Most scholarly research and international policy initiatives on small arms control (SALW) tend to focus exclusively on the supply side of arms control, while the demand side for small arms remains relatively unexplored. The general assumption is that by regulating the international and regional supply of SALW, and by preventing and tracking the illicit flow that drift into the open markets, armed violence can be reduced. However, empirical evidence suggests that attempts to control and reduce the supply of weapons through sanctions, embargoes, and regional commitments alone have hardly stopped or mitigated armed conflict. In looking at the global arms trade, one sees that often countries subjected to supply side restrictions have managed to acquire arms through finding willing sellers, black market acquisitions, and/or domestic production. This dissertation examines the factors that drive the demand for SALW in weak states by identifying the important gaps in literature on demand, providing a consistent and systematic framework to address these gaps, and applying the framework to a single country case study. The main argument in this study is that in order to understand group arming behaviour, its relationship to the dynamics of armed conflict, and the kind of incentives integral to the design of interventions that seek to influence behaviours associated with arms acquisitions during post-conflict arms management, there needs to be a better understanding of the independent variables shaping the demand for SALW. Too often, analysts conflate the reasons why groups acquire SALW with the reasons why groups go to war. However, if the act of acquiring SALW occurs at a different point in time from the process of organising and planning armed conflict, the two events need to be analysed separately. This study uses a human security analytical approach to understand sources of threats to security at the household level. It employs a nationally representative rapid household survey (n=1200) on SALW ownership, acquisition and attitudes, and focus group discussions (n=77) implemented in select locations to unpack responses which have not been thoroughly addressed during the survey. In-depth interviews with key informants, civilian firearm permit records, and public health data were also collected to supplement primary data. The design is applied to a single case study, the Casamance in Senegal. This study illustrates that an increased level of weapons accumulation does not always necessitate an automatic rise in SALW related violence or local level arms races at the outset of armed conflict. This works contributes to the growing body of literature on SALW by advancing an analytically applicable concept of demand to increase our understanding of what motivates the choices groups make in acquiring and using small arms. Lastly, this study develops a replicable template that can be applied to further research on SALW demand in conflict-ridden regions.

This thesis explores conviviality, a set of processes surrounding everyday living with difference. Based on 18 months of fieldwork (2007-2010) equally split between Casamance, Senegal, and Catalonia, Spain, the comparison takes the transnational lives of Casamançais and their embeddedness in both local fields into account. Locally, Casamançais often spoke of cohabitation (French) and convivencia (Castilian). Exploring discourses as well as practices related to encounters with difference and everyday socialising, this thesis addresses three questions: (1) How do migrants who come from a context of religious and ethnic diversity manage to make their way within new social contexts of cultural diversity? (2) How do their pre-migration experiences of diversity affect the ways in which they deal with the changing configurations of diversity that they encounter in Europe? (3) How do ways of living together with difference change over time in both sending and receiving contexts due to migration and other concurrent societal transformations? In four ethnographic chapters, I firstly explore everyday neighbourhood encounters and the centrality of multilingual greeting and temporary gatherings in open spaces for conviviality. A second chapter focuses on cultural and religious festivities and argues that, apart from the political recognition of diversity, the local residents’ sensuous experiences of difference are a crucial dimension of conviviality. Addressing challenges to conviviality, the third chapter engages with the processes of social closure, isolation and homogenisation which reveal alternative ways of living with difference. The fourth ethnographic chapter puts migration-related inequalities centre-stage, showing how conviviality also involves subtle forms of inequality. Analytically, this thesis suggests that conviviality is not a static conception of sociality, but one that is in-process. I find that socio-cultural differences are permanently negotiated, that ways of dealing with difference are translated between the old and new contexts of diversity, and that discourses and practices of living with difference are continuously (re)produced in everyday interactions. Casamançais perspectives reveal ways of maintaining minimal sociality among local residents who remain different.

This thesis examines the relationship between ethnicity and violent group mobilisation in Liberia’s civil war (1989-2003). It focuses on Gio, Mano and Mandingo mobilisation to investigate how and why internal dynamics about moral norms and expectations motivated leadership calls for violence and ethnic support. Much of the existing literature interprets popular involvement in violent group mobilisation on the Upper Guinea Coast as a youth rebellion against gerontocracy. I argue that such an approach is incomplete in the Liberian case, and does not account for questions of ethnic mobilisation and the participation of groups such as the Gio, Mano and Mandingo. At the onset of hostilities, civilians in Liberia were not primarily mobilised to fight based on their age, but rather as members of ethnic communities whose membership included different age groups. I explore constructivist approaches to ethnicity to analyse mobilisation for war as the collective 'self-defence' of ethnic groups qua moral communities. In the prelude to the outbreak of civil war, inter-ethnic inequalities of access to the state and economic resources became reconfigured. Ethnic groups—as moral communities—experienced external 'victimisation' and a sense of internal dissolution, or threatened dissolution. In particular, the understanding of internal reciprocal relations between patrons and clients within ethnic groups was undermined. Internal arguments about morality, personal responsibility, social accountability/justice, increased the pressure on excluded elites and thus incentivised them to pursue violent political strategies. Mobilisation took on an ethnic form mainly because individuals believed that they were fighting to protect the moral communities that generate esteem and ground understandings of good citizenship. Therefore, ethnic participation in the Liberian countryside differed from the model peasant rebellion that seeks to overthrow the feudal elites. Rather than a revolution of the social order, individuals regarded themselves as protecting an extant ethnic order that provided rights and distributed resources. Even though some individuals fought for political power and resources, and external actors facilitated group organisation through the provision of logistical support, the violence was also an expression of bottom-up moral community crisis and an attempt by politico-military elites to keep their reputation and enforce unity.

This thesis examines the treatment and experiences of foreign national prisoners in England and Wales. It contains two main arguments. First, I contend that dominant prison theories rely on an outmoded understanding of the nation-state, and as a result, tend to ignore the effects of globalisation. Second, I argue that current prison practices reaffirm the boundaries of the British nation-state and promote an exclusionary notion of British citizenship. I conclude that research attuned to the affective, embodied dimensions of incarceration can help criminologists to develop a more ‘global’ perspective on state power. This argument begins and builds from ethnographic research. As a whole, the thesis is based on more than 200 interviews conducted over the course of a year in and around five men’s prisons in the north, southwest, and center of England. Structurally, it proceeds from a theoretical critique of prison studies, to an ethnographic account of prison life, to a conclusion about the purpose of prison scholarship. Thematically, it focuses on the relationship between identity and imprisonment, and in particular, on the ways in which normative beliefs about race, gender, sexuality, and class get infused in incarceration practices.

In this dissertation I explore the redistributive effects of second-dimensional identity politics in parliamentary democracies. Specifically, I focus on parties’ electoral incentives to manipulate the salience of the territorial-identity cleavage. My main argument is that a greater electoral salience of the second dimension distorts the nature of redistributive outcomes. Although the redistributive effects of second dimensions of political competition have been explored in majoritarian democracies, much less is known about their effects in democracies with proportional representation (PR). The dissertation brings “bad news” in that regard: when the territorial second dimension is salient, it is no longer true that parliamentary democracies with proportional electoral systems redistribute more –which is the prevalent view in the existing literature. In fact, the so called “left-bias” of PR systems vanishes when the territorial-identity cleavage is politically activated. This key insight therefore offers a fundamental qualification to the institutionalism literature, by making an effort to understand the way in which regional diversity interacts with institutions through multidimensional political competition. The dissertation is divided in two parts: one theoretical and one empirical. First, I develop a formal model that illustrates the way in which parties’ second-dimension electoral incentives affect both the electoral stage and the subsequent post-electoral coalition bargaining among parties in national parliaments. The reason is that both right-wing and regionalist parties have incentives to increase the salience of the second dimension at the electoral stage to attract voters, and subsequently the coalition bargaining among parties in parliaments offers new opportunities for legislative coalitions. In the second part of the dissertation, I test the empirical implications at the macro-level, the meso-level and the individual-level. The main empirical results can be summarised as follows. First, I present empirical evidence according to which the legislative salience of the second dimension induces a negative effect on redistribution and a positive effect on the regionalisation of public policy. Second, I provide evidence which shows that both right-wing and regionalist parties strategically increase the electoral salience of the second dimension when they are “losers” on the first dimension. Finally, I illustrate the way in which the salience of the second dimension affects the formation of individual preferences for redistribution. In sum, this dissertation provides new arguments and empirical evidence that demonstrates how second dimensional politics can have profound redistributive consequences in parliamentary democracies.

The project deals with development of school education in the vicinity of the town of Svitavy, Czech Republic, populated by both the Czech and German nations between 1918 and 1938. It is focused on changes in traditional schools as well as on founding new ones for ethnic.

L’immigration au Québec se caractérise depuis quelques années par une nouvelle dynamique. La présence d’immigrants socialement perçus comme « minorités ethniques », ou plus précisément comme « minorités visibles », est de plus en plus évidente, surtout dans des contextes urbains où la diversité ethnique est une donnée palpable au quotidien. Dans ce mémoire nous proposons de travailler sur l’impact du loisir défini comme un ensemble de pratiques culturelles, c'est-à-dire des pratiques de loisir enracinées dans l’habitus, à l’appui de l’analyse du processus d’intégration sociale d’un groupe d’immigrants péruviens nouvellement arrivés à Montréal. Cette enquête cherche à explorer le rapport entre loisir et intégration, à partir d’un cadre théorique qui nous permet d’aborder le loisir comme un domaine particulièrement fécond sur le plan de la participation à la société d’accueil. Pour ce faire, nous avons privilégié une approche qualitative qui nous a aidé à « reconstruire » la trajectoire d’intégration de cinq nouveaux arrivants péruviens installés à Montréal depuis cinq ans ou moins. L’analyse des données révèle que le processus d’intégration de ces migrants est difficile, en raison des épreuves de l’adaptation (l’acculturation) à la société hôte, et que les activités liées aux loisirs ont un impact positif sur ledit processus, en partie parce qu’elles jouent un rôle stratégique qui favorise l’adaptation et la participation. Ces activités illustrent aussi les modalités d’une incorporation dans certains domaines de la vie sociale (l’emploi, la vie culturelle, la socialisation amicale) qui permet de ne pas rompre totalement les liens avec la communauté d’origine. Au quotidien, les loisirs permettent un rapprochement avec le groupe majoritaire et, plus largement, avec les autres groupes présents à Montréal : des liens d’amitié se développent, des pratiques de sociabilité se déploient, la consommation de certains biens et services est stimulée, l’individu fait de nouvelles connaissances, etc. Le lien entre communalisation ethnique et intégration permet alors de traverser différents espaces et groupes. Le plaisir reste par ailleurs le moteur des loisirs, c'est-à-dire que les activités choisies par les individus correspondent à leurs goûts, leurs intérêts, et que le loisir, en général, va de pair avec le plaisir. Ce lien favorise le déploiement de « réponses » spécifiques par nos interlocuteurs face aux problèmes d’adaptation, et la confirmation d’une sorte de sentiment d’intégration chez eux. / Immigration in Quebec has recently experienced a new trend. In fact, the arrival of immigrants socially perceived as "ethnic minorities", or more specifically as "visible minorities", has become increasingly evident, especially in the urban context where ethnic diversity is palpable every day. In this master’s thesis, we focus on the impact of leisure defined as a set of cultural practices, that is to say leisure practices embedded in the “habitus,” to support the analysis of the social integration of a group of Peruvian immigrants recently arrived in Montréal. This investigation seeks to explore the relationship between leisure and integration. Utilizing a theoretical framework allowed us to approach leisure, as a field that encourages participation in the host society. To achieve this goal, we used a qualitative approach in order to "rebuild" the integration trajectory of five Peruvian newcomers who had settled in Montréal for five years or less. The data analysis reveals that the integration process of these immigrants is difficult, since this process presents challenges of adaptation (acculturation) to the host society, and leisure activities have a positive impact on that process in part because they play a strategic role that promotes adaptation and participation. These activities also illustrate the modes of incorporation into some areas of social life (employment, cultural life, friendship and socialization), which does not completely break the ties to the community of origin. In daily practice, leisure promotes the rapprochement with the majority group and more generally, with the other ethnic groups living in Montréal: the friendship develops, the practices of sociability are deployed, the consumption of some goods and services is stimulated, and the individual meet more people, etc. The connection between ethnic communalization and integration can allow the individual to enter different areas and groups. Moreover, pleasure is the engine of leisure, so this means that leisure activities chosen by these individuals match their personal tastes and interests. This link facilitates the deployment of specific “responses” by these newcomers (coping responses), in order to face their problems of adaptation, and the confirmation of a sort of integration feeling among them.

台灣與其中華文化並不像伊斯蘭人民將回教有很強的宗教關聯性。然而歷史上回教和穆斯林在中華的歷史中扮演著一個重要的角色。從1990年代初期，從東南亞有一批勞動者移民來到台灣，並在當地工作。近期，印尼籍的工作者已達到20萬人，他們成為台灣外籍工作者中數量最大的一群。在這當中，絕大部分的印尼籍勞動者都是穆斯林。為了保留自己的身分認同與文化，這群身在台灣的印尼籍穆斯林竟而形成了以宗教為主的許多社群，並因應在地差異與台灣的華人穆斯林進行社會適應上的交流與互動。 此篇研究的目的在於為台灣的回教與穆斯林研究踏出第一步，尤其是印尼穆斯林與當地的華人穆斯林如何進行社會適應，以及在台灣這樣一個異地環境，身為少數族群的他們如何保有自己的身分認同。此研究採用質性研究方法進行資料蒐集，並以集中性的田野調查中第一手資料的蒐集與觀察進行文獻探討，這些調查資料來自臺北、桃園、中壢、台中以及高雄等地。 此研究發現印尼籍穆斯林聚集並在台灣形成特定的印尼穆斯林組織，並與華人穆斯林有著積極互動，形成他們社會適應過程中的一環。然而，由於文化背景的差異，這些印尼穆斯林社群更需要改變他們社會中的生活習慣以因應在台灣的生活。 / Taiwan and its Chinese culture is not associated with Islam as religion and Muslim people. However, historically Islam and Muslim play an important role in Chinese history. Starting in early 1990s, there was a growing number of immigrant worker, mainly from South East Asian countries to Taiwan to work in informal sector. Currently Indonesian numbered 200,000, and become the biggest in terms of foreign workers in Taiwan. Majority of these Indonesian workers are Muslim. In order to preserve their identity and cultural life, the Indonesian Muslim in Taiwan formed various religious-based community, do a social adaptation with their environment and interact with Chinese Muslim in Taiwan. The objective of this study is to initiate the study of Islam and Muslim development in Taiwan, specifically how the social adaptation of Indonesian Muslim with Chinese Muslim in Taiwan, as well as how they preserve their identity as ethnic minority in Taiwan. Qualitative approach on data collection was undertaken, using literature review followed by collecting primary sources from intensive field research and observation in Taipei, Taoyuan, Chungli, Taichung and Kaohsiung. It’s found that Indonesian Muslim gathered and formed some Indonesian Muslim organizations in Taiwan, and they actively interact with Chinese Muslim as the part of their social adaptation. However, due to some differences in cultural background, those Indonesian Muslim communities need to adapt their habit and social life in Taiwan.

Le monde chinois ou sinophone ne se limite pas à la Chine continentale, mais il s’étend au-delà de l’État-nation qui est souvent perçu comme étant le phare médiatique de la culture chinoise. La langue chinoise est aussi parlée dans d’autres pays comme Taïwan et Singapour où elle a un statut officiel; elle est aussi langue d’enseignement en Malaisie et à travers la diaspora.Ce monde sinophone n’est pas unilingue et comprend non seulement les langues des minorités officielles définies par la Constitution de la République populaire de Chine, mais aussi les autres langues chinoises, telles le shanghaïen, le cantonais ou le hokkien pour ne citer que les trois langues chinoises jouissant d’un certain prestige. À Taïwan, société multilingue et multiculturelle, à côté des trois langues chinoises, le mandarin, le hokkien, sous sa dénomination locale de taïwanais, et le hakka sont aussi des langues couramment utilisées dans les médias et plus récemment dans le système éducatif ; à leurs côtés se trouvent plusieurs langues aborigènes qui sont encouragées par le gouvernement et jouissent d’une image positive dans la population Han. Cette diversité linguistique est reflétée dans le cinéma différemment en Chine et dans les autres pays sinophones. En Chine, les minorités ethniques ont longtemps été reléguées au statut de sujet anthropologique et présentées au cinéma d’un point de vue paternaliste reflétant une attitude « orientaliste » telle que théorisée par Edward W. Said. Ce n’est que récemment que le cinéma chinois a commencé à produire des films où les minorités ethniques prennent la parole et sont incarnées par des protagonistes prenant en main leur destin. La situation à Taïwan est plus diversifiée : après l’occupation japonaise la majorité des films était en taïwanais mais l’investissement important de la part des autorités dans des productions sophistiquées en couleur a rapidement vu la fin des productions en taïwanais pendant plusieurs décennies. Ce n’est que vers la fin de l’état de siège au milieu des années 1980 que le cinéma taïwanais recommencé à faire usage d’autres langues que le mandarin ; par contraste avec les périodes précédentes, on assiste surtout à des films multilingues reflétant le mélange multiculturel et linguistique de la société taïwanaise du passé aussi bien que du présent.La relative liberté du cinéma sinophone de refléter les pays de langue chinoise dans leur diversité culturelle, d’articuler les contacts entre minorités ethniques en Chine et la majorité Han, comme dans Kekexili ; le souci de réalisme culturel, linguistique, sociétale et historique comme dans Seediq Bale à Taïwan ; le portrait d’une société multilingue à Singapour telle qu’elle est décrite dans Singapore Dreaming sont les signes avant-coureurs que la société sinophone ne se réduit pas à un seul pays et que sur la scène internationale il sera impossible de considérer la Chine comme seule détentrice d’une culture sinophone. Le développement de ce cinéma sinophone dans les festivals étrangers, sur les plateformes de diffusion vidéo ou de salles de cinéma montre qu’il existe un intérêt pour le cinéma sinophone qui est perçu comme une fenêtre sur la culture, la politique et les sociétés de ses composantes. Il sert aussi d’échange entre les différents pays et régions du monde sinophone et pourrait bien être le premier élément d’une culture sinophone transnationale et transculturelle. Dans ce contexte transnational, Taïwan, comme l’avance June Yip à maintes reprises dans Envisioning Taiwan - Fiction, Cinema and the Nation in the Cultural Imaginary, pourrait être le premier pays à avoir abandonné le concept d’État nation et fait preuve d’avant-garde au même titre que le cinéma sinophone transnational. / The Chinese speaking world is not limited to Mainland China. It extends beyond Continental China, a country often perceived as the beacon of Chinese culture. Mandarin and other Chinese languages are spoken in Taiwan and Singapore where the former is an official language. Mandarin is also used as a teaching medium in Malaysia and throughout the diaspora.The sinosphere, as it is increasingly being referred to, is not a unilingual society but also includes not only ethnic minorities languages as defined by the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China, but also other Chinese languages such as Shanghainese, Cantonese or Hokkien (a.k.a. Taiwanese); these three languages being the most prestigious among others. Taiwan is a multicultural and multilingual society and includes three Chinese languages, Mandarin, Taiwanese and Hakka that are widely used in the media and have recently been made part of the school curriculum; in addition to these languages are found aboriginal languages that are encouraged by the government and enjoy a positive image in the majority Han population.China and other sinophone countries differ in their treatment of this linguistic diversity.In China, ethnic minorities have long been viewed and filmed as an anthropological topic and often examined with a paternalistic slant similar to “orientalist” attitudes as proposed by Edward W. Said. Chinese cinema has only recently started to produce films where ethnic minorities speak for themselves and ethnic protagonists take hold of their own future. At the same time Chinese-language films shot in other Chinese languages are still a relatively rare occurrence, probably due to the official policy of promoting Mandarin as the national normative language.Taiwan presents a more diversified situation: after the Japanese occupation, the majority of films was in Taiwanese, but an important investment drive from government authorities resulting in sophisticated colour productions saw the end of Taiwanese-language productions for many years. One would have to wait for the end of martial law near the middle of the 1980’s to see a return of films featuring non-Mandarin languages; in contrast to preceding periods, the majority of these films was multilingual and reflected the real multicultural and linguistic mix of contemporary and past Taiwanese society.In Singapore and Malaysia, an increasing number of films portray characters switching freely from one language to another.The retrocession to Mainland China of the former British colony, Hong Kong, has triggered an examination of its relationship with the People’s Republic and several films feature interaction between mainlanders and Hong Kong inhabitants.The relative freedom that is enjoyed by Chinese-language cinema to reflect sinophone countries and their cultural diversity; to articulate contacts between ethnic minorities and the Han majority, as in Kekexili; the preoccupation with cultural, linguistic, societal and historical realism as in Seediq Bale in Taiwan; the exposé of multilingual Singaporean society as described in Singapore Dreaming demonstrate that sinophone society is not restricted to one country and that, on the international scene, it will be impossible to consider China as the sole representative and owner of sinophone culture. It is also a means of exchange between the different countries and regions of the sinophone world and could well turn out to be the first element in the construction of a transnational and transcultural sinophone culture. In this transnational context, as proposed in many instances by June Yip in Envisioning Taiwan - Fiction, Cinema and the Nation in the Cultural Imaginary, Taiwan could be the first country to have relinquished the concept of a Nation State and proven to be at the forefront of change in a similar vein with transnational sinophone cinema.

Depuis le début des années 1980, les élus locaux ont progressivement construit leur capacité à répondre au « problème » de l’intégration des étrangers. Cette mise à l’agenda politique a émergé en raison de sollicitations de la part du pôle associatif de l’espace local de la cause des étrangers et d’une dynamique de territorialisation des politiques d’ « intégration des étrangers » encouragée par l’État. Toutefois, c’est avec l’arrivée de nouvelles équipes municipales en 1989 que les exécutifs municipaux ont accru leurs revendications pour de nouvelles compétences sur cette thématique. Cette dynamique d’affirmation de nouvelles compétences pour les villes s’est poursuivie au cours des décennies 1990 et 2000 aussi bien dans l’espace européen que face aux autorités étatiques. Néanmoins, l’institutionnalisation d’une politique municipale d’ « intégration des étrangers » peine à avoir lieu en raison d’un engagement politique qui reste limité et de la montée en puissance d’un paradigme concurrent, celui de la « discrimination ethno-raciale ». Finalement, les exécutifs municipaux ont délaissé une action visant à résoudre les phénomènes de discriminations et d’exclusion socio-économiques des populations étrangères et de leurs enfants. L’enquête menée met en lumière plusieurs ressorts de cette dynamique générale. En premier lieu, elle permet de démontrer la force de la variable politics dans la conduite de l’action publique. Ensuite, l’enquête permet de saisir le rôle joué par la scène européenne dans le processus de contestation de la suprématie des autorités étatiques par les villes. Enfin, l’analyse des dispositifs mis en place par les trois villes étudiées révèle l’usage du critère ethnique dans le façonnement de la figure de l’ « étranger » visé par les actions municipales d’ « intégration ». / Since the early eighties, local politicians have started to claim their competencies to solve the « problem » of « integration ». Activists in favour of migrants and some national organisations have acted to make that “problem” a top priority on the political agenda. With new mayors elected in Lyon, Nantes and Strasbourg in 1989, cities have been clearly determined to increase their competencies on this topic in front of the State. This process was also noticeable at the European level in network of cities even if French cities stressed out the specific French philosophy of integration. In the 2000s, the setting up of units dedicated to “integration” reveals how local policies on “integration” have started to be institutionalised. However, the rising issue of the fight against discrimination has provoked the disappearance of an active local policy to solve the socio-economic issues migrants and ethnic minorities are facing. Our analysis reveals how politics do matter in policies and how the European level is seen as an opportunity to criticize the supremacy of the State. Last but not least, whereas France is described to be blind to ethnic communities, we stress out how city actions are laying down ethnicity to determine who is a « foreigner ».