Download Boston College Research Incentive Grant

Robert M. Kunovich
RESEARCH INCENTIVE GRANT 2002-03
PROPOSAL
Robert M. Kunovich, Ph.D.
Department of Sociology
DESCRIPTION OF THE RESEARCH PROJECT
Title: Attaining Justice in Post-conflict Societies: An Exploration of Strategies in Bosnia,
Northern Ireland, and South Africa.
Project description:
In this research project, I will explore strategies of attaining justice in three post-conflict
societies including Bosnia, Northern Ireland, and South Africa. I will identify what attempts
have been made by ethnic and racial groups, the state, and international actors to achieve justice
in several forms – 1.) restorative justice by means of rehabilitating victimizers and victims while
upholding the rights of both groups, 2.) retributive justice by means of punishing perpetrators of
ethnic and racial violence, and 3.) distributive justice by means of addressing group differences
in economic, political, and cultural resources. The proposed research is exploratory and will
provide a foundation for the development of a larger project on justice in post-conflict societies.
Objectives:
The major outputs of this research project will be: 1.) a case study of strategies for attaining
justice in Bosnia, Northern Ireland, and South Africa and 2.) grant proposals seeking external
support for additional travel to and research in these post-conflict societies. I will submit the
case study for publication to a peer-reviewed journal. The case study will provide a foundation
for the development of external grant proposals. An additional objective is to establish links to
scholars working on this general topic as well as area specialists in Bosnia, Northern Ireland, and
South Africa. To achieve this objective, I will identify and contact scholars during spring 2003
and visit one of the post-conflict societies – Northern Ireland – during summer 2003.
Is this a project intended to be completed within the project period or is it part of a larger
project?
This research is part of a larger project. I will complete the case study and submit external grant
applications during fall 2003 and spring 2004. These activities are a first step in the
development of a new research agenda on justice in post-conflict societies. My ultimate goal is
to conduct survey research and in-depth interviews in several post-conflict societies. Through
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this research I will address many questions including:
 How do people in post-conflict societies define justice? What do they expect and from
whom (e.g., from the state, from the UN, etc.)? How do definitions of justice differ
within and across societies?
 How do people negotiate the meaning of justice? How are strategies to attain justice
selected? How does group power affect the negotiation process and the implementation
of specific strategies?
 How do people’s expectations for and assessments of justice affect mental health, social
integration, and, ultimately, the healing of society?
Significance of the research project:
Justice is a fundamental prerequisite for the stable functioning of societies and for realizing the
full potential of individuals within these societies. Results from the case study and the research
project, more generally, will identify possible strategies to create a lasting peace in societies
devastated by ethnic and racial conflict.
Relation of the research project to my other research:
The proposed project is closely related to my other research and grew out of my course on global
ethnic conflict and a paper exploring social integration, experiencing violence, and mental health
in Croatia. My substantive research interests are comparative ethnicity and political sociology.
More specifically, I am interested in prejudice; ethnic and national identity; conflict, justice, and
community redevelopment; and democratization. I have examined the sources of ethnic and
anti-immigrant prejudice in Bosnia and Croatia and across Europe. I have also examined the role
of social integration in mediating the effect of traumatic war-related events on mental health.
My research in political sociology centers on democratization in Eastern Europe.
Relations and significance of the research project to sociology:
Through this research, I will make substantive and theoretical contributions to the discipline of
sociology, especially to the areas of racial and ethnic relations, conflict resolution, group
mobilization, and democratization. First, my research counters a tendency among sociologists to
focus on the sources of prejudice and group conflict rather than on workable solutions after
conflict has occurred. Second, I focus on the attainment of economic, political, and cultural
justice, the rehabilitation of victimizers and victims, and the punishment of perpetrators of ethnic
and racial violence. Thus, I argue that we must consider multiple dimensions of justice. Third, I
will focus on attempts to achieve justice by ethnic and racial groups, the state, and external actors
(such as the United Nations) while focusing on contested definitions of and attempts to achieve
justice. Fourth, I focus on the process of attaining justice and incorporate differences in group
resources and power.
Likelihood of publication:
There is a high probability that the proposed research will result in publications as I have
established a strong record of publishing my previous research in top peer-reviewed journals in
sociology, such as Social Forces, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, and The Sociological
Quarterly. Several journals stand out as possible outlets for the case study including Ethnic and
Racial Studies, The Journal of Conflict Resolution, and International Journal of Comparative
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Sociology. I anticipate that I will be successful publishing the results of the case study as well as
future research on the topic because of the importance of the findings.
Is the project a preliminary investigation that has potential for subsequent extramural
support?
The proposed project is a preliminary investigation. It has great potential for subsequent
extramural support. I am anticipating seeking funding from a variety of sources, such as the
United States Institute of Peace (which has a general mandate of funding research on conflict
resolution), Ford Foundation (within their Peace and Social Justice Program), International
Research and Exchanges Board, and the MacArthur Foundation. With additional funding I will
conduct in-depth interviews and survey research. The Research Incentive Grant will provide me
with the resources necessary to develop strong proposals for these and other funding agencies.
Relation to my long-term goals:
My long-term goals are to establish myself as an international expert on strategies for dealing
with ethnic conflict, to involve graduate students in cutting-edge research, and to bring this
research (at various stages of completion) into the classroom to expose undergraduate and
graduate students to the complexities and challenges of our modern world. This research is
closely related to a core course I currently teach on global ethnic conflict and to two courses I am
developing on justice in post-conflict societies and nations and nationalism.
Description of the Substance of the Research project
Research question
Recent decades have seen a resurgence of ethnic and racial prejudice, mobilization, and
conflict. Scholars have estimated that between 11 million and 20 million people have died as a
result of ethnic and racial conflict since 1945 (Topor 1992; Williams 1994). Above and beyond
the death and destruction suffered and endured by individuals, conflict damages societies
themselves. Through discrimination, intimidation, and violence, whole societies have been
gravely injured – a process labeled “sociocide” by Keith Doubt (2000).
A great deal of scholarly effort has been dedicated to uncovering the sources of prejudice
(Allport 1954; Blumer 1958; Bobo and Kluegel 1993; Kunovich and Hodson 1999, 2002;
Quillian 1995, 1996; Taylor 1998), ethnic and racial political mobilization (Hechter 1975, 1978;
Medrano 1994; Nagel and Olzak 1982; Neilsen 1980, 1985; Ragin 1979; West 1995), and
conflict (Olzak 1992; Olzak and West 1991). However, there is considerably more research on
the sources of ethnic and racial prejudice, mobilization, and conflict than there is on finding
workable solutions to the conflicts once they have occurred.
The purpose of my research is to address this deficiency by exploring what attempts have
been made to achieve justice in three post-conflict societies – Bosnia, Northern Ireland, and
South Africa. Justice is a fundamental prerequisite for the stable functioning of societies and for
realizing the full potential of individuals within these societies. I hope to identify strategies that
may allow a lasting peace in societies devastated by ethnic and racial conflict. We must learn
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how best to address ethnic and racial conflict so that the “future is not overwhelmed by the past”
(source unknown).
Economic, political, and cultural inequality are key sources of ethnic and racial conflict
(Brown 1993; Brown et al. 1997). Sociologists have long been interested in the topic of justice
and inequality (i.e., in distributive justice – how resources should be distributed within society).
Prior to the International Social Justice Project (ISJP – see Kluegel, Mason, and Wegener 1995),
most scholars relied on either rational or moral arguments (e.g., based on equality, merit, or
need) to justify one perspective or another. Since the development of the ISJP in the early
1990s, however, scholars have increasingly been analyzing the responses of individuals to
economic, political, and cultural inequality, emphasizing justice at both the individual and
society levels, and examining both the sources and consequences of distributive justice attitudes.
There is a growing literature on justice in post-conflict societies (Rotberg and Thompson
2000). Within this literature, scholars focus on restorative justice and retributive justice.
Restorative justice seeks to address the past by rehabilitating the victimizers and victims while
upholding the rights of both groups (Crocker 2000). Retributive justice, on the other hand, seeks
to address the past by means of punishing those responsible for ethnic and racial violence.
Punishment is seen as cathartic for both victims and victimizers. This growing literature
resembles the distributive justice literature that precedes it in that few scholars are exploring the
attitudes of individuals in post-conflict societies. Rather, debates on the usefulness of truth
commissions, the punishment of violators of human rights, and other methods of attaining justice
center on either rational or moral arguments with little concern for the perspectives of individuals
within these societies. In addition, the issue of distributive justice is typically neglected. This is
surprising given that economic, political, and cultural inequality are root causes of most ethnic
and racial conflicts.
Through my comparative case study of Bosnia, Northern Ireland, and South Africa, I will
explore what attempts have been made by ethnic and racial groups, the state, and international
actors to achieve justice in several forms – restorative justice, retributive justice, and distributive
justice. I conceptualize the attainment of justice as a process – a process that is negotiated by
competing groups with different resources and power within specific national and international
contexts (i.e., within specific “opportunity structures”). All of this influences how justice is
defined and determines which strategies are ultimately employed.
The comparative case study is an opportunity for me to start a new research agenda and
to become a contributor to a larger discussion on justice in post-conflict societies. By immersing
myself in these three cases and making connections to other scholars researching this topic, I will
develop the tools necessary to receive external funding, which will allow me to conduct research
at the micro level – that is, conducting in-depth interviews and survey research to better
understand how people in post-conflict societies define justice, how people negotiate the
meaning of justice, and how people’s expectations for and assessments of justice affect mental
health, social integration, and, ultimately, the healing of society.
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Methodology
I will conduct a case study to explore approaches to attaining justice in Bosnia, Northern
Ireland, and South Africa. Using a case study approach, scholars typically compare and contrast
a few cases (e.g., post-conflict societies) that are selected for specific theoretical and/or
substantive reasons. Because of their emphasis on detail and historical accuracy, case studies are
particularly appropriate for exploratory analyses (Bradshaw and Wallace 1991). The goal of
most case studies is to explain diversity in outcomes across cases (Ragin 1987, 1991) – for
example, to explain why different post-conflict societies have selected different strategies for
dealing with the past.
I have selected Bosnia, Northern Ireland, and South Africa for several reasons. First,
each of these societies is in a post-conflict phase – that is, violence on a large-scale has ended
and each society is in the process of dealing with the past in the attempt to develop stable
societies. Second, the three cases differ in their attempts to achieve justice – for example, the
major instrument in Bosnia is external (i.e., the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal)
while major instruments in Northern Ireland and South Africa are internal (i.e., the Bloody
Sunday Inquiry and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission). Third, the cases differ in the
degree to which power shifted to victimized groups after the conflict – for example, in Bosnia
the Bosnian Serbs were able to maintain territorial gains from war and hold a large section of
partitioned Bosnia (the Serb Republic of Bosnia-Hercegovina); while, in South Africa, the new
government is dominated by the African National Congress, the main opposition group during
Apartheid.
Because of the exploratory nature of the proposed research and my selection of the case
study method, I will emphasize depth of knowledge and accuracy for each case – focusing on the
concrete, individual sequence of events in each country. However, I am ultimately interested in
uncovering general strategies of achieving justice that are useful in multiple post-conflict
societies. Ragin (1987) and other comparative/historical researchers argue that case studies
(even one-country case studies) are useful for generalization when the cases are selected for
sound theoretical reasons and can be validly linked to research in other contexts.
References
Allport, Gordon. 1954. The Nature of Prejudice. New York: Doubleday.
Blumer, Herbert. 1958. “Race Prejudice as a Sense of Group Position.” Pacific Sociological
Review 1: 3-7.
Bobo, Lawrence and James R. Kluegel. 1993. “Opposition to Race-Targeting: Self-Interest,
Stratification Ideology, or Racial Attitudes?” American Sociological Review 58: 443464.
Bradshaw, York and Michael Wallace. 1991. “Informing Generality and Explaining Uniqueness: The
Place of Case Studies in Comparative Research.” Pp. 154-171 in Issues and Alternatives in
Comparative Social Research, Edited by Charles C. Ragin. New York: E.J. Brill.
Brown, Michael E. (Editor). 1993. Ethnic Conflict and International Security. Princeton: Princeton
University Press.
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Brown, Michael E., Owen R. Cote, Jr., Sean M. Lynn-Jones, and Steven E. Miller (Editors). 1997.
Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Crocker, David A. 2000. “Truth Commissions, Transitional Justice, and Civil Society.” Pp. 99121 in Truth v. Justice: The Morality of Truth Commissions, edited by Robert I. Rotberg
and Dennis Thompson. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Doubt, Keith. 2000. Sociology After Bosnia and Kosovo. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield
Publishers, Inc.
Hechter, Michael. 1975. Internal Colonialism: The Celtic Fringe in British National
Development, 1536-1966. Berkeley: University of California Press
Hechter, Michael. 1978. “Group Formation and the Cultural Division of Labor.” American
Journal of Sociology 84: 293-318.
Kluegel, James R., David S. Mason, and Bernd Wegener. 1995. Social Justice and Political
Change: Public Opinion in Capitalist and Post-Communist States. New York: Aldine De
Gruyter.
Kunovich, Robert M. and Randy Hodson. 1999. "Conflict, Religious Identity, and Ethnic
Intolerance in Croatia." Social Forces 78: 643-674.
Kunovich, Robert M. and Randy Hodson. 2002. “Ethnic Diversity, Segregation, and Inequality:
A Structural Model of Ethnic Prejudice in Bosnia and Croatia.” The Sociological
Quarterly 43, 2 (Spring): 185-212.
Medrano, Juan Diez. 1994. “The Effects of Ethnic Segregation and Ethnic Competition on
Political Mobilization in the Basque Country, 1988.” American Sociological Review 59:
873-889.
Nagel, Joane and Susan Olzak. 1982. “Ethnic Mobilization in New and Old States: An
Extension of the Competition Model.” Social Problems 30: 127-143.
Nielsen, Francois. 1980. “The Flemish Movement in Belgium After World War II: A Dynamic
Analysis.” American Sociological Review 45: 76-94.
Nielsen, Francois. 1985. “Toward A Theory of Ethnic Solidarity in Modern Societies.”
American Sociological Review 50: 133-149.
Olzak, Susan. 1992. The Dynamics of Ethnic Competition and Conflict. Stanford: Stanford
University Press.
Olzak, Susan and Elizabeth West. 1991. "Ethnic Conflict and the Rise of Ethnic Newspapers."
American Sociological Review 56:458-74.
Quillian, Lincoln. 1995. “Prejudice as a Response to Perceived Group Threat: Population
Composition and Anti-Immigrant and Racial Prejudice in Europe.” American
Sociological Review 60: 586-611.
Quillian, Lincoln. 1996. “Group Threat and Regional Change in Attitudes toward AfricanAmericans.” American Journal of Sociology 102: 816-860.
Ragin, Charles C. 1979. “Ethnic Political Mobilization: The Welsh Case.” American
Sociological Review 44: 619-35.
Ragin, Charles C. 1987. The Comparative Method: Moving Beyond Qualitative and
Quantitative Strategies. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Ragin, Charles C. (Editor). 1991. Issues and Alternatives in Comparative Social Research. New
York: E.J. Brill.
Rotberg, Robert I. and Dennis Thompson (Editors). 2000. Truth v. Justice: The Morality of
Truth Commissions. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Taylor, Marylee C. 1998. “How White Attitudes Vary with the Racial Composition of Local
Populations: Numbers Count.” American Sociological Review 63:512-35.
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Topor, G. 1992. Review of JG Kellas (1991) The Politics of Nationalism and Ethnicity.
Journal of International Affairs 45: 645-648.
West, Elizabeth. 1995. "Organization Building in the Wake of Ethnic Conflict: A Comparison of
Three Ethnic Groups." Social Forces 73:1333-63.
Williams, Robin M. Jr. 1994. “The Sociology of Ethnic Conflict: Comparative International
Perspectives.” Annual Review of Sociology 20: 49-79.
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RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Articles
Kunovich, Robert M. and Randy Hodson. 2002. “Ethnic Diversity, Segregation, and Inequality:
A Structural Model of Ethnic Prejudice in Bosnia and Croatia.” The Sociological
Quarterly 43, 2 (Spring): 185-212.
Kunovich, Robert M. 2002. “Social Structural Sources of Anti-immigrant Prejudice in Europe:
The Impact of Social Class and Stratification Position.” International Journal of
Sociology 32, 1 (Spring): 39-57.
Kunovich, Robert M. and Randy Hodson. 1999. “Conflict, Religious Identity, and Ethnic
Intolerance in Croatia.” Social Forces 78, 2 (December): 643-668.
Kunovich, Robert M. and Randy Hodson. 1999. “Civil War, Social Integration and Mental
Health in Croatia.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 40, 4 (December): 323-343.
Book Chapters
Kunovich, Robert M. 2002. “‘Throwing the Rascals Out:’ Macroeconomic Conditions, Personal
Economic Hardship, and Protest Voting in Poland.” Pp. 201-220 in Social Structure:
Changes and Linkages – The Advanced Phase of the Post-Communist Transition in
Poland, edited by Kazimierz M. Slomczynski. Warsaw, Poland: IFiS Publishers.
Kunovich, Robert M. 2000. “‘The Morning After’: Political Participation During Systemic
Transformation.” Pp. 129-142 in Social Patterns of Being Political: The Initial Phase of
the Post-communist Transition in Poland, edited by Kazimierz M. Slomczynski.
Warsaw: IFiS Publishers.
Book Reviews
Kunovich, Robert M. 2001. Review of Capturing the Complexity of Conflict: Dealing with
Violent Ethnic Conflicts of the Post-Cold War Era, by Dennis J.D. Sandole. London and
New York: Pinter, 1999. Pp. 282-3 in Contemporary Sociology 30, 3 (May), edited by
JoAnn Miller and Robert Perrucci.
Other Publications
Slomczynski, Kazimierz M. and Robert M. Kunovich (Guest editors). 2002. “Pro-democratic
Values in Cross-national Perspective.” International Journal of Sociology 32, 1 (Spring).
PROJECTS UNDER REVIEW AND IN PROGRESS
Articles
Kunovich, Robert M. “Immigration, Economic Hardship, and Anti-Immigrant Prejudice in
Europe.” Under review at British Journal of Sociology.
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Kunovich, Robert M. “Group Threat and the Heterogeneity of Regression Slopes: Explaining
Country Differences in the Effects of Social Class and Stratification Position on Antiimmigrant Prejudice.” Under review at Social Forces.
Kunovich, Robert M. “Religion as a Basis for National Identity: Religious Diversity, Religious
Background, and Identity in Europe. Analyses ongoing.
Kunovich, Robert M. and Catherine Sigworth (Ph.D. student in sociology). “Ethnic Conflict,
Polarization, and Attitudes Toward Gender Equality in Croatia.” Analyses ongoing.
Schor, Juliet, John Shandra (Ph.D. student in sociology), and Robert M. Kunovich. “Does
Consumer Culture Affect Chidlren's Well-Being?” Analyses ongoing.
Garroutte, E., Kunovich, R., Jakobson, C. & Buchwald, D. “Dimensions of Satisfaction with
Medical Care and their Relationship to Ethnicity among American Indian Elder Patients.”
Analyses ongoing.
Garroutte, E., Kunovich, R., Jacobson, C. & Goldberg, J. “Medical communication style and
patient satisfaction among American Indian elders.” Analyses ongoing.
RECENT RESEARCH SUPPORT
Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship (Title VI), Center for Slavic and East European
Studies, The Ohio State University. Language of award: Serbo-Croatian. SeptemberJune 2001.
Research Grant, Center for Survey Research, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, The
Ohio State University. “Ethnic Intolerance in Bosnia and Croatia: A Multi-Level Test of
Ethnic Competition and Ethnic Segregation Theories.” June-September 1999. Robert M.
Kunovich (Principle Investigator) and Randy Hodson.
Research Grant, Mershon Center, The Ohio State University. “Structural, Political, and SocialPsychological Sources of Ethnic Tolerance in the Former Yugoslavia.” June 1998-May
1999. Randy Hodson (Principle Investigator) and Robert M. Kunovich.
Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship (Title VI), Center for Slavic and East European
Studies, The Ohio State University. Language of award: Czech. June-August 1996.
Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship (Title VI), Center for Slavic and East European
Studies, The Ohio State University. Language of award: Czech. September 1995-May
1996.
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