Analysing resistance to transitional justice : what can we learn from hybridity?

An increased focus on understanding and managing the reactions of affected populations has led to hybridity being an important part of the discussions about, and applications of, transitional justice. However, despite the presence of ‘resistance’ as an active component in theories of hybrid peace, there is very limited in-depth theoretical or empirical work on resistance to transitional justice. The content of this paper addresses this gap in two main ways. First, it asks what we can learn from theories of hybrid peace about resistance to transitional justice. Second, it proposes a particular approach to resistance which would allow for a more dynamic and ultimately more useful understanding of resistance to transitional justice, its intentions and its meanings. By drawing on empirical examples in a number of different transitional contexts, the argument presented here states that not only must we seek to understand the nature of resistance as a part of hybridity, but we must do so by analysing the relational process through which acts come to be defined as resistance

Stories of “success” : narrative, expertise, and claims to knowledge

This paper explores the possibilities provided by narrative interviewing for critically assessing claims of success regarding reconciliation policies in Brčko District, Bosnia-Herzegovina. More specifically, the paper argues that such claims of success are based on claims to expertise. Certain understandings of the harm, i.e., the inter-ethnic violence committed during the 1992–1995 war, and of the policies designed to address it, i.e., reconciliation policies based on a logic of multi-ethnic living, gain credence based on the supposed expertise of particular actors. However, knowledge of harm and of the impact of policies designed to address it is produced through the subjectivity of different actors’ positionalities, and therefore assumptions about the figure of “the expert” need to be unsettled. This paper explores the possibilities offered by narrative interviewing and analysis for bringing to the fore the complicated ways in which expertise is produced in certain places at certain times

Ye ken fine wha I mean : Variation between you know and ye ken in Scottish varieties of English

The discourse marker you know is one of the most frequently studied discourse markers, and bears the hallmarks of a typical discourse marker with its complexity and indeterminacy of function (e.g. Holmes 1986, Erman 1987, Fox Tree & Schrock 2002, Irwin 2006). Much less work has been conducted into the uses of regional varieties of you know, specifically the use of Scots ye ken, partly as a consequence of a lack of data to study (Bauer 2004), and partly due to an assumption that there is little of interest to study in language varieties of Scotland (Murdoch, 1996). In this thesis I present a discourse analysis of the variation between you know and ye ken as it is used in spontaneous conversations in Scottish varieties of English, taking my data from the SCOTS project, which aims to build a large electronic collection of the languages of Scotland. I use Ermans (2001) monitor type framework to classify and categorize 270 tokens from 21 speakers across 7 recordings as functioning as one of three monitor types, and I look at the use of monitor types across two genres of conversation: one narrative, and one conversational. I also explore the roles that the sociolinguistic variables of age, gender, region of residence play in speakers\u27 use of you know or ye ken. I find that ye ken is preferred by older speakers and male speakers in more rural communities, while you know is preferred by younger speakers, women, and those in more urban communities. Amongst the eight speakers who use both you know and ye ken, use of ye ken is often primed by code-switching into Scots. Ye ken also functions as a marker of shared experience and reminiscence amongst older speakers in smaller, rural communities. The emergence of corpora of regional language varieties, such as SCOTS, enables this kind of study into the use of regional discourse markers, and provides the opportunity for comparative study of discourse markers across language varieties

The performance and persistence of transitional justice and its ways of knowing atrocity

Transitional justice, like other peacebuilding endeavours, strives to create change in the world and to produce knowledge that is useful (Goetschel and Pfluger 2014: 55). But the politics of how this knowledge is produced, shared and rendered legitimate depends upon the relationships between different epistemic communities, the way in which transitional justice has developed as a field, and the myriad contexts in which it is embedded at local, national and international levels. In particular, forms of ‘expert’ knowledge tend to be legal, foreign and based on models to be replicated elsewhere. Work on epistemic communities of peacebuilding can be usefully brought to bear on transitional justice, speaking to current debates in the literature on positionality, justice from below, marginalisation and knowledge imperialism. This paper offers two contributions to the field of transitional justice: (1) an analysis of the way the field has developed as an epistemic community(ies) and the relevance of this for a politics of knowledge, and (2) an argument for the politics of knowledge to be more widely discussed and understood as a factor in shaping transitional justice policy and practice, and as a call to a more ethical relationship with the supposed beneficiaries of transitional justice interventions

Truth commission archives as 'new democratic spaces'

The significant increase in the number of truth commissions created and implemented in recent years has been accompanied by a growing number of debates over popular ownership of, and citizen participation in, such initiatives, with particular reference to enhancing the best impact possible in terms of ‘never again’ for the human rights abuses of the past. Using a combination of data collected through desk-based research and semi-structured interviews conducted with researchers and professionals of truth commission archives, this article takes a new approach to the question of the social and political impact of truth commissions by firstly suggesting that the archives of truth commissions need to be included in any consideration of long-term impact on democracy and human rights, and secondly by asking whether we could think of such archives as a form of ‘new democratic space’ similar to those proposed by Cornwall (2004). Such spaces would be designed and implemented in a manner that invites and includes the population in the decision-making process of shaping the future, and as such would represent an enhancement of the role which truth commission archives can play in the deepening of democratic processes and the protection of human rights

Knowledge for peace : transitional justice and the politics of knowledge in theory and practice [introductory chapter to book]

This introduction to the book “Knowledge for Peace: Transitional Justice and the Politics of Knowledge in Theory and Practice” explores the overall themes of the book from the perspective of the existing scholarship. These themes center around the transitional justice norm, its emergence and diffusion, the notion of knowledge imperialism or the unequal power relations involved in producing knowledge in and on transitional justice processes, and the ‘local’ in debates around transitional justice knowledge production. It also highlights the research-policy-practice nexus which has often been criticized for blurring the lines between different knowledges and ways of producing and using knowledge. The chapter then explores the central contributions of the book: The interlinkages between the processes and politics of knowledge production, the ways in which these interlinkages shape the politics of knowledge production, and how these set the boundaries of what transitional justice processes, institutions and policies are imagined and enacted. In doing so, particular attention is given to the research-policy-practice nexus, reflecting on how these communities interact, how they are distinguished, and their relevance for the politics of knowledge for justice and peacebuilding

Fluorescent IGF-II analogues for FRET-based investigations into the binding of IGF-II to the IGF-1R

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. Material from this article can be used in other publications provided that the correct acknowledgement is given with the reproduced material.The interaction of IGF-II with the insulin receptor (IR) and type 1 insulin-like growth factor receptor (IGF-1R) has recently been identified as potential therapeutic target for the treatment of cancer. Understanding the interactions of IGF-II with these receptors is required for the development of potential anticancer therapeutics. This work describes an efficient convergent synthesis of native IGF-II and two nonnative IGF-II analogues with coumarin fluorescent probes incorporated at residues 19 and 28. These fluorescent analogues bind with nanomolar affinities to the IGF-1R and are suitable for use in fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) studies. From these studies the F19Cou IGF-II and F28Cou IGF-II proteins were identified as good probes for investigating the binding interactions of IGF-II with the IGF-1R and its other high affinity binding partners