Thesis advisor: Eve Spangler / This work explores how Israel uses LGBTQ issues as a rhetorical device (pinkwashing) in its self-presentation and examines how American college students perceive the claim that Israel is a ‘gay haven.’ Understanding the Israel/Palestine conflict from a human rights approach, I deconstruct the racial and gendered implications of the pinkwashing campaign by analyzing literature about homonationalism, pinkwashing, and queer activism. Interviews with fifteen student leaders from Zionist, pro-Palestinian, Jewish, Muslim, and LGBTQ organizations reveal how students engage with LGBTQ issues and the Conflict, as well as the institutional, cultural, and interactional factors that influence how organizations program. Interview analysis demonstrates that when pinkwashing occurs, some students use media, protests, and conversations to provide an alternative discourse. In conclusion, the findings demonstrate that pinkwashing does happen on college campuses, and anti-pinkwashing activism occurs most often in the form of queer anti-Occupation organizing. Anti-Occupation activism necessitates an intersectional approach if it is to gain human rights for all Palestinians. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Sociology.

Human-elephant conflict (HEC) occurs across Africa and is a major threat to the continued existence of the African elephant. To effectively implement mitigation measures, a thorough understanding of the spatial and temporal patterns of HEC is required. This study used a systematic, grid-based geographical information system (GIS) to analyse the spatial and temporal relations of HEC intensity in 2004 and 2008 with underlying environmental variables in a forest habitat, the Bia Conservation Area (BCA), Ghana. Relationships between crop-raiding incident data, Moderate Image Resolution Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) values and remotely sensed derived data were investigated at a 10 km2 scale using principal components analysis (PCA) and correlation analysis. Crop-raiding was found to be clustered into distinct areas. The onset of crop-raiding in 2004 and 2008 can be attributed to seasonal variation in vegetation biomass. Decreases in EVI values were matched with crop-raiding incidents. The high number of crop-raiding incidents in 2004 could be attributed to the large fluctuations in vegetation biomass in comparison to 2008. HEC intensity was not significantly related to the environmental variables analysed at the 10 km2 scale. These results suggest that HEC intensity may be influenced by vegetation quality, soil mineral content and/or human density. A grid-based GIS system with a 10 km2 resolution used in combination with remotely sensed data and statistical tools is useful for identifying spatial patterns of HEC, even with relatively small incident data sets. The methods used in this study could be applied to other forest habitats experiencing HEC for comparative analysis. The influence of vegetation quality, soil mineral content and human density on HEC intensity in forest habitats requires further analysis.

Faculty of Humanities School of Humanities and Social Sciences 0215594h ameck98@yahoo.com / Music has always played an important role in the lives of mankind; the quest for freedom by black people across the world is a typical example. During the days of slavery and later the civil rights struggle in the US, the struggle for independence by African states and the fight against Apartheid, music was used as an instrument of resistance. Through music, black South Africans emerged from conscious and subconscious subjugation to rescue their psyche from alienation. Today they express their cultural self-confidence in ways very different from the generations with firsthand experience of apartheid. Conflict has always been an important contributor to music of resistance. Over the past hundred years, however, violent attempts by men to dominate each another have intensified (The two Great Wars and the Cold War, genocides, ethnic and religious clashes). In this same vein, so too have efforts to thwart such attempts. Conflicts exist at all levels, within and between individuals, communities, nations and cultures. For a society still in the process of transformation, conflict in South Africa has also taken a new dimension with focus now on social conflict (for example Crime, drugs, poverty and the generation gap) in the field of daily life also including racial conflict, affirmative action, ethnic conflict, economic conflict and others with less and less focus on political conflict. The benefit of post- 1994 South Africa is the freedom of expression it offers. This is a freedom that, 20 years ago, was a luxury for blacks living in a country torn apart by apartheid; a freedom to have pride in themselves, a freedom to express their cultural selfconfidence. The first place this freedom became visible was on the music scene in the form of new infectious, irresistible form of dance and music. Musicians use their music as a medium to demonstrate most of these societal conflicts that exist in South Africa. Peace researchers, peace workers, and others have worked over several decades to promote an alternative culture and an alternative approach to dealing with conflicts – one based on recognising the positive, constructive, and creative opportunities available in any conflict situation. In this regard I would like to dwell on music as a creative way of dealing with conflict.

ABSTRACT Violent and protracted conflicts, such as those that affected Mozambique and Angola (both countries with a Lusophone colonial heritage), have had severe consequences in terms of wartime dislocation and destruction, especially in rural areas. Land issues per se are not endogenously conflictive, but in post-conflict settings, the scramble for access to the assets necessary to (re-)establish livelihoods for large numbers of people, as well as the pursuit of land access by large-scale commercial interests who capitalise on a fluid land tenure situation to acquire resources, may occur. A nuanced and comparative study of Mozambique and Angola is undertaken that explores the relationship between violence, resources and the environment. It asks two questions: i) What accounts for the relationship between violence (evidenced in both brutal physical acts, threats and increasing vulnerabilities) and land as a resource? ii) Are there lessons to be learnt from these findings that are particular to countries emerging from protracted civil wars? The thesis explores the changing discourses around the concepts of human security and environmental security, and the pressing land issues confronting the African continent. It highlights the complexity of issues – political, social and economic – and the necessity for a theoretical shift away from the popular approaches towards alternative ways of understanding the connections between the environment, violence and resources. It examines the specific dynamics of a post-conflict environment, an area that has received little attention, despite its potential for playing a significant role in ensuring broad-based development and in peace-building. A modified livelihoods framework is also used to analyse land issues on the basis that land is an element of a wider livelihoods approach with a focus on poverty alleviation and wealth creation. Findings mirror those of other international researchers who have found that conflicts over land often have less to do with resource scarcity, but that “violence is more likely when resources are in great abundance or have great economic and strategic value” (Peluso and Watts, 2001: 5). Furthermore, findings support the calls for taking a more inclusive concept of violence and non-violence that recognises that the outward manifestation of disputes may not be violence in the form of civil war, but social disruptions (Liotta, 2005). The value of a post-structuralist political ecology for analysing these various connections is demonstrated in the research findings. It is one which does not search for ‘environmental triggers’ of violent conflicts, but looks at the reciprocal relationship between nature and humans. Both countries are confronting many of the land issues that are common to Africa and which suggest an important new phase in the politics of land. In Angola land tenure and shelter are now insecure for many in both rural and urban areas, while in both countries there is mounting competition and conflict over land and landed resources. There are increasing threats of exclusionary practices and land grabs, but also the more subtle, ‘non-traditional’ security threats of the destruction and damage to livelihoods, of deepening impoverishment, evident in "creeping vulnerabilities”. The findings of the research confirm that in dealing with both equity and efficiency issues, and environmental sustainability and political stability, land policies need to be well integrated into wider social, economic and environmental planning – at various levels, local to global – to strengthen sustainable security. vi Land conflicts are generally contained as local-level disputes, often camouflaged by government or suppressed. While conflict theory points to apparent triggers – differential impacts and political mobilisation – it must be acknowledged that these tensions are more often than not politically sustainable, as leaders justify overriding the interests of the poor in the interests of growth. Furthermore, peace is not the default mode of society: conflicts are at times an integral part of the transformation of land tenures systems and not necessarily destructive in themselves. Concerns need to focus, rather, on those cases where inequity and violence are politically sustainable, and what this means for human security. It is this issue that is recommended for further research. “In contrast to thinking about violent conflict, a human-centred conceptualisation of environmental security asserts the need for cooperation and inclusion to manage the environment for the equal benefit of all people and future generations” (Barnett, 2001: 128).

Thesis advisor: Eve Spangler / At the conclusion of the 1967 War, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict returned to a contest between two national movements, Palestinian and Israeli, making competing claims to the same piece of territory. Over the ensuing 45 years, the discourse of each national movement has been littered with explicit and implicit references, acknowledgements and denunciations of the other. This study takes a critical reading approach to political discourse of each national movement with the goal of finding the place of the other in the imagined future of each group. By understanding the evolving place of the other in national movements that make exclusive claim to the same piece of territory, we are able to understand the irreconcilability that has characterized the Palestinian-Israeli conflict since the start of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967 and the failure of the Oslo Process to bring about a negotiated solution. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Islamic Civilization and Society Honors Program. / Discipline: Islamic Civilizations .

This dissertation explores informal means of convening various foreign policy professionals in conflict resolution discussions, taking two quite different case studies: the Pugwash Conferences, a long-standing transnational non-governmental organization; and the Ottawa Dialogue, a more recent suite of projects. Although conventionally viewed through the rubric of ‘Track Two’, this thesis instead tackles the subject of unofficial diplomacy through a conceptual framework derived from critical and sociological work in International Relations theory. By taking a practice-based approach, the research reveals that what is actually done in the spaces of unofficial diplomacy not only has a diplomatic purpose at root but in fact can be seen to reproduce a diplomatic logic in how certain tasks are performed. The dissertation shows the intrinsic liminality of these informal, unofficial activities to the corridors of power and policymaking and, in this way, helps elaborate how the emergent landscape of diplomacy is impacted by various actors and changing practices. To understand why such processes appear around international conflict, the thesis calls attention to investigating how they are used by those who participate. The approach brings into focus the constitution of professional social networks that emerge in spaces left out of limelight, where various experts contest, debate, and refract policy knowledge. Through the eyes of these non-traditional actors, the thesis problematizes diplomacy as a solely state-based authority, insisting that we must look to the close imbrication of government representatives in putatively non-state activities to understand their contribution to global governance. Developed through an immersion and engagement of ten years with the very people who do the work, this project brings together several theoretical and methodological perspectives to make sense of a complex data-set and bridge a number of disciplinary gaps.

This study investigates preferred conflict management styles in order to explore how conflict is dealt with in a particular cultural/geographical context (i.e. the Middle East), as culture is one of the factors, which affects management style, whether in a conflict situation or any other situations. Upon researching the literature in the area of conflict management styles in the Middle East it has been found that there is no published research for the region and specifically on the cultural issues. Therefore, this research study has taken a step forward in exploring how and in what ways, the conflict management styles of those individuals (e.g. employees) in Kuwait (a culture/context within the Middle East) may or may not be similar or different to those described in studies carried out in other cultures/contexts. The research explores the different conflict management styles used in Kuwait, which is approached by simulating the application of different conflict situations in Kuwaiti business context and explores the negotiation and application of conflict management styles applied. The use of the Thomas Kilmann Conflict mode Instrument (TKI) to gather research data helped in understanding the different conflict management styles used. The TKI is an extensively validated instrument used in the field to highlight the different ways of how people handle disputes and its effects on the dynamics of individuals and teams. This study attempts to make its contribution to knowledge in the field of conflict management styles in that (a) it assesses Kuwaiti conflict management styles, and (b) It studies the effects of the process of the different conflict management styles and its outcomes in resolving these conflicts in the Kuwaiti Business culture.

Lam Chun Bun. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 45-56). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter CHAPTER 1. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Theoretical Background --- p.3 / Impact of Male Gender Role Conflict --- p.4 / Potential Moderator Variables --- p.6 / Age --- p.6 / Ethnicity --- p.8 / Marital Status --- p.9 / The Present Study --- p.10 / Chapter CHAPTER 2. --- METHOD --- p.12 / Study Selection --- p.12 / Inclusion Criteria --- p.12 / Coding Procedure --- p.13 / Meta-analytic Procedure --- p.13 / Table 1 --- p.16 / Chapter CHAPTER 3. --- RESULTS --- p.22 / Reliability of Gender Role Conflict and its Correlates --- p.22 / Table 2 --- p.23 / Main Effect Analyses --- p.24 / Psychological Variables --- p.24 / Interpersonal Variables --- p.25 / Attitudinal Variables --- p.25 / Table 3 --- p.27 / Table 4 --- p.28 / Table 5 --- p.29 / Table 6 --- p.30 / Table 7 --- p.31 / Moderator Analyses --- p.32 / Age --- p.32 / Ethnicity --- p.33 / Marital Status --- p.33 / Table 8 --- p.34 / Table 9 --- p.35 / Table 10 --- p.36 / Chapter CHAPTER 4. --- DISCUSSION --- p.37 / Reliability of the GRCS-I --- p.37 / Main Effects --- p.38 / Age as a Moderator --- p.40 / Ethnicity as a Moderator --- p.40 / Marital Status as a Moderator --- p.41 / Limitations --- p.42 / Concluding Remarks --- p.43 / REFERENCES --- p.45

Conflict is an inherent part of human relationships and is ubiquitous within families. These disputes are not in themselves harmful to children. Rather, it is the strategies used to resolve conflict that have a bearing on children’s health and development, notably whether family members employ aggressive or violent tactics. The study examines evidence from a sample of 161 children, selected to be representative of children living in Dublin, Ireland. It explores children’s responses to different methods of conflict resolution in two family relationships and seeks to expand the understanding of how social problems, such as child maltreatment and domestic violence, occur within normative family processes. The study shows that the use of psychological and minor physical aggression to resolve conflict in the parental relationship and the parent-child relationship is typical. It occurs in 90 per cent of families over a twelve-month period. Severe physical force or violence between family members is less common. The study finds that while there is considerable variation in children’s responses to conflict resolution strategies, children who experience aggression in both the inter-parental and parent-child relationship are at elevated risk for behavioural and emotional problems. The frequency and severity of the aggression explains some of the variance in child well-being but not all. The study lends support to Bronfrenbrenner’s (1979) ecological theory by demonstrating empirically how the individual, family, neighbourhood, and potentially societal, contexts moderate the transmission of poor conflict resolution strategies to children's health and development. The findings suggest that while the child's age and gender play a small role, family and neighbourhood contexts are strongly implicated in outcomes for children exposed to risky conflict resolution tactics in the home. In particular, parental mental health problems, low socio-economic status and poor peer relationships increase children’s vulnerability to the effects of aggressive conflict tactics. The relevance of the evidence for policy and practice are drawn out. A distinction can be drawn between responses to pathological behaviour by parents and normative, yet harmful, conflict resolution strategies. Public health approaches to promote reasoning within families as well as prevention and early intervention strategies that support all families, not just economically disadvantaged parents known to child protection and domestic violence agencies, are required. In addition, greater sensitivity to children's gender and stage of development and more attention to policies that reduce stress on families and violence within communities are advocated.

This study explores the nature of conflict in virtual communication in the course of inter-organisational collaborations. Conflict appears to exist inherently when organisations cooperate together because each company operates with different goals, norms and values, which are vital considerations for successful business collaborations. Special attention, therefore, needs to be paid to gaining a grounded understanding of conflict in the context of virtual communication in the interorganisational business collaborations of today. This research draws on fieldwork carried out over five months, using a multiple-case study approach, involving four cases of inter-organisational collaborations between a large high-tech corporation in Taiwan and its four supplier companies in Korea. In addition, participant observation was employed as the main method of data collection in this study, which allowed for this researcher to gain rich data in a direct way. The collected data included daily logs based on observations, in addition to interviews and documentation. This resulted in an extensive amount of useful information being gathered, which was analysed, categorised, interpreted, and summarised in relation to theory generalisation. In this inter-organisational research setting, it was found that three patterns of interorganisational conflict, namely: business strategic conflict, cultural conflict and organisational process conflict interact to influence participants’ communication media selection and, in turn, conflict is influenced by the selected media. Moreover, it was found that conflict is expressed in email communication in a stylised way that is significantly different from spoken conversation and it could lead to conflict escalation and the subsequent termination of business collaboration. Based on the research findings, a comprehensive framework was established to describe and explain the interrelations between conflict transformation and computer-mediated communication (CMC) in inter-organisational collaborations.