All posts by cjr

COMPASSS.org Hacked

Last week, the COMPASSS website was subjected to an automated attack. We don’t have any sensitive information on the site, so there’s no risk of a data breach. I’ve since restored the site and everything should be fixed. However, if you find a broken link or run into any problems, please email me at rubinsonc@uhd.edu

New Monograph by Felix Schulte

Felix Schulte (Heidelberg University) has published Peace Through Self-Determination: Success and Failure of Territorial Autonomy (Palgrave MacMillan, 2020).

Bringing together comparative politics, conflict research and social psychology, this book presents a novel theory to explain the consolidation outcomes of post-conflict autonomy arrangements. It builds on Social Identity Theory and identifies a successful process of ethnic recognition as the key prerequisite for peaceful interethnic cohabitation through territorial self-governance. As this process is highly context-dependent, the study identifies relevant structural and actor-centered factors and analyzes their occurrence in the consolidation periods of nineteen autonomy arrangements worldwide using Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). The author concludes that elites accept autonomy reforms if they promise a high degree of self-determination and, at the same time, ethnic recognition is not hindered by horizontal inequalities. Bargaining efforts succeed within inclusive institutions involving non-nationalist parties and international organizations. Autonomy reforms fail if the degree of self-rule offered is too low and strong inequalities generate new grievances. Autocratic rule, nationalist parties, and a lack of international attention provide a breeding ground for further centrifugal activities. In-depth case studies on South Tyrol and the Chittagong Hill Tracts provide further evidence for the theoretical models.

Best Papers of the 3rd International QCA Paper Development Workshop

The 3rd International QCA Paper Development Workshop, held on the 11th and 12th of December at ETH Zürich, introduced awards for the best working papers accepted to the workshop. A collaboration between the workshop organizers and COMPASSS, we are excited to recognize the outstanding work produced by these scholars and are grateful for the efforts of members of the COMPASSS Awards Committee, who completed the review and selection process under a tight deadline:

  • Konan Seny Kan (University of Otago)
  • Karina Kosmukhambetova (Goethe University Frankfurt)
  • Seraphine Maerz (Central European University)
  • Sofia Pagliarin (University of Bamberg)
  • Martyna Swiatczak (German University of Administrative Sciences, Speyer)
  • Claudius Wagemann, chair (Goethe University Frankfurt)

Best Paper

Remco Siebelink and Erwin Hofman (Twente University) in recognition of the paper “Individual Cognitive Capabilities, Strategy Tools, and their Impact on Strategic-Option Generation: Toward a Configurational Perspective”

Runner-ups

Seohee Kwak (Erasmus University Rotterdam) in recognition of the paper “Causal Paths between Protest and State’s Repressive Response: Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Public Protests in Vietnam”

Adélie Ranville (Grenoble Ecole de Management) in recognition of the paper “Participation Patterns and Drivers of Participation to the Governance in New Cooperative: The Case of an Energy Cooperative in France”

Postdoc in Causal Modeling

The University of Bergen is accepting applications for a 3-year post doctoral position on the project “Boolean Causal Modeling with Coincidence Analysis,” headed by Michael Baumgartner.

Please note that although the position is housed within the Department of Philosophy, it specifically requires a scientific background in “a scientific discipline relevant for the application of Boolean methods, e.g. social/political science, economics, biology, medicine or psychology.”

For details and to apply, see: https://www.jobbnorge.no/en/available-jobs/job/177227/postdoctoral-fellowship-in-causal-modeling

CfP: Special Issue of Sustainability on conflicts and natural resources with A focus on QCA

Dr. Matteo Roggero (Humboldt University Berlin) will be co-editing a special issue of Sustainability with the title “Natural Resources Management and Conflicts in the Context of Sustainability Transformation.” Particularly welcome are empirical submissions using QCA and set-theoretic methods. The call is now open, with a deadline of August 31, 2020. Details are available at: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability/special_issues/nat_resour_manag_confl_sus_transform

New Working Paper

New working paper published by Lotte Dalgaard Christensen (Dept of Environmental Science, Aarhus University), “When Bioeconomy Policy Objectives (Fail To) Overlap: Rethinking the analysis of necessity to detect causal interdependencies among sustainable development goals in the Nordic bioeconomy strategy”

See the Working Papers page.

Immanuel Wallerstein, 1930-2019

Immanuel Wallerstein passed away on August 31, 2019 at the age of 88. As the founder of world-systems theory and author of hundreds of articles and commentaries and dozens of books, including his four-volume magnum opus, The Modern World-System, Wallerstein’s research exemplified the methodology of comparative analysis and was a cornerstone in the development of QCA.