Beyond Keeping the Peace: Can Peacekeepers Reduce Ethnic Divisions After Violence?

Existing research suggests that international peacekeeping contributes to conflict resolution and helps sustain peace, often in locations with hostile ethnic divisions. However, it is unclear whether the presence of peacekeepers actually reduces underlying ethnocentric views and parochial behaviors that sustain those divisions. We examine the effects of NATO peacekeeper deployments on ethnocentrism in postwar Bosnia. While peacekeepers were not randomly deployed in Bosnia, we find that highly ethnocentric attitudes were common across Bosnia at the onset of peacekeeper deployments, reducing endogeneity concerns. To measure ethnocentrism, we employ a variety of survey instruments as well as a behavioral experiment (the dictator game) with ethnic treatments across time. We find that regions with peacekeepers exhibit lower levels of ethnocentrism in comparison to regions without peacekeepers, and this effect persists even after peacekeepers have departed. The peacekeeping effect is also robust to a sub-sample of ethnic Bosnian Serbs, suggesting that peacekeeper deployments can have positive effects on diminishing ethnocentrism, even when local communities are especially hostile to their presence. Our results speak to the potential long-term role of peacekeepers in reducing tensions among groups in conflict

Using ethnography and assemblage theory in political geography

While the focus on the ‘everyday’ in qualitative human geography has greatly increased the need for, and relevance of, ethnographic methods, Megoran argued that this is particularly true for political geography as it has the potential to challenge its focus on elite discourse, allowing researchers to bring forward multiple voices to investigate the becoming of political events. More recently, assemblage theory has gained traction in political geography, not only because of its capability to include the role of the material and the affective, but also revealing the links between micro- and macro-politics by showing how agency emerges out of complex relations. In the first part of this paper, we present an overview of the recent uses of ethnography in political geography that have not embraced assemblage. Second, we explore the theoretical conceptualisations of, and opportunities provided by, an assemblage approach. Third, we go through the use of assemblage ethnographies in political geography, with a particular focus on Pooya's experience of research with Iranians in London. In this, he embraced a variety of ethnographic approaches, including ‘auto-ethnography’, ‘netnographies’, ‘participant sensation’, in combination with observations, participatory workshops and activism. Showing the role of ethnography as a qualitative tool for political geographers to interrogate discursive social constructions, we argue that it holds even more promise for analysing and intervening in the emergent politics of socio-material-affective assemblages

Pride amid Prejudice: The Influence of LGBT+ Rights Activism in a Socially Conservative Society

How do mass publics react to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT+) advocacy efforts in socially conservative societies? We consider how the first-ever LGBT+ Pride in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina influences ordinary citizens' attitudes and behavior regarding LGBT+ support. Using nationwide and local panel surveys, we find that support for LGBT+ activism increased locally after the Pride but did not diffuse nationwide, signaling how proximity mechanisms reinforce Pride effects. In survey experiments, we show that subjects are responsive to both mobilization and counter-mobilization appeals by local activists. We also find evidence from a behavioral experiment that the Pride had a positive effect on shifting the allocation of financial resources toward local pro-LGBT+ activists and away from opposition groups. Finally, in-depth interviews with local LGBT+ activists underscore the challenges facing LGBT+ activism in socially conservative societies but also point to the substantial possibilities of collective action on behalf of minorities at risk

A large fluvial pulse of organic carbon following the Bornean peat swamp forest fires of 2009

Tropical peatlands are high carbon density ecosystems that are currently extremely vulnerable to destabilisation through human and climate induced changes. They contain 89 Gt carbon (3% global soil carbon) but rapid land use changes (deforestation, drainage) and consequent fire are rapidly releasing this. There are approximately 27.1 million hectares (Mha) (an area approximately equivalent in size to the UK) of peatland in Southeast Asia which accounts for around 56% of all tropical peatlands worldwide. 20.7 Mha (83%) is found in Indonesia, primarily in Eastern Sumatra and Central Kalimantan. The dry season of 2009 (May-October) proved to be one of the most intense Bornean fire events since 1997. We sought to establish how fluvial carbon dynamics in tropical peat rich catchments were affected in the period following these catastrophic fires. Fluvial carbon fluxes were quantified from 8 channels draining peat swamp forest (PSF) catchments in Central Kalimantan, Borneo from weekly measurements over a 6-month period immediately following the end of the fire period. These included 5 channels draining degraded PSF catchments that were subject to fires during the dry season of 2009 and 3 channels draining intact PSF that was unaffected by the fires. Cumulative total organic carbon (TOC) fluxes for the duration of the study were 32 to 68% larger in the catchment channels that had been affected by fire, when compared to fluxes during the same interval in the previous year (which was unexceptional in terms of fire). This is in marked contrast to channels draining the intact (no fire) forest where there were no differences observed in fluxes. Concentration data demonstrates that there was an initial decrease in dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration and an increase in particulate organic carbon (POC) immediately following the onset of the first rains which continued for ~1 month until reaching similar levels to the corresponding period in the previous year. For DOC fluxes (the largest fraction) this decrease in concentration was more than offset by a large increase in fluvial discharge (from decreased transpiration and increased runoff through denuded vegetation cover) which contributed an overall net increase in flux. The fire-stimulated increase in fluvial carbon flux is set against a pattern of higher fluxes in the degraded catchments established during the pre-fire year where oxidation of the peat column results in high losses. Our data are the first to demonstrate a large and sustained pulse of fluvial carbon following large scale fires in carbon rich tropical PSF. They point to a previously uncharacterised pathway of carbon loss from these vast carbon stores and they underscore the vulnerability of these stores when subject to anthropogenic disturbance

Sociology Podcast on Local Farms

The beginning portion of our project draft introduces the importance of supporting local food systems, and the challenges that workers face within local farms. At first, we have a broader discussion surrounding the economic challenges of smaller businesses due to competition with big industrial agriculture. We get into different sustainable tactics that small farms may use in comparison to big corporations. This includes practices like crop rotation, reduced pesticide and fertilizer use, and the preservation of open space. We then move into the sense of community that family-owned and smaller-scale farms enhance. Much of the time there are regular customers, which is definitely rewarding to the farmers, and allows them to have the assurance of knowing people will continue to support their business. Finally, we move into a brief discussion of Amish families, and how their way of life may contribute to differences that we see in farming markets and efficiencies. We acknowledge how they are typically less inclined to reach out to the outside world for beneficial, modernized technological resources. After this, we moved into our interviews with specific farms. The farms that we got the opportunity to speak to were the Old Mill Creamery and Dream Catcher Farm. They gave us specific details about their farm and their experiences working on a farm. We discuss challenges and traditions that are important to both owners of the farm. We ended our podcast by describing how much we learned about Lewisburg food systems, and hope that others who listened to our podcast will get a better understanding as well.https://digitalcommons.bucknell.edu/soci258/1012/thumbnail.jp

The tracking of active travel and its relationship with body composition in UK adolescents

AbstractBackgroundTo examine the tracking of active travel through adolescence, and its association with body mass index (BMI) and fat mass at age 17 in a UK cohort.MethodsWe analysed data collected from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). The analyses include all participants with self-reported travel mode to school at ages 12, 14 and 16 years, and measured height, weight and body composition at age 17 (n=2,026). Tracking coefficients were calculated for individual travel behaviours (including walking and cycling) through adolescence using Generalised Estimating Equations. Linear regression analyses examined associations between travel pattern (consistently passive, consistently active, active at two time points or active at one time point), BMI, and DXA-measured fat mass (expressed as internally derived standard deviation scores) at 17 years. Analyses were adjusted for height (where appropriate), sex, age, parental social class, and maternal education with interaction terms to assess sex differences.ResultsThere was substantial tracking in active travel through adolescence, with 38.5% of males and 32.3% of females consistently walking or cycling to school. In males, a consistently or predominantly active travel pattern was associated with a lower BMI SD score at age 17 (consistently active: adjusted β=−0.23; 95% CI −0.40, −0.06; active at two time points: adjusted β−0.30; 95% CI −0.50, −0.10) compared to those with a consistently passive pattern. No associations were seen in females.ConclusionsMaintenance of active travel behaviours throughout adolescence may help to protect against the development of excess BMI in males. In addition to encouraging the adoption of active travel to school, public health messages should aim to prevent drop out from active travel to promote good health in youth

Bottomonium spectral widths at nonzero temperature using maximum likelihood

We present progress results from the Fastsum collaboration’s programme to determine the spectrum of the bottomonium system as a function of temperature using a variety of approaches. Inthese proceedings, the Maximum Likelihood approach is used with an Ansatz comprising of a Gaussian spectral function for the ground state. Fastsum anisotropic lattices with 2 + 1 dynamicalquark flavours were used with temperatures ranging from 47 to 375 MeV