| Inhalt |
When
and why social conflicts—such as riots, terrorism, coups, or even civil
wars—occur in different societies is one of the long-standing questions in
political science, sociology, and related fields. While inequality, injustice,
and marginalization (collectively referred to as "grievances") often
lie at their very root, conflicts by no means automatically erupt whenever such
injustices exist. This suggests that a complex and intricate set of conditions
must be present for inequality to lead to conflict.
Inequality
manifests in various realms. Individuals and societal groups can be denied
equal rights and privileges or are granted far fewer resources than members
from other societal, religious or ethnic groups. This seminar addresses under
which conditions the various types of inequalities, such as political, social,
or economic, affect different forms of social conflict. It does so by
introducing students to key concepts and theories in conflict research and by
engaging with various sub-strands in the vibrant literature on inequality and
conflict.
Besides the treatment of the substantive topic,
this research seminar will prepare students intensively for writing a research
design paper by helping them to adequately design and develop their own
research projects. It will focus in detail on a) which datasets different
research articles use for measuring inequality and social unrest, and b) which
research designs and methods they use (e.g., quantitative large-n studies with
observational event datasets, survey research, comparative case studies). In doing
so, the seminar repeats core topics of research design and applies them on a
specific topic. Through discussions of current research, students will
critically assess scientific contributions of existing literature and research
designs. Since this course focuses on empirical approaches to study inequality
and conflict, participants should have a basic understanding of analytical
research and empirical methods. |
| Literatur |
Albertus, M.,
Brambor, T., & Ceneviva, R. (2018). Land inequality and rural unrest:
Theory and evidence from Brazil. Journal of
Conflict Resolution, 62(3),
557-596.
Bartusevicius, H., & van Leeuwen,
F. (2022). Poor prospects—not inequality—motivate political violence. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 66(7-8), 1393-1421.
Cederman, L. E., Weidmann, N. B., &
Bormann, N. C. (2015). Triangulating horizontal inequality: Toward
improved conflict analysis. Journal of Peace
Research, 52(6),
806-821.
Collier, P., & Hoeffler, A. (2004). Greed and
grievance in civil war. Oxford Economic Papers, 56(4), 563–595. |