophobia and racism in public transport, particularly in buses and trolleys buses. As it is discussed throughout this paper, different actors involved in xenophobic and racist incidents were reached in order to approach the phenomenon through its diverse angles (e.g. passengers and drivers) and understand different perspectives around the phenomenon more fully. Finally, the role of the drivers and the possibility of acting as agents of peaceful coexistence among people of different cultures, race or colour is explored as potential sources for policy interventions.
Towards a “Feminist System Change, Not Climate Change”: Transnationality and Women and Feminists for Climate Justice View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Julie Gorecki
Scholars and international organizations have shown that climate change disproportionately affects women across the globe. Indigenous women and women in the Global South are especially impacted. In response, Women and Feminists for Climate Justice are mobilizing transnationally and with common demands towards a “feminist system change, not climate change.” Drawing on five years of extensive multi-sited participant action research ethnographies and interviews, this paper maps and compares the narratives and experiences of Women and Feminists for Climate Justice activists from around the world. It asks, how do women and gender non-binary people from across six continents generate collectivity and then foster shared ideology, messaging, advocacy, and international demands on climate and gender? In what similar and different ways does climate change burden them, and what do their responses to these questions reveal about the nexus between climate change and gender on a global systemic level? Transnational Feminist scholarship is fundamental to responding to these questions. This paper is also grounded in theoretical questions regarding the relationship between Racial Capitalism, Patriarchy, and the Environment. Many ecological feminists have affirmed that capitalism’s founding ideology of continuous growth has been necessitated by the coincident subordination of women, racialized and marginalized communities, and nature. They reference this interdependent subordination as the “Capitalist Patriarchy—” a global “anti-woman” system founded on the exploitation of women’s power, bodies, and labor.
Voices Unheard during the Anti-extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement in 2019-2020: Examining Political Intention and Participation among Youth in Hong Kong View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Celia Hoi Yan Chan, Victoria Ka Ying Hui
Since 2019, relentless discontent about the Extradition Bill escalated into a mass political crisis with the longest, largest, and most widespread social resistance in Hong Kong. While the root causes of the societal-wide youth participation have been directed to entrenched problems of socio-political or historic conditions, young people’s attitudes, values and their relationship with regards to political actions are less discussed. The study is a cross-sectional online survey study examining the relationship between political intention and participation and values among 712 youngsters aged 15 to 25 in Hong Kong. Results showed that youth respondents’ political involvement was “responsive”, and respondents participated at least once in political activities. Their political intentions were moderately active and radical. Approximately 36% were supportive of both legal non-violent and illegal violent political activities and 40% were less supportive of both legal non-violent and illegal violent political activities. The most important universal value rated is “freedom of opinion”; while the least important collective value is “my country”. Perceived greater importance of universal values and self-transcendence predicted more frequent political involvement; while perceived greater importance of conservation predicted less frequent political involvement. Findings of the connection between values and political attitudes suggested a vital need to recognize young people’s values for socio-political development and policy making. The society could adopt an open-minded attitude to listen and accept suggestions expressed by the youth, as well as provide young people and young people-led organizations with adequate opportunities to build mutual trust, so as to help them realize their values.
City Councils’ Aid to Cultural Sector in Poland in Covid-19: Effectiveness, Solidarity, and Innovation as the Instruments of Resilience View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Bożena Gierat Bieroń
The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the result of qualitative research (2020) on the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic in Polish urban culture sector, based on six large cities selected due to their most influential role in Polish cultural landscape. The scholars analyzed three variables characteristic of crisis situation: the adequacy of municipal council assistance for art, innovative solutions and idea of solidarity. The term of adequacy is related to the issue of appropriate response of the authorities to help the cultural sector in crisis. Innovation is described in political sciences as a condition of cultural development and as an essential crisis management tool. Solidarity is one of the methods of dealing with cultural transformation. Discussion about the variables described above has allowed to explore the way of adapting the cultural sector to the crisis. Networking, hybridization, streaming, “culture at home”, shifting sense of solidarity from a horizontal to a vertical position - all of these phenomena can be defined after Tony Judt’s “an attitude of understanding for development”. Resilience is the ability to deal with challenges and flexibly adapt to changing circumstances. It is a dynamic process reflecting the adaptation of an individual/group despite traumatic experiences. Analyzing the reaction of representatives of Polish cultural institutions and artists on the pandemic and the aid of local authorities offered to the sector, the researchers may explain the process of transformation of Polish culture, the process of gaining resilience by cities cultural ecosystem, and thus, adapting society to extreme situations.
