The Cowl - v.83 - n.20 - Mar 21, 2019

The Cowl - student newspaper of Providence College. Vol. 83 No. 20 - March 21, 2019. 24 pages

Understanding Refugee Law in an Enlarged European Union Theory

The present article seeks to explore how asylum law is formed, transformed and reformed in Europe, what its effects are on state practice and refugee protection in the Baltic and Central European candidate countries, and what this process reveals about the framework used by scholars to understand the dynamics of international refugee law. Arguably, an exclusive focus on EU institutions and their dissemination of regional and international norms among candidate countries through the acquis communitaire is misleading. Looking at the subregional interplay between Vienna and Budapest, Berlin and Warsaw, Copenhagen and Vilnius provides a richer understanding of the emergence of norms than the standard narrative of a Brussels dictate. Hence, to capture these dynamics, we will attempt to expand the framework of analysis by incorporating sub-regional settings, cutting across the divide between old and new Members, and by analysing the repercussions sent out by domestic legislation within these settings. While acknowledging that bilateral and multilateral relations are continuously interwoven, we conclude that bilateralism accounts for a greater degree of normative development and proliferation than multilateralism at EU level, and that domestic legislation as formed by sub-regional dynamics will remain the ultimate object of study for scholars of international refugee law.

Reconceptualizing major policy change in the advocacy coalition framework: a discourse network analysis of German pension politics

How does major policy change come about? This article identifies and rectifies weaknesses in the conceptualization of innovative policy change in the Advocacy Coalition Framework. In a case study of policy belief change preceding an innovative reform in the German subsystem of old-age security, important new aspects of major policy change are carved out. In particular, the analysis traces a transition from one single hegemonic advocacy coalition to another stable coalition, with a transition phase between the two equilibria. The transition phase is characterized (i) by a bipolarization of policy beliefs in the subsystem and (ii) by state actors with shifting coalition memberships due to policy learning across coalitions or due to executive turnover. Apparently, there are subsystems with specific characteristics (presumably redistributive rather than regulative subsystems) in which one hegemonic coalition is the default, or the "normal state." In these subsystems, polarization and shifting coalition memberships seem to interact to produce coalition turnover and major policy change. The case study is based on discourse network analysis, a combination of qualitative content analysis and social network analysis, which provides an intertemporal measurement of advocacy coalition realignment at the level of policy beliefs in a subsystem

Financial locations : Frankfurt’s place and perspectives

The introduction of a common currency as well as the harmonization of rules and regulations in Europe has significantly reduced distance in all its guises. With reduced costs of overcoming space, this emphasizes centripetal forces and it should foster consolidation of financial activity. In a national context, as a rule, this led to the emergence of one financial center. Hence, Europeanization of financial and monetary affairs could foretell the relegation of some European financial hubs such as Frankfurt and Paris to third-rank status. Frankfurt’s financial history is interesting insofar as it has lost (in the 1870s) and regained (mainly in the 1980s) its preeminent place in the German context. Because Europe is still characterized by local pockets of information-sensitive assets as well as a demand for variety the national analogy probably does not hold. There is room in Europe for a number of financial hubs of an international dimension, including Frankfurt

World cinema beyond the periphery : developing film cultures in Bhutan, Mongolia, and Myanmar

According to UNESCO’s Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity there exists a need in light of the “imbalances in flows and exchanges of cultural goods and services at the global level” to enable “all countries, especially developing countries and countries in transition, to establish cultural industries that are viable and competitive at a national and international level” (2001). The dissertation explores ways in which viable cultural industries can be established in developing countries. More specifically, the focus is on the development of film industries in countries in transition. Three national film industries, examined in light of their historical development and contemporary situation, provide the empirical basis for the dissertation’s claims and arguments. The three developing countries under investigation are Bhutan, Mongolia, and Myanmar, and in each case the study traces the historical trajectory of the relevant film industries leading to the mapping of the recent trends and tendencies. The examination of the individual cases foregrounds industrial and commercial challenges and solutions rather than the aesthetic or stylistic properties of specific films. That is, the study seeks to explore how educational practices, production modes, approaches to distribution and exhibition, and cultural policy measures have facilitated or thwarted the emergence of film industries in three developing countries in the Asian region. The approach taken builds on the call for a more inclusive approach to the study of world cinema (Nagib 2006). Equally important is an analytical approach derived from the field of small national cinema studies, one that underscores the need to explore solutions to problems facing filmmakers in countries sharing similar developmental challenges (Hjort & Petrie 2007). Following this conceptual perspective the study aims firstly, through its historical examination, to contribute to expanding the historiography of world cinema, where little to no attention is given to these largely unexplored national cinema cultures. Secondly, following the mapping of the contemporary situation of the institutional and organizational make-up of the film industries in question, the aim is to identify the systematic challenges and opportunities that are embedded in specific film sectors. The approach is applied with the intention of facilitating a constructive discussion that explores and compares proactive strategies. The point ultimately is to identify models that might be more generally relevant and thus transferable across national boundaries

From Revolution to Referendum: Processes of Institutionalization and Practices of Contestation in Post-Socialist Civil Society Building, 1989-2006

At the intersection of civil society studies and contentious politics research lies an opportunity to better understand the development of civil society through contentious practices. Drawing on a diverse body of work in sociology, as well as these two interdisciplinary fields, I use contentious practices as the unit of analysis to examine how post-socialist civil society in Montenegro was built "from below" during its post-socialist transition from 1989 to 2006. I focus on how three processes of institutionalization that characterized this period democratization of the polity, privatization of the economy, and NGO-ization of civil society affected practices of contestation, and how such practices impinged on these processes. By using Protest Event Analysis to investigate how top-down (formal) processes of institutionalization and bottom-up (informal) practices of contestation interacted in civil society building in Montenegro, I achieve two objectives: firstly, illuminating the empirical reality of the post-socialist space of Montenegro through analysis of actually existing forms of contentious practices through which citizens articulated their grievances, voiced their demands, advanced their claims, and (re-)affirmed their identities; and secondly, analyzing how and to what extent forms, dynamics, sites, scales, and content of contentious practices were affected by elite-driven (formal) macro-processes and, conversely, how these processes were influenced by citizens through civil resistance, social activism, popular politics, and other forms of unconventional participation. Much of the existing literature points to the role of static structures in causing a socially passive, politically apathetic, and civically disengaged post-socialist civil society in Montenegro. In contrast, my findings demonstrate how both the decrease and depoliticization of contentious practices were consequences of dynamic (macro-)processual factors. Furthermore, my findings challenge very idea of Montenegro as a paradigmatic example of the "weak post-socialist civil society" at the European semi-periphery that needed to "catch up" to its Western neighbours. Instead, this dissertation argues that Montenegrin post-socialist civil society was not weak and that it significantly influenced the democratization processes in the country

Reconsidering Testimonial Forms and Social Justice: A Study of Official and Unofficial Testimony in Chile

Testimony flows from a story that originates long before the opportunity to be a witness about human atrocities occurs. And, ironically, testimony – the voice that is suppressed during times of state sanctioned terror – continues to flow long after the perpetrators fade from power. It is this ethereal and enduring paradox that raises the questions of what testimonial forms are, how they communicate, and whether they positively impact social justice as evidenced by enhanced communicative freedoms. The testimonial forms of this study are narratives about human rights atrocities which emerged from the 17-year military junta in Chile led by Augusto Pinochet. This project examines the development and uses of official and unofficial testimony surrounding times of transitional justice using a multi-modal analysis incorporating narrative and historical analysis, communication ethics, and critical theory which yields a meta-analysis of testimony and the context in which it functions. This research concludes that a life cycle of testimony exists that is organic and evolving. Furthermore, due to the unique circumstances of transitional justice periods, a theory of testimony ethics is called for to increase individual communicative freedoms that lead to enhanced social justice as well as to increase the success of truth commission communication processes

The underground music scene in Belgrade, Serbia: A multidisciplinary study

This thesis was submitted to Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University on 26 May 2004.The focus of this study is the underground music scene in Belgrade, Serbia. This work requires the exploration of varied cultural and market factors that have shaped the scene, resulting in its present form. The explored phenomenon is complex and achieving the necessary depth of analysis will involve the use of a wide set of theoretical sources and research methods. The fieldwork includes in-depth interviews, reflective accounts of longitudinal participant observation, data collected through email correspondence, and a large amount of documentary data. Data analysis will be articulated into a single methodology (examined in depth in Chapter 3)

Transnational agrarian movements struggling for land and citizenship rights

Rural citizens have increasingly begun to invoke perceived citizenship rights at transnational level, such that rural citizen engagements today have the potential to generate new meanings of global citizenship. La Vía Campesina has advocated for, created and occupied a new citizenship space that did not exist before at the global governance terrain – a public space distinct for poor peasants and small farmers from the global South and North. La Vía Campesina’s transnational campaign in protest against neoliberal land policies is a good illustration of this in the sense that rural citizens of different countries collectively invoke their rights to define what land and land reform mean to them, struggle for their rights to have rights in reframing the terms of the global land policymaking, and demand accountability from international development institutions. It has been inherently linked with campaigns for land and citizenship rights. One of the outcomes of this initiative is that the public space created and occupied by various civil society groups got expanded. Such space has also been rendered much more complex, with the subsequent creation of various layers of sub-spaces of interactions. Keywords: Vía Campesina, IPC for Food Sovereignty, transnational agrarian movements, peasant movements, citizenship, global civil society