Group Formation, Identities and Mobilisation

Work Package Leader:
Prof. Frances Stewart – Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.

 
Projects
Project 1: Determinants of individual participation in collective violence
Project 2: Motives for fighting and group mobilisation
Project 3: The users of force
Project 4: Recruiting Child Soldiers: Vulnerability, Agency and Reintegration

Overview

The issue of group formation and individual behaviour is at the very core of the social and political fabric of all societies. This Work Package aims to further current understanding of collective violence grounded in individual perception of identities and interactions. The Work Package will draw on political models, economic theory and models of social interaction and individual behaviour to explore motivations for fighting.

The Work Package focuses on key questions about who the actors of conflict are and why they choose to join in violent activities. It comprises four individual projects, which share an overall concern in understanding reasons for group mobilisation, both from the perspectives of leaders, or orchestrators of violence, and of those who are mobilised.

Project 1: Determinants of individual participation in collective violence

Project leader:
Prof. Tilman Brück – German Institute for Economic Research
Project researchers:
Dr. Patricia Justino – Institute of Development Studies
Carlos Bozzoli – German Institute for Economic Research

Publications

RWP30: Determinants of Protests: Longitudinal Evidence from Ukraine’s Orange Revolution - Carlos Bozzoli and Tilman Brück

This project will analyse reasons leading individuals to participate in collective action leading to group violence. This project will use a novel approach combining the field of collective choice analysis with models of political science to undertake empirical research focussing on the individual’s role in deciding if and why to participate in risky collective action.

It will undertake two case studies:

Firstly, it will look at data from naval mutinies and non-violent sea journeys collected by UK port authorities and insurance firms in the period 1700 to 1900. Sea journeys in that period were long and often dangerous activities, where sailors had strong incentives for mutiny if conditions were truly appalling or the cargo extremely valuable. Hence the ships represented in microcosm the same problems that impoverished and suppressed citizens face in many countries when considering revolution.

Secondly, it will look at household-level panel data from Ukraine to establish the determinants of participation in the “Orange Revolution” there in the winter of 2004/2005. This high-quality dataset will contain questions on participation in the revolution, hence offering a chance to establish determinants of participation in protest activity unlike any other panel dataset.

Project 2: Motives for fighting and group mobilisation

Project leader:
Prof. Frances Stewart – Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford
Project researchers:
Dr. Rosemary Thorp, Dr. Corinne Caumartin and Dr. Yvan Guichaoua – Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford

Publications

<empty> RWP13: A Global View of Horizontal Inequalities: Inequalities Experienced by Muslims Worldwide - Frances Stewart

<empty> RWP18: Religion versus Ethnicity as a Source of Mobilisation: Are There Differences? - Frances Stewart

RWP19: How Do Ethnic Militias Perpetuate in Nigeria? A Micro-level Perspective on the Oodua People’s Congress - Yvan Guichaoua

RWP20: Circumstantial Alliances and Loose Loyalties in Rebellion Making: The Case of Tuareg Insurgency in Northern Niger (2007-2009) - Yvan Guichaoua

<empty> RWP46: Economic and Political Causes of Genocidal Violence: A comparison with findings on the causes of civil war - Frances Stewart

This project examines important questions of formation of group identities and mobilisation of fighters in Nigeria and Niger. In these countries ethnic-based extra-legal armed groups are operating, although at very different scales and with differing levels of violence. A sample of leaders and those who fight will be selected, using qualitative and quantitative datasets, as well as detailed ethnographic work, to explore economic and psychological motivations at both individual and group levels. A particular focus will be placed on young men, who account for most of the fighting forces. A subcategory of this area of research will explore the factors behind such mobilisation amongst the rural peasantry.

Project 3: The users of force

Project leader:
Dr. Morten Bøås – Fafo Institute of Applied International Studies
Project researchers:
Mark Taylor and Dr. Anne Hatløy, Fafo Institute of Applied International Studies

Publications

RWP28: DDRed in Liberia: Youth Remarginalisation or Reintegration? - Morten Bøås and Ingunn Bjørkhaug

This project analyses the origins and foundations of armed militias in the Mano River Countries (e.g. Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea). The target population is current and former fighters 18 years and above, of both sexes. This project will draw upon data collected through respondent-driven-sampling methods and complemented by focus groups and individual anthropological-style life history approach interviews.

It will aim to inform policy debates around international responses to conflict, particularly the policies and practices that seek to ‘demilitarise’ politics, or encourage the transition of armed groups to more peaceful forms of political and social competition.

Project 4: Recruiting child soldiers: vulnerability, agency and reintegration

Project leader:
Ingunn Bjørkhaug – Fafo Institute of Applied International Studies
Project researchers:
Kathleen Jennings, Christian H Ruge and Gro Hasselknippe – Fafo Institute of Applied International Studies

Publications

RWP27: Child Soldiers in Colombia: The Recruitment of Children into Non-state Violent Armed Groups - Ingunn Bjørkhaug

Project 4 focuses on the mobilisation of children as fighters. It aims to identify patterns, processes, and mechanisms of recruitment of children and adolescents to armed groups, and examine why children join armed groups. The project’s analysis provides much-needed qualitative depth to a previous quantitative study conducted on child soldiers in Colombia, Sri Lanka, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Angola, in which Fafo AIS participated. The qualitative fieldwork will rely primarily on anthropological life-history approaches, using respondent driven sampling to access child respondents. Information will also be gathered from adults related to, or guardians of children, as well as local informants such as engaged non-governmental organisations, human rights groups and academics.