Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict Through the Prism of Horizontal Inequalities: Theoretical Overview
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46991/BYSU:F/2022.13.1.005Keywords:
sociopsychological infrastructure, sociology of conflict, Karabakh movement, civil war, social movements, horizontal inequality, intractable conflict, collective grievance, Nagorno-Karabakh conflictAbstract
This paper is a theoretical overview that designs and proposes a novel analytical framework within sociology of conflict for studying the origins of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict at group level. This article discusses the theories on horizontal inequalities and sociopsychological infrastructure in intractable conflicts, focusing on the question of the emergence of the Karabakh movement. Building on the synthesis of macro and micro theoretical approaches, the paper reflects upon possible ways of exploring the roots of the conflict by bridging social structure with social agency, and morphological knowledge with individual experience. Thereby, stemming from the central arguments of the examined theories, I construct an epistemological scheme, thus essentially capturing the main findings of this theoretical-methodological overview. The analytical framework brought forward in this paper may potentially serve as a foundation for operational design of a meso-level analysis of the causes of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
References
Ayunts, A., Zolyan, M., & Zakaryan, T. (2016). Nagorny Karabakh conflict: prospects for conflict transformation. The Journal of Nationalism and Ethnicity, 44(4), 543-559. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/00905992.2016.1157158
BarTal, D. (2001). Foreword: Meanings of "Psychology as Politics". Political Psychology, 22(2), 219-226. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/0162-895X.00235
BarTal, D. (2007). Sociopsychological Foundations of Intractable Conflicts. American Behavioral Scientist, 50(11), 1430-1453. Doi:
https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764207302462
Benford, R. D., & Snow, D. A. (2000). Framing Processes and Social Movements: An Overview and Assessment. Annual Review of Sociology, 26(1), 611 - 639. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.26.1.611
Bennett, A., & Checkel, J. T. (2015). Process Tracing: From Metaphor to Analytic Tool. Cambridge University Press. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139858472
Brass, P. (1991). Ethnicity and Nationalism: Theory and Comparison. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Cederman, L.-E., Gleditsch, K. S., & Buhaug, H. (2013). Inequality, Grievances and Civil War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139084161
Cederman, L.-E., Gleditsch, K. S., & Buhaug, H. (2013). Inequality, Grievances and Civil War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139084161
Coleman, J. S. (1990). Foundations of Social Theory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Coser, L. A. (1964). The Functions of Social Conflict. London: Hurst & Company.
De Waal, T. (2013). Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War. New York: New York University Press. Doi: https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9780814770825.001.0001
Gamson, W. (1992). Talking Politics. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Ghahriyan, S., & Atoyan, A. (2018). War and Peace in Karabakh: an Analysis of Women's Perceptions. Corridors Proceedings, 1, 86-99. doi:10.15457/cp_1
Goodwin, J. (1997). State-Centered Approaches to Social Revolutions: Strengths and Limitations of a Theoretical Tradition. In J. Foran, Theorizing Revolutions. London: Routledge.
Gurr, T. R. (1970). Why Men Rebel. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Hechter, M. (1987). Principles of Group Solidarity. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.
Horowitz, D. L. (1985). Ethnic Groups in Conflict. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Huseynova, S., Hakobyan, A., & Rumyantsev, S. (2014). Beyond the Karabakh Conflict: The Story of Village Exchange. Tbilisi: Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung. Retrieved August 3, 2021, from https://www.boell.de/sites/default/files/2020-11/village_exchange_publication.pdf
Huseynova, S., Zolyan, M., & Rumyantsev, S. (2019). Conflicts and DeSovietization of the South Caucasus Political Regimes and Memorial Landscapes. Caucasus Edition: Journal of Conflict Transformation, 4(2), 3-35.
Jasper, J. M. (1998). The Emotions of Protest: Affective and Reactive Emotions in and around Social Movements. Sociological Forum, 13(3), 397-424. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022175308081
Kohlhagen, K. (2013). The Flexible Barrier of History- Moving Peace Forward Through The Past. Nagorno Karabakh: Understanding Conflict - John Hopkins SAIS.
Malesevic, S. (2010). The Sociology of War and Violence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511777752
Mason, T. D. (2009). The Evolution of Theory on Civil War and Revolution. In M. I. Midlarsky, Handbook of War Studies III: The Intrastate Dimension. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
McAlpine, L. (2016). Why might you use narrative methodology? A story about narrative. Eesti Haridusteaduste Ajakiri, 4(1), 32-57. Doi: https://doi.org/10.12697/eha.2016.4.1.02b
Mercer, J. (2005). Rationality and Psychology in International Politics. International Organization, 59(1), 77-106. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020818305050058
Minasian, E. (2005). Present Situation and Problems of Study of the History of the Artsakh Liberation Movement. Herald of the Social Sciences, 30-41.
Moore, B. J. (1978). Injustice: The Social Bases of Obedience and Revolt. London: Macmillan. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-15916-1
Perovic, J., & Boskovska, N. (2018). Manifestations of Nationalism: The Caucasus from Late Soviet Times to the Early 1990s. Europe-Asia Studies, 853-861. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/09668136.2018.1489631
Petersen, R. (2002). Understanding Ethnic Violence: Fear, Hatred, and Resentment in Twentieth-Century Eastern Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511840661
Shahnazaryan, N., Sukhashvili, J., & Banu, Z. (2019). Stories of Help and Rescue: the Georgian-Ossetian and Nagorno-Karabakh Conflicts. Caucasus Edition: Journal of Conflict Transformation, 4(2), 84-116.
Sidanius, J., & Pratto, F. (1999). Social Dominance: An Intergroup Theory of Social Hierarchy and Opression. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139175043
Simmel, G. (1955). Conflict and the Web of Group-Affiliations. (R. Bendix, Trans.) New York, NY: Free Press.
Smbatyan, H. (2018). Sociological Interpretation of Nagorno-Karabakh Voluntary Movement in the Context of the Four-Day War. Collection of Scientific Articles of YSU SSS, 262-270. Retrieved from https://bit.ly/2Yc02wl
Smbatyan, H. (2021). Civilian Participation in Interstate War: Unfolding Voluntary Collective Action in Nagorno-Karabakh War. Pax et Bellum Journal, 4(1), 57-69. Retrieved from https://bit.ly/3uyuf4V
Smbatyan, H., Jumayeva, L., Hasanova, N., & Grigoryan, E. (2019). Reflections on Scenarios on the Peaceful Resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict in Armenia and Azerbaijan. Caucasus Edition: Journal of Conflict Transformation, 4(1), 122-151. Retrieved from https://bit.ly/3t4BoHQ
Spears, R. (2008). Social Identity, Legitimacy, and Intergroup Conflict: The Rocky Road to Reconciliation. In A. Nadler, T. Malloy, & J. D. Fisher, The Social Psychology of Intergroup Reconciliation. New York: Oxford University Press. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195300314.003.0015
Stewart, F. (2008). Horizontal Inequalities and Conflict: An Introduction and Some Hypotheses. In F. Stewart, Horizontal Inequalities and Conflict: Understanding Group Violence in Multiethnic Societies. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230582729
Syed, M., & McLean, K. C. (2021). Master narrative methodology: A primer for conducting structural-psychological research. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 1939-0106. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000470
Tajfel, H. (1974). Social identity and intergroup behaviour. Trends and Developments, 13(2), 65-93. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/053901847401300204
Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. (1979). An Integrative Theory of Intergroup Conflict. In W. G. Worchel, The Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations. Monterey, CA: Brooks Cole.
Tarrow, S. (1994). Power in Movement: Social Movements and Contentious Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tilly, C. (1978). From Mobilization to Revolution. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Trupia, F. (2017). Unfreezing the "other": collective trauma and psychological warfare over the Nagorno-Karabakh rivalry. Journal of Liberty and International Affairs, 2(3), 30-43.
Williams, R. M. (2003). The Wars Within: Peoples and States in Conflict. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Doi: https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501711619
Worchel, S., & Coutant, D. K. (2008). Between Conflict and Reconciliation: Toward a Theory of Peaceful Coexistence. In A. Nadler, T. Malloy, & J. D. Fisher, The Social Psychology of Intergroup Reconciliation. New York: Oxford University Press. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195300314.003.0019
Arutyunyan, L. (2006). "Obshchestvo ni voyny ni mira" i perspektivy mirnogo razresheniya karabakhskogo konflikta.(in Russian) KAVKAZ. Yezhegodnik KISMI, 104-110. Retrieved from https://bit.ly/3osfIa8
Astvatsaturov, C., & Babloyan, A. (2010). K voprosu o sotsiologicheskom izuchenii istoricheskikh form sotsial'no-ekonomicheskikh konfliktov v Armenii.(in Russian) V mire nauchnykh otkrytiy, 4(10), 46-48.Retrieved from https://bit.ly/3A2WBpc
Babloyan, A. (2009). Konfliktnyye konstruktsii v praktike podderzhaniya sotsial'nogo ravnovesiya.(in Russian) Yezhegodnik Fakul'teta sotsiologii, 34-42.
Sagatelyan, S. (2015). Teoriya freymov kak yazyk opisaniya sovremennykh konfliktov. (in Russian) Vestnik Yerevanskogo Universiteta: Sotsiologiya, 6/3(18), 45-50. Doi: https://doi.org/10.46991/BYSU:F/2015.6.3.045
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Hayk Smbatyan
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.