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SOCIAL SCIENCES

Social sciences examine human behavior, social structures, and interactions in various settings. Fields such as sociology, psychology, anthropology, and economics study social relationships, cultural norms, and institutions. By using different research methods, social scientists seek to understand community dynamics, the effects of policies, and factors driving social change. This field is important for tackling current issues, guiding public discussions, and developing strategies for social progress and innovation.

 Social Origins of Militias: The Extraordinary Rise of “Outraged Citizens” 

By Gauthier Marchais, Christian Mastaki Mugaruka, Raúl Sánchez de la Sierra, and David Qihang Wu

We use a sharp withdrawal of the state that precipitated a rise in insecurity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to analyze the role of community in the rise of militias. Through a range of data collection techniques, we find that the withdrawal led to a spectacular rise and growth in militia village chapters that were supported by the communities to fight the instigators of that insecurity. While some of this growth can be attributed to the release of pent-up revenge motivations among previously victimized households, the extraordinary expansion is driven by communities facing a sharp new increase in insecurity as a result of the withdrawal, highlighting the perceived value of community security. In these villages, community members were propelled to join the newly formed militia chapters by both intrinsic and extrinsic social motivations, including the desire to protect their community and concerns about social status. Moreover, this rise is accentuated in villages where the local elite mobilizes informal community mechanisms in response to the heightened insecurity, upholding informal norms and amplifying intrinsic social motivations to join among community members. These findings offer a new perspective on militia emergence, emphasizing the role of social motivations and of community, and nuancing the distinction between economic and noneconomic incentives, consistent with an extensive literature using qualitative methods.  

WORKING PAPER · NO. 2024-87 

Chicago: University of Chicago, The Becker Friedman Institute for Economics, 2024. 107p.

International Disinformation: A Handbook for Analysis and Response

By Robert Kupiecki, Filip Bryjka and Tomasz Chłoń

Dive into the world of disinformation with this groundbreaking book. Uncover how Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) shapes modern politics and society, and how it impacts your own life. Explore answers to key questions: What are the origins and characteristics of disinformation? How can we identify it? How do we counteract it? Packed with historical and current data, this book reveals the tactics states use to manipulate information. Understand strategies, from micro-targeting to crafting strategic disinformation campaigns. This essential read empowers you to navigate today's complex media landscape and build your own resilience against disinformation.

Leiden; Boston: Brill: 2024. 286p.

Classics and Race: A historical reader

Sarah Derbew (Editor), Daniel Orrells (Editor), Phiroze Vasunia (Editor)

Classics and Race: A historical reader provides scholars and students with an exploratory intellectual history of the complex relationships between Classics and racist/anti-racist thought-systems. It collects together a series of readings of historical primary sources from the late medieval period until the mid-twentieth century, bringing to light how the classical tradition and post-ancient constructions of race have informed each other. Each reading is accompanied by an essay, written by a leading specialist who offers a discussion of the primary source.

The volume is arranged chronologically, from the late medieval period to the Renaissance, crucial for understanding classical humanism, and on to the eighteenth century with texts foundational to the modern emergence of classical studies as a discipline and its relationship to the transatlantic slave trade. The essays show how the classical tradition has continuously been structured by debates about race, racism and anti-racism. Including voices from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe and North and South America, the essays demonstrate why the primary text is important for understanding this intellectual and cultural history, and the global reach of the classical tradition.

London: UCL Press, 2025. 506p.

Performing Violence: Limits and Transformative Means in Staged Violence

Edited by Davide Giovanzana

This book offers an exhaustive approach to all forms of staged violence and an in-depth analysis of their emergence and repercussions (dramaturgically and physically). This study explores instruments to surpass the dichotomic opposition victim-oppressor, to demystify the spell of violence, and to get rid of the morbid voyeurism often connected to staged violence, and eventually, it proposes transformative tools to explore empowering experiences through violence. Considering all the aspects of a theatre performance engaging with staged violence (the story displaying violence, the actors’ embodiment of violence, the spectators’ experiences of being exposed to violence, and the process of performing violence), this book proposes analytical and practical tools to explore the limit and to transform the experience of performing violence. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars in theatre and performance studies.

Oxford; New York: Routledge, 2024, 179p.

Political Expression in Sport: Transnational Challenges, Moral Defences

By Cem Abanazir

This powerful new book looks at how private institutions governing and organising sport restrict political expression. Uniquely, it makes a case for the freedom of expression for athletes, spectators and audiences built upon philosophical foundations. In the era of Colin Kaepernick and taking a knee, politics and protest in sport have never been more visible and immediate. Drawing on a wide range of international cases, including protest actions from athletes such as Tommie Smith and John Carlos, Naomi Osaka and Feyisa Lilesa, as well as the reactions from sport organisations including the IOC, FIFA, UEFA and the NFL, the book argues that the organisation of sport at the hands of associations and leagues and their transnational power to regulate, adjudicate and enforce matters according to their interests lead to the restriction of freedom of expression. Focusing on the individual, the book presents a framework for the defence of freedom of expression in sport on moral grounds and also explores the limits to freedom of expression, especially those arising from hate speech, that might better serve both the individual and sport as an institution. This book is fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in the ethics, philosophy or politics of sport, sport governance, the relationship between sport and wider society, or moral or political philosophy

London; New York, Routledge, 2023. 212p.

Building an International Cybersecurity Regime: Multistakeholder Diplomacy

Edited by Ian Johnstone, Arun Sukumar, and Joel Trachtman

Providing a much-needed study on cybersecurity regime building, this comprehensive book is a detailed analysis of cybersecurity norm-making processes and country positions, through the lens of multi-stakeholder diplomacy. Multidisciplinary and multinational scholars and practitioners use insights drawn from high-level discussion groups to provide a rigorous analysis of how major cyber powers view multi-stakeholder diplomacy.

Cheltenham, UK: Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2023. 282p.

Revisiting Judicial Politics in the European Union

Edited by Mark Dawson, Bruno de Witte, and Elise Muir

Addressing the tensions between the political and the legal dimension of European integration as well as intra-institutional dynamics, this insightful book navigates the complex topic of judicial politics. Providing an overview of key topics in the current debate and including an introductory chapter on different conceptions of judicial politics, experts in law and politics interrogate the broader political role of the European Court of Justice.

Cheltenham, UK: Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2024. 388p.

Digital Media and Grassroots Anti-Corruption: cContexts, Platforms and Data of Anti-Corruption Technologies Worldwide

Edited by Alice Mattoni

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 License. It is free to read, download and share on Elgaronline.com. Delving into a burgeoning field of research, this enlightening book utilises case studies from across the globe to explore how digital media is used at the grassroots level to combat corruption. Bringing together an impressive range of experts, Alice Mattoni deftly assesses the design, creation and use of a wide range of anti-corruption technologies

Cheltenham, UK: Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2024. 286p.

Dictionary of Privacy, Data Protection and Information Security

By Mark Elliot, Anna M. Mandalari, Miranda Mourby, and Kieron O’Hara

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 License. It is free to read, download and share on Elgaronline.com. The Dictionary of Privacy, Data Protection and Information Security explains the complex technical terms, legal concepts, privacy management techniques, conceptual matters and vocabulary that inform public debate about privacy.

Cheltenham, UK: Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2024. 652p.

Multilingual Communications Surveillance In Criminal Law: The Role of Intercept Interpreter-translators

By Nadja Capus, Cornelia Griebel , and Ivana Havelka

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC-BY-4.0 License. It is free to read, download and share on Elgaronline.com. Multilingual Communications Surveillance In Criminal Law highlights the vital yet overlooked roles of Intercept Interpreters and Translators (IITs) in criminal justice operations. Nadja Capus, Cornelia Griebel and Ivana Havelka conduct an interdisciplinary investigation, exploring IITs navigation of complex legal, linguistic and translational challenges. They advocate for improved practices to ensure quality, fairness and integrity in investigations within criminal proceedings when communication is monitored in multiple languages.

Cheltenham, UK: Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2024. 

“To be listened to... and actually heard” Women's perspectives on effective substance use treatment and support

By Centre for Justice Innovation

For some women, substance use can cause significant harm and problems for themselves and for those around them. Problems with substance use among women have well-established links to gendered experiences of trauma, abuse and exploitation, and women deserve to receive the kind of support that is appropriate for them. Our previous research identified that many of the mainstream, mixed-gender treatment services we looked at were not working well for women. We found evidence that women were accessing treatment services in spaces that exposed them to risks of abuse or exploitation, and that did not give them space to explore their gendered experiences. Our research indicated that treatment services were not able to effectively respond to the needs of women with trauma. This project set out to explore what a better system of substance use treatment would look like from the perspective of women in treatment. Working with women’s centre and treatment provider The Nelson Trust, we spoke to women accessing treatment in seven different locations, and asked about their experiences of a range of treatment provision and what they wanted from treatment services. We explored their perceptions of effective treatment and what support they would want women to be able to access in an ideal system. The women who participated identified six key characteristics of effective treatment: 1. Effective treatment is holistic. It considers and responds to all of a woman’s needs and strengths, including issues like domestic abuse, mental health, offending and children’s social care involvement. 2. Effective treatment is compassionate and respectful. It respects women’s dignity and agency, and responds to their individual needs and experiences with understanding rather than judgement. 3. Effective treatment is person-led and non-coercive. It enables women to determine what treatment and recovery looks like for themselves and to work towards it in their own time, without threat of further scrutiny or punitive measures. 4. Effective treatment addresses the root causes of substance use problems. It supports women to work through drivers of their substance use, heal from past traumas and have their wider needs met. 5. Effective treatment is trauma-responsive. It embeds understanding of trauma and shame throughout, following principles of safety, collaboration and transparency. It does not label women or discharge them when they go quiet. 6. Effective treatment builds strength and resilience. It promotes women’s agency through interventions aimed at promoting self-worth, confidence and acceptance, providing them with new skills and ways of coping. Delivering an effective treatment system requires a significant shift in the way treatment services are commissioned and managed. Current funding models have usually promoted the delivery of large-scale, one-size-fits-all provision in isolation from other services. Whole system approaches – where all services with a role in supporting women are integrated into a cohesive system of care – represent an alternative model that could more effectively address women’s needs. Local areas seeking to implement whole system approaches face significant challenges in breaking down funding silos, supporting information sharing and securing sufficient resources. One solution may be found in place-based approaches to funding and commissioning – approaches that work at local or regional levels to combine funding from multiple sources to co-commission a range of services for women. We therefore call on central government to remove the structural barriers inhibiting the growth of whole system approaches, and for local commissioners to explore place-based approaches as a way of implementing more whole system ways of working. Adopting these new approaches would not only improve the efficacy and efficiency of services, but it would also, more importantly, enable women to lead fulfilling lives. 

London: Centre for Justice Innovation, 2025. 56p.

A report on the experience of racism for Uber riders and drivers

By Awais Piracha, Karen Connelly, Kevin Dunn, Yin Paradies, Rachel Sharples, Amanuel Elias, et al.

This report presents the findings of a project investigating experiences of racism in Uber among both riders and drivers in Melbourne, Australia. The research was conducted between November 2022 and February 2023, and consisted of two case studies. 

Findings from the project should inform regulations of the relevant government agencies, such as the transport and employment related ministries in Australia. They can also inform Uber’s efforts to improve their racism prevention and response policies and procedures. 

Case studies

  • Case study 1 – investigated racism in the experiences of Uber riders (passengers). It generated differential outcomes for Uber riders across three ethnic groups: white Australian, East Asian Australian and African Australian.

  • Case study 2 – investigated Uber drivers’ experiences of racism. It explored migrant Uber drivers’ positive and negative experiences of driving, including experiences of racism.

Recommendations

  1. Improve Uber driver feedback

  2. Improve Uber’s training for drivers

  3. Increase safety features in Uber

  4. Improve Uber’s star rating and reporting systems for drivers

  5. Monitor the impact of 2024 Australian government Gig Economy legislation on Uber drivers working conditions and wages.

Burwood, Victoria, AUS: Centre for Resilient and Inclusive Societies, 2025. 25p.

Restrictive measures: the challenges in front of the EU

By Giovanni Nicolazzo , Bohdan Bernatsky , et al.

This report, carried out by Transcrime – Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, explores the results of the first comprehensive analysis of the recurrent schemes used by sanctioned entities to evade international sanctions, with the aim of reducing the current gaps in sanctions enforcement thanks to a deeper understanding of the phenomenon.

After a general assessment of the nature and effectiveness of sanctions (a more detailed review on this topic is available here) and of shortcomings in the enforcement framework, the report focuses on:

🔹 Most violated sanctions by category, region, goods, and assets.

🔹 The role of facilitators, corporate vehicles, and satellite jurisdictions.

🔹 Recurrent evasion schemes and transactions.

🔹 Policy implications and risk indicators.

This document provides a comprehensive resource for public and private sector stakeholders for both investigation and due diligence purposes, and enabled the development of an advanced tool for assessing high-risk entities and for tracing and re-covering illicit assets, which is now made available to interested EU competent authorities for the purpose of tracing criminal assets and sanction evasion schemes.

Milan: Transcrime, 2025. 82p.

Systemic Racism in Mass Violence and Atrocity Prevention

By Pratima T. Narayan, Ronnate D. Asirwatham, and Abiola Afolayan

This paper examines global systemic racism’s influence on mass atrocities. The authors, Pratima T. Narayan, Ronnate Asirwatham, and Abiola Afolayan, explore policy changes that can help bring about shared and sustainable peace, leading to greater recognition and dignity for survivors and communities harmed by racial injustice worldwide. Each of the three sections of the paper is geared to challenge thinking on systemic racism in mass atrocity prevention.

The authors analyze racism during the time of the founding of the United Nations, as well as in its present-day application in different international mechanisms such as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) and domestic mechanisms such as the United States Atrocities Prevention Board and subsequent Atrocity Prevention Task Force. The countries discussed include South Africa, Sri Lanka, Burma, the United States, and Nigeria. The issues discussed include the interplay on the international and domestic levels where there was, at times, mutual reinforcement of the dynamics of racism and mass atrocities. Read the full report which consists of the following three sections:

How the Quest for Racial Equality Led to a Modern Human Rights Movement

Pratima Narayan

The institutions, policies, and initiatives introduced to eradicate racism have fallen short in consistently providing victims and communities of racially- motivated violations adequate redress, and have arguably perpetuated racial subordination. This section explores that systemic failure.

Institutional Racism in the Conceptualization and Implementation of the Principle of Sovereignty

Ronnate D. Asirwatham

This section explores the conceptualization of state sovereignty, its use to further structural racial injustice and resulting mass atrocities, and the use and application of sovereignty by the UN Security Council, including through the Responsibility to Protect.

Ending Business as Usual: Mass Atrocities of People of African Descent

Abiola Afolayan

The paper’s final section examines the intentional exclusion of people of African descent from the originating conversations that formed such central mechanisms as the United Nations, US Constitution, and US Atrocities Prevention Board, as well as the consequences thereof.

Muscatine, IA: The Stanley Center for Peace and Security, 2022. 36p.

Big Events on a Small Scale: Exploring Identity-Based Mass Violence in Cities 

By Ariana Markowitz 

This research explores how urban violence intersects with mass atrocities to establish identity-based mass violence (IBMV) in cities as a cross-disciplinary field of scholarship and practice. Cities affect mass violence in three main ways. First, cities offer places and reasons to gather. Second, neighborhoods, mobility infrastructure, utility systems, and other city spaces can be read as proxies for specific groups of people. Third, violence can be both a cause and a symptom of urbanization, a uniquely urban process by definition, such that urbanization can be one way to mortally wound a city. Scholars and practitioners working to prevent urban violence and the atrocity prevention community have more that unites than divides them, and preventing urban atrocities requires the active engagement of them all. Nine case studies of IBMV from Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina; Mazar-i Sharif, Afghanistan; Kaduna, Nigeria; San Salvador, El Salvador; Nairobi, Kenya; Flint, Michigan, USA; Aleppo, Syria; Ciudad Juárez, Mexico; and Jerusalem, Israel, illustrate the multiplicity of forms that such violence can take. The cases aid in the development of a typology of urban atrocities, a tool to identify potential risk and protective factors. An overall finding is that the local context and the built environment were salient for efforts to prevent mass violence. This was especially true where the city (1) was an enclave or was divided into enclaves, (2) had a place of encounter where groups in conflict were likely to cross paths, or (3) experienced a recent political shock. Attackers sought to dehumanize their victims as often as they sought to kill them and were most likely to define their victims based on religion. Given the prevalence of cases that featured enclaves, places of encounter, and recent political shocks, we mapped out how these values related to all other values and compared those results to the overall frequency analysis, revealing relationships that differed from what the overall frequency analysis would have predicted. Taken together, the cases shed light on four pivotal questions for preventing urban atrocities: – How does structural violence contribute to both acute and chronic mass violence in cities? – How does scaling atrocity prevention to the city affect the Responsibility to Protect? – How can municipal actors be better recognized, resourced, and empowered? – How can city residents and institutions work in partnership to take inclusive steps toward justice and healing? The analysis discusses urban vulnerability to lethal and especially nonlethal violence and unpacks the perils and possibilities of external involvement. By acknowledging the challenges to effective local peacebuilding while celebrating successful initiatives, this report establishes common ground between atrocity prevention and urban violence prevention, identifying five strategies to sustain and strengthen cities, their inhabitants, and the communities of scholarship and practice that support them. This research thus champions the fundamental role that cities play in reducing risk, building sustainable peace, and enabling community transformation. The report advocates for using urban space for justice and healing, learning from local peacebuilders, working with formal and informal actors and tools, identifying models of urban violence prevention practices, and committing to an inclusive ethics of care 

Muscatine, IA: The Stanley Center for Peace and Security, and Impact Partnere, 2020; 35p.

The Costs of Political Violence in the United States The Benefits of Investing in Communities 

By Andrew Blum

The core goal of this report is to explore how “democracy can provide the antidote” to political violence within the United States. In the last several years, we have seen extremist attacks, a surge in hate crimes, protests by heavily armed militias, and vicious acts of brutality by law enforcement. Violence and the threat of violence are harming communities throughout the U.S. and undermining our democracy 

At the same time, hard-won experience from communities within the United States and around the world has revealed concrete strategies that can be used to prevent, respond to, and recover from political violence. Political violence imposes real costs, but it also drives communities to create real solutions. Many of those solutions were on display during the 2020 election, which contributed to creating a largely peaceful election. The polarization and violent rhetoric on display during the election, however, also makes clear that we have work to do moving forward. Now is time to start that work. Now more than ever people understand the risk of political violence and the urgent need to invest in efforts to prevent it. Our goal must be to leverage that awareness and that energy into creating longer-term, sustainable, democracy-strengthening solutions to prevent political violence in the United States. This paper thus focuses on two basic questions: • Why should we care about political violence? What are the human and economic impacts of political violence? After the headlines cease and attention fades, what are the real costs of political violence to communities? • What can communities do about political violence? What are the community-centered strategies that address political violence? What does the evidence say about which strategies are most effective? How do we build communities that are resilient to various forms of political violence? We pose these questions primarily to funders. Democracy Fund has commissioned this research to inform the community of funders to which it belongs— funders committed to strengthening democracy within the United States 

Washington, DC: Democracy Fund, 2021. 40p.

“HOW SCARED ARE YOU?” Mapping the Threat Environment of San Diego’s Elected Officials

By  Rachel Locke , Cari Luna

Democracy cannot function without individuals stepping up to serve as representatives of their community. The presence and growth of threats and harassment directed towards elected representatives poses a direct risk to our democracy, weakening community cohesion and our ability to address collective challenges. While our research found threats and harassment to be present across political parties, it identified women as far more likely to be on the receiving end both in terms of quantity and severity. If under-represented groups are pushed out of the processes of debate and decision-making, solutions will not be oriented around the diversity of our society. Without clear data on the scale of the problem, the rise in threats and ad hominem attacks are too easily discounted by public officials, the media and the public at large. Possible consequences range from an increased potential for physical violence and the resignation from public life of elected officials. The research outlined in this report helps to expose the scale of threats and harassment, while in turn providing recommendations from those directly impacted, concerned community members and scholars on how to reinforce safe and non-threatening local governance. While several studies have shown that cities, counties and states across the country are experiencing an increased level of hostility towards elected officials, very few geographically designated areas are measuring incidents in any structured way. The research outlined in this report aims to set a clear baseline on the extent of aggressive behavior towards nearly all categories of elected office in San Diego County. Our research looked at all County School Boards, Community College Boards, City Councils, Mayors, and the County Board of Supervisors. Using a mixed methods approach that included surveys, interviews, a traditional media review and social media review, our team was able to get a clear picture of the problem both objectively and subjectively. Our findings confirm that the rise in threats and harassments targeting elected officials identified in national studies is also occurring at the local level in San Diego County. This rise in hostile threatening behavior towards elected officials is having a measurable impact on a) the ability of elected office holders to effectively participate in the public policy process; b) the likelihood of elected officials seeking to encourage others to enter public life or remain in public life themselves; and c) the psychological and physical health of office holders and their families. The vitriol we are seeing risks significantly and negatively impact the vitality of local democracy, civic engagement and effective policy making on across the policy spectrum. The vast majority of local elected officials in San Diego County are impacted. Seventyfive percent of all elected officials reported being on the receiving end of threats and harassment. Of these, 47% reported the threats and harassment occurs monthly. Thus, not only do threats and harassment impact most of San Diego County elected officials, but the aggression is taking place on a regular basis. Of those who have not themselves been threatened or harassed, nearly half said they had witnessed threats and harassment against others. These data indicate nearly 90% of all San Diego County elected officials have either been threatened or harassed or have witnessed such abuse directed at their peers. While there is not a significant partisan difference, with moderates most likely to be on the receiving end of threats and harassment, there is a big gender divide. Women are far more impacted than men. Eighty-two percent of female elected officials reported being on the receiving end of threats and harassment compared with 66% of all men. Of the 24 incidents of threats and harassment reported in local media, 19 incidents involved women, and five involved men. On social media, when examining men and women of comparable Twitter usage and prominence of position, women received 15 to 20 times the aggressive interaction as their male peers. With 66% of survey respondents reporting that threats and harassment have gone up over the course of their time in office, the implications of a continued rise are concerning. Roughly half (52%) of all survey respondents have considered leaving public service because of the threats and harassment they endure. Disaggregating by gender, twice as many women considered leaving public office as did men (61% compared to 32%). This is alarming, although not surprising given the elevated frequency and intensity of threats and harassment women face compared to men. Forty-five percent of those we surveyed stated they think new solutions are needed to handle the increasingly vitriolic environment. Several initiatives have been developed in the San Diego area in the last 2 years to provide new solutions, but more work is needed. As part of our effort to understand potential solutions, we conducted three “community conversations” across the County. The group discussions, and the recommendations that came from them, form the backbone of our recommendations, alongside insights from other national studies and academic sources. A summary of those recommendations is here, with detail provided in the relevant section below. 

San Diego: University of San Diego, Kroc School, Violence, Inequality and Power Lab: Institute for Civil Civic Engagement,  2023. 36p.

Understanding and Addressing: Misinformation About Science

By K. Viswanath, Tiffany E. Taylor, and Holly G. Rhode

This headline is an outstanding example of how misinformation is perceived in the public arena. The headline makes a causal assumption that misinformation is “getting in the way” of recovery from the hurricane’s devastating impact. The degree of accuracy of this assumption is a question for further study and empirical examination, but the very assumption that misinformation has a direct causal impact on relief efforts with significant negative consequences is noteworthy. And newsworthy. And is part of what motivated this report. Information, and misinformation, is everywhere—on our phones, televisions in the gym, social media. Some of this misinformation is brain candy, simple entertainment, and inconsequential; some of it, though, has the potential to impact public health, inform policy responses, and shape people’s perceptions of the world. If misinformation about science leads to beliefs that are in conflict with accepted science, the consequences can be profound. False perceptions and beliefs may lead to behaviors and support for policies that are not supported by accepted science and/or are not aligned with individual preferences and goals, with negative consequences for individuals, communities, and broader society.

National Academies Sciences Engineering Medicine (2025), 356 pages

Negro Politics: The Search For Leadership

By James Q. Wilson

This is a study of a phenomenon which many people be- JL lieve does not exist. Anyone wishing to examine Negro leadership in a city such as Chicago will be met at the outset with the assertion, particularly from intellectual Negroes, that “there is no Negro leadership.” At the same time, the person who makes this comment will very likely be himself a member of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) or the Urban League, or perhaps both; he will - be a member of one of the major political parties, probably the Democratic; he will often be in a fraternity, an organization which exists largely as a part of adult, rather than student, life; he may well be a member of a social club, a church, one or more organizations affiliated with the church, or a lodge; if he is a worker, he will likely be a union member; if he is a businessman, he will probably belong to a chamber of commerce; and it would not be unusual if he were a supporter of the YMCA, a boys’ club, a settlement house, a professional society, a neighborhood block club, or a conservation association. Each of these organizations will almost inevitably be led, at least at the local level, by a Negro. These men are, in some sense, Negro leaders. What is meant, of course, is that there are no “good” Negro leaders — leaders who are selflessly devoted to causes which will benefit Negroes as a race and as a community. One will also be told that Negroes are “unorganized.” But the simplest reckoning of the number of organizations in a Negro community will immediately suggest that this comment, like the • 3 4 NEGRO POLITICS one about leadership, cannot be taken at face value. In 1937, when Chicago had only 275,000 Negroes, an actual count revealed more than 4,000 formal associations among them.*1 Today, when the Negro population is about three times as large, there seems to be little doubt that the number of organizations is also comparably greater. In comparison with white communities of equivalent size, there is some evidence that Negroes are organized to an even greater extent than whites.2 Although Negroes, like whites, are more organized among middle-class than lower-class groups, on the whole, Negroes are fully as inclined to join associations as whites.3 The Negro community, whatever else its problems, is not characterized by an inability to create and sustain at least some kinds of organizations. What the Negro critics who argue that the Negro is “unorganized” mean is that he is not organized as a community to seek ends of benefit to the community or the race as a whole. There can be little doubt that the great majority of Negro associations have purposes other than Negro protest or improvement, and that these associations consume much of the time and money of Negroes which, their critics argue, should be devoted to race ends. Periodically, attempts are made to alter this, either by starting a new organization which will be the organization for the betterment of Negroes and to which all Negroes can flock, regardless of their special interests, or by creating an “umbrella” organization which will “co-ordinate” the plethora of existing Negro associations into collective action for communal goals. Such organizations have not endured.

STATE COLLEGE FOR TEACHERS, 1960, 338p.

Mass Hate: The Global Rise of Genocide and Terror

By Neil J. Kressel

The twentieth century has been a century of hostility, an epoch in which the brutality of humankind has erupted and flowed more expansively than ever before. During the past eight decades, mass hatred has reached genocidal proportions in Turkey, Germany, Indonesia, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Burundi, Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda, and elsewhere. Blood has gushed so freely, and with such frequency, that one might consider the urge to kill one's neighbor an inborn characteristic of our species. Moreover, during the latter part of the century, the power to wreak bloody havoc on innocent civilians across the globe has fallen into the hands of terrorists whose hate knows no bounds. By the early years of the next century, these terrorists may possess nuclear devices that will make their previous methods seem quaint.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data, 1996, 342p.