
Conflict dynamics
Intercommunal and self-determination conflicts often resemble the proverbial powder keg. Small triggering events can have major consequences. This research track will explore these kinds of non-linear short-term escalation dynamics in cultural identity conflicts. We will work in particular on the conceptualization, operationalization, and data generation of triggering events and escalation periods. To explain short-term escalations, special attention will be given to the role of collective emotions as necessary ‘fuel’ for sparking events. The research will remedy three prevailing shortcomings in the field: an inordinate focus on time-invariant structural factors, an overemphasis on top-down rationalist or framing approaches, and a failure to integrate collective emotions into the research on cultural identity conflicts.
Ongoing Projects
- Sparking Events, Emotional Climates, and Cascades in Cultural Identity Conflicts (funded by DFG, with C. Trinn, Heidelberg University)
SPARK analyses the short-term escalation dynamics in cultural identity conflicts on a global scale. Conflictive mass behaviour is conceptualized as “cascades”, which are understood as propagations of self-organizing conflictive mass behaviour of varying intensity and extensity. In our model, an emboldening emotional climate provides the “fuel” that is sparked by a triggering event. As an intermediate step, we expect that the activated potential translates into action through collective self-organization. By combining triggering events, collective emotions and self-organization, SPARK investigates an innovative and comprehensive explanation of the non-linear short-term escalation dynamics of collective mass behaviour in cultural identity conflicts.
Events
- Workshop on “Understanding Cultural Conflict and Conflict Dynamics: The Role of Collective Emotions”
Recent Publications
- Schulte, Felix, and Christoph Trinn. 2024. “Collective Emotions, Triggering Events, and Self-Organization: The Forest-Fire Model of Cultural Identity Conflict Escalation.” Aggression and Violent Behavior 78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2024.101954
- Maerz, Seraphine F., Felix Schulte, and Christoph Trinn. 2024. “Autocratization and Political Conflict.” In The Routledge Handbook of Autocratization, Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003306900-35
- Schulte, Felix, and Christoph V. Steinert. 2023. “Repression and Backlash Protests: Why Leader Arrests Backfire.” International Interactions 49(1): 1–30. https://doi.org/10.1080/03050629.2023.2149513
- Schulte, Felix. 2023. “On the Dynamics of Secessionist Conflict.” In Cittadinanza e Separatismi: Esperienze e Prospettive in Europa, ed. Giammaria Milani. Milano: Wolters Kluwer, 1–23.