From Symbolic Violence to Symbolic Reparation Strengthening Resilience and Reparation in Conflict-Affected Areas through Place-(re)making. Examples of the West Bank and Colombia

Based on examples of the West Bank and central Colombia, this paper investigates how in conflict settings, symbolic violence affects populations and on their perception of place, lifestyle and culture. It also looks at the potential of space and place-making to enhance conflict transformation and resilience by strengthening the sense of place and symbolic reparation. In extreme environments, symbolic violence has become a means of actively imposing social or symbolic domination which can be challenged by community-based peace-building and place-making initiatives

When the generation gap collides with military structure: The case of the Norwegian cyber officers

As the military integrates cyber into its structures, gradually more nations are recruiting and educating personnel to serve as "cyber officers". Tech-savvy men and women from ‘Generation Y’ grew up in the post-modern era, recognized not only by its individualism and erosion of overarching, coherent maxims, but also by the fact that technology is taken for granted. Thus, in the situation of the cyber officer a particular generation gap occurs, one in which the characteristics of postmodernity, military command structures and the inter-disciplinarity of cyber pull in conflicting directions. This friction creates a peculiar situation as technology and cyber contribute to sharpen the generation gap that necessarily exists between the young generation of cyber officers, and their superiors in the military. I explore this quandary through an examination of cyber officers’ testimonies. In particular, I focus on the cyber officers’ conceptualization of “cyber” and how this resonates with that of their superiors’. The data is ethnographic, based on interviews with cyber officer students at the Norwegian Defence Cyber Academy