How Theoretically Opposite Models of Interethnic Power-Sharing Can Complement Each Other and Contribute to Political Stabilization: The Case of Nigeria

The aim of this article is to demonstrate the thesis that the stabilization of Nigeria’s complicated political situation is furthered by the functioning in that country of institutions based on two models of interethnic power-sharing – consociationalism and centripetalism – and that the two are to some extent complementary in Nigerian practice, despite the fact that political theory sees the two as opposites of each other. The article begins with a short analysis of the political situation in Nigeria. This is followed by a presentation of the problem of defining the notion of political stability and an assessment of the same in the Nigerian context. The article then goes on to discuss the nature of centripetalism and consociationalism and specific centripetal and consociational institutions involved in the stabilization of the political situation in Nigeria. The article ends with the author’s conclusions about the initial thesis. The article has been published in "Politeja" 2016, vol. 42, no. 3, pp. 53-73. For more on combining institutions of different models of power-sharing see: Krzysztof Trzcinski, Hybrid Power Sharing: On How to Stabilize the Political Situation in Multi-Segmental Societies, "Politeja" 2018, vol. 56, no. 5, pp. 86-107

Rediscovering community: Interethnic relationships and community gardening

Community service work, volunteerism and mentoring have recently become popular topics of research as effective methods in improving self-esteem and civic responsibility. In the current study we explored the relationship between participation in a community service gardening program and ethnocentrism. We hypothesised that an inverse correlation would emerge where students who participated in a community service-gardening program would increase their perceptions of the importance of community service work and decrease their scores in ethnocentrism. Results of the paired samples t-test strongly support the hypothesis that community service gardening work significantly reduces reports of ethnocentrism: t(10) = -2.52, (p < .03) for community college students. The ramifications of the study and ramifications for future research are offered

Ethnocentrism and xenophobia: a cross-cultural study

Journal ArticleAnalyzes the factors influencing ethnic affiliation and interethnic hostility. Relationship between intraethnic loyalty and risk of famine; Continuity of violence at different levels of groupings; Analysis of local and intercommunity conflict

The Role of the City in Fostering Intergroup Communication in a Multicultural Environment: Saint-Petersburg’s Case

In this paper two aspects of the issue will be discussed. First, there is the role of authorities, NGOs in forming the multicultural environment in the city with cultural diversity. Second, the city as social context, the images and myths of the city determine discourse on multiculturalism and influence the cross-cultural communication in the city. After describing historically shaped images of the city, employment of city’s myths and symbols in discourse and policy of multiculturalism, and role of city’s institutions in fostering inter-group communication, this paper will discuss the inclusive culture of the city, shaped by the networking interaction, which blurs the distinction between «insiders» and «outsiders». Here the trends of (post)modern inter/trans-national relations will be extrapolated on the trans-cultural interaction in the multicultural city, taking into consideration that network interactions build up not between the territories, but in the space, where logic of borders overcomes.Multicultural, Identity, Image, Myth, Discourse, We-groups, Inclusive networks, Inclusive culture, Transnational interaction, Transnational civil society

Methodological basis of forming the nterethnic tolerance among youth in the multicultural environment of Kazakhstan and Belarus

Article is devoted to the research of the problem of interethnic tolerance, activity of ethno-cultural associations, directed to formation of interethnic tolerance among youth in the conditions of the multicultural environment. There were analyzed the theoretical and methodological approaches to the problem of interethnic tolerance in foreign practice, the regularities and principles of functioning of ethnocultural associations as forms of social and cultural activity of youth in the conditions of the Republic of Belarus, the mechanisms of educative impact of the multicultural environment on process of formation of interethnic tolerance among youth on the example of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Special attention is paid to the study of new educational strategies and approaches on formation of interethnic tolerance among youth in the sphere of culture where the specificity of the Kazakhstan-Belarusian experience of the organization of this socially important segment of educational services can be useful to other countries as well. The materials of scientific publications and applied researches of authors in the field of education were used for achievement of the purpose of work. Based on the conducted research, the article proposes scientifically based conclusions and recommendations on the organization of process of formation of interethnic tolerance among youth in the conditions of the multicultural environment

Supporting Interethnic and Interracial Friendships Among Youth to Reduce Prejudice and Racism in Schools: The Role of the School Counselor

Supporting interethnic and interracial friendships in schools among children and adolescents is an important part of a progressive educational agenda informed in equity, social justice frameworks, and critical multicultural education that leads to a reduction in racial prejudice. Positive intergroup contact is a necessary condition in prejudice reduction and the development of positive racial attitudes among ethnically and racially diverse groups of children and adolescents. School counseling initiatives focused on promoting interethnic and interracial friendships can have significant individual and systemic consequences such as: improving social, emotional, and cultural competence among youth; prejudice reduction; and the creation of equitable educational spaces informed in multicultural and social justice worldviews

Interethnic Similarity of Anger Suppression-Aggression Association in Conflicts in Intimate and Non-Intimate Relationships Across Ethnic Groups in the Netherlands

This study examined associations between emotional suppression, anger, and aggression in intimate (parent and friend) and non-intimate (boss and shop assistant) conflicts in a vignette study conducted among immigrants and majority group members in the Netherlands. The sample consisted of 456 Dutch majority group members, 445 immigrants from non-Western, and 477 immigrants from Western countries. Path analyses showed that anger fully mediated the emotion suppression-aggression relationship in a similar way across groups and conflicts with a parent, boss, and shop assistant (only in a conflict situation with a boss, emotional suppression and anger were both directly related to aggression). As expected, non-Western immigrants experienced less anger in these conflicts. However, no interethnic differences were found in the tendency to suppress anger and aggression in any conflict situation. We could not replicate earlier observed cross-cultural differences in obedience, hierarchy, and restriction of emotional expression among the samples. We concluded that non-Western immigrants do not seem to differ in management of anger in interpersonal conflict situations from Western groups

Bounded Rationality of \u3cem\u3eHomo Classificus\u3c/em\u3e: The Law and Bioeconomics of Social Norms as Classification

In the New Chicago School ( NCS ) law and economics literature that emerged in the 1990s, social norms play an important function in their dual role as constraints on behavior and as signaling devices. Missing in the NCS social norms literature, however, is any treatment of social norms as classification, a concept which is fundamental to a more complete theory of social norms. In this Article, I show that my early 1980s theory of social norms embedded in the ethnically homogeneous middleman groups ( EHMGs ) clearly falls squarely within the NCS tradition. Since the 1980s, I have extended my law and economics analysis of social norms as classification. The concept of social norms-as-classification is further expanded in a law and bioeconomics of EHMGs as adaptive units viewed from a multilevel evolutionary perspective. The expanded theory of social norms links together the disparate social science disciplines of economics, law, sociology, anthropology, political science, evolutionary psychology and beyond to evolutionary biology and bioeconomics. By providing evidence of EHMGs functioning as adaptive units, I provided a very rare and important empirical example in support of group selection theory in the field of evolutionary biology. The expanded theory of social norms has theoretical and policy implications for understanding minority middleman success in various parts of the world, changing identities and formation of new identities, racial discrimination, racial profiling, ethnic cooperation, interethnic conflict, and international terrorism

Convergence towards a European strategic culture? A constructivist framework for explaining changing norms.

The article contributes to the debate about the emergence of a European strategic culture to underpin a European Security and Defence Policy. Noting both conceptual and empirical weaknesses in the literature, the article disaggregates the concept of strategic culture and focuses on four types of norms concerning the means and ends for the use of force. The study argues that national strategic cultures are less resistant to change than commonly thought and that they have been subject to three types of learning pressures since 1989: changing threat perceptions, institutional socialization, and mediatized crisis learning. The combined effect of these mechanisms would be a process of convergence with regard to strategic norms prevalent in current EU countries. If the outlined hypotheses can be substantiated by further research the implications for ESDP are positive, especially if the EU acts cautiously in those cases which involve norms that are not yet sufficiently shared across countries