[Tps] TPS/ECPR Policy Network - Call for papers

[navdeep]

> H i C N Households in Conflict Network
> www.hicn.org
> Call for Papers
> The Unit of Analysis and the Micro-Level
> Dynamics of Violent Conflict
> Second HiCN Workshop, Antwerp (Belgium), January 19-20, 2007
> In January 2007, the Households in Conflict Network (HiCN) will 
> organise its Second Annual
> Workshop. HiCN brings together scholars from different disciplines 
> working on the analysis
> of conflict from a micro-perspective. HiCN aims to fill a gap in the 
> literature on conflict
> research. The literature on the economics of conflict in the last ten 
> years (1995-2005) has
> been dominated by macro-economic, cross-country analyses. This debate 
> has yielded
> important insights into the causes and consequences of violent 
> conflict around the world, such
> as the saliency of natural resources, agricultural exports, education, 
> military spending,
> inequality, poverty, ethnicity and leadership. The debate has 
> certainly not come to a close, but
> we feel that so much has already been achieved in this field.
> We believe that there is another, completely open and under-researched 
> area of inquiry in
> conflict research, namely the micro-level analysis of causes, 
> functionings and consequences
> of violent conflict. In its Second Annual Workshop, HiCN will address 
> key issues in this
> emerging and exciting field.
> We invite qualitative as well as quantitative papers, formal as well 
> as narrative papers,
> provided they offer an innovative approach or new insight in the 
> micro-analysis analysis of
> conflict. We are interested to receive papers addressing one or more 
> layers of the cycle of
> conflict, from causes to consequences and in topics such as migration, 
> agriculture, coping
> mechanisms, peer pressure, gender, poverty, inequality, ethnicity, 
> natural resources, violence,
> combatants and rebels.
> “The unit of analysis” will be of central concern in this Second 
> Annual Workshop. We are in
> particular interested in papers with a strong methodological focus 
> addressing one or more of
> the following problems:
> - What is the unit of analysis in micro-level work on violent 
> conflict? The rebel group,
> the individual soldier, the household, intra-household mechanism, the 
> firm, youth
> gangs, political parties?
> - Which is the appropriate unit of analysis for which type of 
> conflict? And why is this
> the case?
> - How does decision making inside these units of analysis operate and 
> how does that
> affect the course of a conflict?
> - Is the definition of a household endogenously determined? Is 
> household composition a
> function of environment, security, etc.? Does the definition need to 
> change over time?
> - What is the importance of using the appropriate unit of analysis in 
> research on the
> causes and consequences of conflict?
> - What data and methods are appropriate for such research and how can 
> they be
> collected given the special challenges of conflict environments?
> Stephan Klasen (Development Economics, University of Göttingen), Debby 
> Bonnin
> (Industrial Organisation and Labour Studies, University of Natal) and 
> Debarati Guha-Sapir
> (Refugee Studies and Epidemiology, Université Catholic de Louvain) 
> have agreed to act as
> key-note speakers and discussants at the workshop.
> A selection of the best papers will be submitted to a peer-reviewed 
> international journal after
> the workshop for a potential special issue. The HiCN workshops are 
> organised by Philip
> Verwimp (ISS, The Hague), Tilman Brück (DIW, Berlin) and Patricia 
> Justino (IDS, UK) with
> support from The Leverhulme Trust, UK.
> Papers (preferred) or extended abstracts should be sent to 
> second at hicn.org before September
> 30, 2006. Decisions will be made by October 30, 2006. HiCN will pay 
> partial ticket or hotel
> costs for PhD students or applicants from developing countries.