Effects of Leadership and Trauma on Grassroots Community Development in Post-Conflict/Genocide Societies: A Rwandan Case Study

This research paper is an analysis of a grassroots, agricultural project carried out from 2010 to 2011 in Gitarama Cell, a rural community in Rwanda, East Africa, during my United States Peace Corps Volunteer service (2009-2011). The project began as the Twizere Agriculture Club at Gitarama Primary School. The goal of the club was to increase food security among community members through rabbit and chicken husbandry, and the study of such agriculture techniques as composting, double digging, and the establishment of microgardens. Despite the acknowledged need for this club, the Twizere Agriculture Club project met multiple constraints that affected its outcomes. Discussing them with community members, club participants, and local leaders, and analyzing the constraints provided valuable insight on the psychological and social effects of trauma emanating from domestic conflict and genocide. The primary findings of the analysis manifest the totalitarian, hard-version Theory X leadership style the current ruling party uses to control the public, as well as corruption and Stockholm syndrome conceivably among the local leader project stakeholders. Evidence revealed appeasement and post-traumatic stress likely within many of the project stakeholders, in addition to divided relationships, showing fear, anger, and mistrust among the project beneficiaries—being probable effects of the 1994 Genocide. The data also illustrated possible dependency syndrome in the project stakeholders. The analysis led way to the formation of a hypothesis called The Post-Conflict/Genocide Development Hypothesis. This hypothesis and the analysis’ primary findings may be useful to development workers implementing projects at the grassroots level in post-conflict/genocide societies by preventing some or all of the same constraints that transpired in the Twizere Agriculture Club Project

Understanding Student Experiences and Learning in the Common Ground Multicultural Dialogue Program: A Case Study

This constructivist case study explored undergraduate students' experiences and learning as a result of their participation in the Common Ground Multicultural Dialogue Program at the University of Maryland. The research questions that guided this study were: (1) How do undergraduate students describe their learning and experiences as participants in Common Ground?; (2) How do undergraduate students describe their willingness and ability to engage in difficult dialogues as a result of participating in Common Ground? This study included seven participants from two Common Ground dialogue groups during the Fall 2009 semester. Data collection included semi-structured individual interviews and reflective essays written by the participants. Data was analyzed using the constant comparative method characteristic of grounded theory (Merriam, 2009). Five themes emerged from the analysis. The participants described the Common Ground Program's model, structure, and setting as central to their experience. The second theme dealt with students' perceptions of conflict, negotiating conflict within the dialogue, and self-censorship. The third theme incorporated the relationships between identity, experiences, and perspectives. Fourth, the participants illustrated cognitive development in their acknowledgement of multiple perspectives, recognition of peers as sources of learning, and comfort and value in challenging their own opinions. Lastly, the participants described their willingness to engage in dialogues on controversial topics and new approaches to dialogues based on their experiences in the Common Ground Program

Bringing Identity Theory into Leisure

Despite a substantial volume of research on identity in the social and behavioral sciences, identity theory has existed on the margins of the leisure literature and contributed to the understanding of leisure behavior only in occasional illustrative references. The purpose of this dissertation was to incorporate identity theory in the understanding individuals? leisure behavior within the context of recreational golf. Three independent studies were conducted to address different yet interconnected research topics. The first study identified conceptual links between identity theory and the concepts of enduring involvement, commitment, loyalty, specialization and serious leisure. Guided by identity theory, it was suggested that identity-confirmation is the underlying reason why individuals become involved in a leisure activity and develop a commitment and side bets. Further, this study proposed that self-verification processes underline why individuals value certain lines of action (i.e., enduring involvement, commitment, and specialization) and, in turn, become specialists, amateurs or loyal clients. The second study investigated the relationship between gender identity, leisure identity and leisure participation. Using data collected from recreational golfers, results showed that both leisure identity and masculine identity positively influenced respondents? participation in recreational golf. Furthermore, the findings illustrated that masculine identity plays a formative role in the development of a leisure identity, which in turn is an antecedent of leisure behavior. The third study adopted the concept of identity conflict/facilitation to provide a theoretical framework for understanding the experience of constraints to leisure and constraint negotiation. Using data collected from recreational golfers, analyses provided evidence in support of the contention that identity conflict/facilitation is an antecedent of perceived constraints and negotiation efforts. The findings also illustrated that the ability to negotiate constraints depends on the compatibility between the leisure identity and the other identities an individual holds. Finally, a summary and synthesis of the findings and agenda for future research were discussed

Political conflict in George Orwell's animal farm

This study aims to describe the political conflicts based on the theme contained in the novel Animal Farm by George Orwell. The political conflict includes the manifestation of political conflict, and the political system of totalitarianism in the characters in Animal Farm Novel by George Orwell. This political conflict research is limited to several figures, namely Napoleon, Snowball,Boxer, Squealer, and several other animals. Totalitarianism is the development of a political system that relies on social as a medium so that the study of the sociology of literature seems to have reviewed literature as a science that can be called a document of an era. One literary work that has been influenced by political studies in it is the novel Animal Farm by George Orwell. To find out the political conflicts in the novel, the problems that have been formulated include 1) How to find a theme as reflect totalitarianism in Animal Farm? 2) How do the characters in the animal farm novel reflect the system of totalitarianism? 3) How does the conflict among build political tension in Animal Farm? This research uses the method of literary criticism. The data used comes from electronic textbooks in the form of Animal Farm novels. The book review is used as a way to collect data as stated by Moleong (2017). In analyzing this research, the theory of literary sociology was used as the basic theory put forward by Janet Wolff (1975). The sociology literary theory in this study is divided into three supporting theories: A Glossary of Literary Terms by M. H. Abrams (1941), The origins of totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt (1958), and The Popular Concept of Totalitarianism by Colin Anthony Ridgewell (1970). In this research, the researcher focuses on the form of political conflict that has been drawn, which includes several aspects of the emergence of the totalitarianism character. The power of totalitarianism character has been divided into six categories: Ideology, A single mass party, A system of terror, A communication monopoly, A weapon monopoly, and A centrally direct economy which have been successfully portrayed in the character of pigs who become the ruling class of other animals. The conflicts between the characters that have been divided into two categories: injustice and divisive politics as illustrated in other animals that are victims of the swine's power

Between fallacy and feasibility? Dealing with the risk of ecological fallacies in the quantitative study of protest mobilization and conflict

In recent years, the quantitative study of conflict has increasingly focused on small-scale and/or localized conflicts in the developing world. In this paper, we analyze and critically reflect upon a major methodological shortcoming of many studies in this field of research. We argue that by using group- or macro-level empirical data and modelling techniques, while at the same time theoretically underpinning observed empirical associations with individual-level mechanisms, many of these studies risk committing an ecological fallacy. The individual-level mechanism on which many studies rely concerns the presence of grievances which mobilize people to participate in contentious politics. This motivational approach was also present in early studies on protest mobilization in Western societies, which often relied on similar research designs. However, subsequent advances in this literature and the use of methods that were targeted more directly at the individual level uncovered that grievances alone cannot explain mobilization and that organizational capabilities and complex psychological mechanisms of belonging also form part of the puzzle. While drawing on conflict events as well as survey data from Africa, we demonstrate empirically that here, as well, inferring micro-level relations and dynamics from macro-level empirical models can lead to erroneous interpretations and inferences. Hence, we argue that to improve our understanding of conflict mobilization in the developing world, especially for conflicts with low levels of violence, it is necessary to substantially expand our methodological toolbox beyond macro-level analyses

Introduction to TIPS: a theory for creative design

A highly intriguing problem in combining artificial intelligence and engineering design is automation of the creative and innovative phases of the design process. This paper gives a brief introduction to the theory of inventive problem solving (TIPS) selected as a theoretical basis of the authors' research efforts in this field. The research is conducted in the Stevin Project of the Knowledge-Based System Group of the University of Twente (Enschede, The Netherlands) in cooperation with the Invention Machine Laboratory (Minsk, Belarus). This collaboration aims at developing a formal basis for the creation of an automated reasoning system to support creative engineering design

Women in development: a critique of neo-classical economic theory as one of the causes for gender inequality

This research reviews and critiques neoliberalism and neoclassical economics for them being one of the main causes for the subordination and oppression of women. This research does not claim that neoliberalism is the axis of evil; however it discusses how alternative economic and political theories can be more useful and efficient for women and gender development. The research question is mainly concerned with how far do neoclassical economic theories perpetuate and intensify power struggle between genders? The research argues for neoclassical economic theory being a main driving force in the subordination and oppression of women, especially in global South countries that have been subjugated to structural adjustment. In order to do so, this research utilizes an intersectional feminist framework of analysis to methodologically deconstruct neoclassical economic theory and critically investigate their gendered effects on beneficiary countries. Moreover, the political conceptual framework of “inside-outside”, pioneered by Robert Cox, is the analytical tool used throughout this research. The research will, therefore, first clarify the difference between gender and sex, and clarify what I mean when I say “neoclassical economic theory”. Followed by a criticism of how neoclassical economics is a theory of discrimination. An argument for the non-existence of a separation between the global level and the social level when analyzing gender relations will be the primary objective of this study. Lastly, the research discusses how structural adjustment programs affect women, specifically women living in poverty and armed conflict