Causal mechanisms in diaspora mobilizations for transitional justice

ABSTRACT

Transitional justice and diaspora studies are interdisciplinary and expanding fields of study. Finding the right combination of mechanisms to forward transitional justice in post-conflict polities is an ongoing challenge for states and affected populations. Diasporas, as non-state actors with increased agency in homelands, host-lands, and other global locations, engage with their past from a distance, but their actions are little understood. This introductory article to a special issue develops a novel framework to study causal mechanisms and their underlying analytical rationales – emotional, cognitive, symbolic/value-based, strategic, and networks-based – linking diasporas and local actors in transitional justice. Mechanisms featured are: thin sympathetic response and chosen trauma, fear and hope, contact and framing, cooperation and coalition-building, brokerage, patronage, and connective action, among others. The contributors theorize about causal mechanisms and their sequences involving diasporas in multi-sited transitional justice processes and bring empirical evidence from various world regions.

KEYWORDS:

• Diaspora
• causal mechanisms
• transitional justice
• mobilization
• International Relations theories
• International Political Sociology

Acknowledgments

The authors express their gratitude for helpful feedback particularly to Chris Tenove, and other participants in this special issue: Espen Stokke, Eric Wiebelhaus-Brahm, Milana Nikolko and Neophytos Loizides. Jennifer Brinkerhoff, Ben Clift, and Garbielle Lynch gave helpful comments during presentations at the International Studies Association (2018) and the PAIS Faculty Conference at the University of Warwick (2018). Mohsin Hussain and Onur Bakiner commented on an earlier draft of this text. Dr. Koinova is grateful to the Centre for Global Cooperation at the University of Duisburg for the time needed to finalize this article during a research fellowship.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Maria Koinova http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9280-9736

Dženeta Karabegović http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7143-2084

Notes

1. Koinova, interview in Zurich, Switzerland, November 2017.

2. Koinova interview, 18 June 2013, Kosovo, Pristina.

3. Fear, anger, resentment, hope and pride are emotions. Trauma sharing is an activity of communicating an emotional and mental state.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by FP7 European Research Council: [Grant Number 284198].