Thesis (D. Min.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2002. / Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 208-213).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2002. / Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 225-238).

Thesis (M.A.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 102-104).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2002. / Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 208-213).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2002. / Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 225-238).

This thesis assesses the impact nonviolent protest has on structural conflicts when used by groups of people who are marginalized by repressive socio-economic institutions of society. Conflict Transformation focuses on changing the relationships between oppressive societal institutions and its people into just cooperative relationships through third party processes. Veronique Dudouet’s Contingent Conflict Transformation model focuses on the efforts of ‘ordinary people’ to address the destructive effects of structural violence. This model will be applied to a case study where two groups of women from the Niger Delta executed nonviolent campaigns against the Chevron oil company. The case study methodology is employed to analyze data to support the model’s confidence to effect change as well as offer considerations for improvement. The women of this study moved from a position of disenfranchisement to a position of empowerment when they negotiated an Agreement that reflected their demands in light of Chevron’s broken promises.

The future of our world will largely be determined by our willingness and ability to address practices and beliefs that threaten human dignity, promote violence, and impoverish communities. This dissertation develops an African humanist theology as a basis for concrete engagement with social problems (dehumanization, violence, and poverty) by drawing from Kenneth Kaunda’s concept of Christian humanism. Relying on writings by Kenneth Kaunda housed at Boston University library (books, pamphlets, and unpublished speeches), this dissertation argues that his concept of Christian humanism is a valuable, multidimensional concept that, properly understood can serve as a critical resource for addressing the ethical challenges related to human dignity, nonviolence, and economic justice. This dissertation undertakes four main tasks. First, the dissertation’s critical examination of Christian humanism and African humanism exposes shared yet distinctive emphases on human dignity. Second, the dissertation studies Kaunda’s biography to explore the contextual influences on his life and the development of his thought. Kaunda was deeply influenced by his missionary parents and, later in life, by thinkers such as Mahatma Gandhi. Third, the dissertation analyzes the theoretical bases of Kaunda’s Christian humanism with regard to the main themes of human dignity, nonviolence, and economic egalitarianism. Fourth, the dissertation proposes an African Christian humanist approach embodying the ideas espoused by Kaunda as a framework for addressing the ethical challenges in Africa related to violence and poverty. This study concludes that African Christian humanism in the sense proposed should be an important component of social ethics.

This dissertation pursues three broad questions. First, what are the correlates of nonviolent attitudes around the world? Second, which nations exhibit characteristics of robust "Cultures of Peace"? Third, are there signs that history and collective memory shapes attitudes, i.e., do cultures "learn" from experiences of war, peace, or nonviolence? A multi-method approach sought to further our understandings of propensities for peace at both the national and individual levels. First, an analysis of nation-level Gallup World Poll data (N=136 nations) identifies correlates of nonviolent attitudes and advances a critique of the Global Peace Index (GPI), grounded in the observed disconnect between structural and attitudinal indicators of peace in many nations. The Gallup World Poll analysis suggests that many forces of modernization instill forms of "callous cruelty" while failing to cultivate pragmatic nonviolent attitudes. For example, poor nations and nations with recent successful nonviolent revolution are more likely to affirm that nonviolence "works" than wealthier nations ranking high in the GPI. Moreover, it is argued from Gallup data that the accumulation of "peace capital" is quite specific, with a frequent disconnect between forms of principled and pragmatic nonviolence. Second, survey data were collected from two "maximally different" cases, university students in the U.S. (N=403) and Costa Rica (N=312), which have starkly divergent structural and historical relationships to peace and militarism. Utilizing a new survey instrument, factor analyses helped to identify cross-national variations in respondent adherence to ideologies of violence and nonviolence: militarism, realism, just war, or nonviolence. The results show Costa Ricans were significantly more peaceful than U.S. respondents on 48 out of 52 items. Susceptibility to "elite cues" was tested in an experimental section. Tests revealed gaps in historical knowledge of nonviolence offering support for the theory that "ideology has no history." Finally, a cross-national sample of state-approved history textbooks from 8 nations (Germany, Norway, Ghana, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and the U.S.) were analyzed as outcomes of collective memory processes. The relative neglect of significant nonviolent revolutions and campaigns in the majority of these textbooks suggests formidable obstacles to the proliferation of nonviolent ideology around the world. / 10000-01-01

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Quality of Government (QoG) peace is a concept gaining some traction alongside more known concepts such as the democratic peace, or liberal (capitalist) peace or the globalist/modernist peace. This study aims to uncover how perceptions of governance quality uncover variation in the number of violent and nonviolent collective and interpersonal events at the sub-national level in Nepal. National survey data is used to operationalise the mechanisms for quality of governance perceptions which are then aggregated at District level. In-country elite level interviews were also completed in order to trace the process in the causal mechanism and control for reverse causality. Results point to a strong negative effect between perceptions of governance quality and the number of events occurring. There was not, however, any causal relationship established between perceptions of governance quality and the ratio of violent to non-violent events. Instead, interviewees related the resort to violence as coming about more strongly from a committed leadership of protest movements (or lack thereof) and moves by the State to instigate violence through repressive tactics against protest events.