Specialised Centres: The Centre for the study of nationalism and organised violence (csnov)

Directors: Dr. Sinisa Malesevic and Dr Niall O'Dochartaigh (School of Political Science and Sociology)

email: sinisa.malesevicnuigalway.ie and niall.odochartaighnuigalway.ie 

This research centre focuses on the comparative, theoretical and empirical study of the relationship between nationalism and organised violence. It aims to provide an inter-disciplinary forum for the long term macro historical as well as the micro interactional analyses of ethnic conflicts, warfare and coercive social action. The analytical spotlight is on the significance of organised violence as a source of conflict and cohesion, its role in formation and maintenance of modern nation-states and its link with the nationalist ideologies. More specialised areas of research include:  the relationship between banal and ’hot’ nationalisms, war propaganda, battlefield solidarity, war and social stratification, gender and organised violence, nationalism, conflict and new technologies, insurgency and para-military actions, revolutions and the changing character of warfare in the 21 ^st century.

Profile of Directors

Dr. Sinisa Malesevic is a political sociologist who has published extensively on ethnicity and nationalism, theories of ideology, war, violence and sociological theory. He is author and editor of nine books, numerous book chapters and his work has appeared in the following international peer reviewed journals: Ethnic and Racial Studies, Nations and Nationalism, European Journal of Social Theory, Critical Sociology, Government and Opposition, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, International Political Sociology, Journal of Language and Politics, East European Quarterly, Journal of Power, Development in Practice and Europa Ethnica. Previously, Dr. Malesevic was a research fellow in the Institute for International Relations (Zagreb) and the Centre for the Study of Nationalism (Prague). He also held visiting research fellowships in the Institute for Human Sciences (Vienna) and the London School of Economics.

Dr. Niall O'Dochartaigh started out as a historian, spending a year in Derry in 1987 doing research for an MA in history on Derry 'before the Troubles' under the supervision of Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh in Galway. The thesis looked at the origins of the civil rights movement and the conflict in the 1950s and 60s. After spending a year in Berlin, Dr. O'Dochartaigh started a PhD in politics at Queen's University Belfast with Paul Bew in 1990, looking at the escalation of conflict in the early 1970s. The thesis was publiched as the book 'From Civil rights to Armalites'. After a number of years when he was concerned primarily with the online world (establishing the University of Ulster's 'Conflict Data Service' and writing two textbooks on Internet research) he has returned in the past few years to research on conflict. Dr. O'Dochartaigh's principal current interests are in conflict and territoriality, conflict and new technologies and attempts to moderate or resolve conflict. He is the convener of the Political Studies Association of Ireland Specialist Group on Peace and Conflict and has organised conferences around the theme of peace and conflict in Galway in 2008 and in Dublin in 2009.

Upcoming Conference alerts

CSNOV is currently involved in organizing a conference on 'War and Nationalism', to be held in McGill University, Canada, next March 2011. This takes place after the highly successful ’Nationalism and Organized Violence’ conference held in NUI Galway last September 2010. 

For further information on 'Nationalism and Organised Violence', please contact Dr Niall O'Dochartaigh.

For further information on 'War and Nationalism', Please contact Dr Sinisa Malesevic. 

PhD Research Fellows

• Dumisani  Bhebhe - (State-Society relations and the Role of Military in Zimbabwe and South Africa)
• Stefanie Dinkelbach - (National Trauma in Germany)
• Justin Frewen -(The Concept of Evil in Political Thought and Practice)
• Jenny Molloy - (Ethnic conflict in N. Ireland and Israel/Palestine)
• Deirdre McHugh - The Northern Ireland 'Troubles' in Irish television, 1968-72
• Daniel Savery - (Nationalism, Liberalism and Republicanism)
• Carol Staunton - (Genocide and Gender)
• Judith O’Connell - (Socialisation of Nationalism)

Selected Recent Publications

Books:

• S. Malesevic (2010). The Sociology of War and Violence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (in press). Hb & Pb ( Croatian translation forthcoming in 2010 with Jesenski & Turk, Zagreb; Serbian translation forthcoming in 2010 with Mediterran Publishing, Novi Sad)
• N. O'Dochartaigh (2007) Internet Research Skills. London; Los Angeles; New Delhi: Sage. 
• S. Malesevic (2006). Identity as Ideology: Understanding Ethnicity and Nationalism. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 264. Hb.
• N. O’Dochartaigh (2005) From Civil Rights to Armalites: Derry and the Birth of the Irish Troubles, expanded 2nd edn. Basingstoke; New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
• S. Malesevic (2004). The Sociology of Ethnicity. London: Sage, pp.200. Hb & Pb ( Serbian translation published in 2009 with Fabrika Knjiga, Belgrade, pp. 352)
• N O'Dochartaigh (2002) The Internet Research Handbook: a practical guide for students and researchers in the Social Sciences. London; Thousand Oaks; New Delhi: Sage. 

Journal Articles:

• N. O'Dochartaigh (2012) 'Territoriality and Order in the North of Ireland'. Irish Political Studies. Accepted for Publication.
• N. O'Dochartaigh (2010) with Lorenzo Bosi, 'Territoriality and Mobilization: the Civil Rights Movement in Northern Ireland'. Mobilization 15(4), 405-424.
• N. O'Dochartaigh (2010) 'Bloody Sunday: cock-up or conspiracy?'. History Ireland 18 (5), pp.40-43.
• N. O'Dochartaigh (2010) 'Bloody Sunday: Error or Design?' Contemporary British History 24(1) pp. 89-108.
• S. Malesevic (2010) The Chimera of National Identity. Nations and Nationalism 16 (4) (forthcoming).
• S. Malesevic (2010) Ethnicity in Time and Space: A Conceptual Analysis. Critical Sociology 36 (6) (in press).
• S. Malesevic (2010) How Pacifist were the Founding Fathers?: War and Violence in Classical Sociology. European Journal of Social Theory. 13(4) (in press).
• N. O’Dochartaigh (2009) ’Reframing Online: Ulster Loyalists Imagine an American Audience’. Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, 16 (1), 102-127.
• S. Malesevic (2008) The Sociology of New Wars?: Assessing the Causes and Objectives of Contemporary Violent Conflicts. International Political Sociology 2(2): 97-112.
• S. Malesevic (2008) Solidary Killers and Egoistic Pacifists: Violence, War and Social Action. Journal of Power. 1 (2): 207-216.
• N. O’Dochartaigh (2007) ’Conflict, territory and new technologies: Online interaction at a Belfast interface’. Political Geography, 26 (4) 474-91.
• S. Malesevic and G. Uzelac (2007) A Nation-state without the Nation?: The trajectories of nation-formation in Montenegro  Nations and Nationalism 13(4): 695-716.
• S. Malesevic (2006) Violence, Power and Nation-States: A Sociological Assessment. World Tensions/ Tensoes Mundiais  2 (3): 12-77  (published in English and in Portuguese translation) 
• S. Malesevic J. Breuilly, D Cesarani, B Neuberger, M Mann (2006) 'Debate on Michael Mann's The Dark Side of Democracy: Explaining Ethnic Cleansing' Nations and Nationalism 12 (3) 389-411.
• S. Malesevic (2004) ’Divine Ethnies’ and ’Sacred Nations’: Anthony D. Smith and the Neo-Durkhemian Theory of Nationalism. Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 10 (4): 561-593.

Book Chapters:

• S. Malesevic and N. O’Dochartaigh (2011) Secession and Political Violence. In: S. Pavkovic and P. Radan (eds.) Research Companion on Secession. Aldershot: Ashgate. (forthcoming)
• N. O'Dochartaigh (2010) 'Northern Ireland'. In The Encyclopedia of Political Science. Washington DC: CQ Press. (In press).
• N. O'Dochartaigh (2010) 'Nation and Neighbourhood: Nationalist Mobilisation and Local Solidarities in the North of Ireland'. In Adrian Guelke ed. The Challenges of Ethno-Nationalism. Basingstoke: Palgrave.  
• N. O’Dochartaigh (2009) ’Conflict, Territory and online Boundaries: Drawing wider Lessons from a Belfast Case Study’. In Juergen Barkhoff and Helmut Eberhart eds. Networks across borders and frontiers. Graz.
• N. O’Dochartaigh (2009) ’The Contact: understanding a communication channel between the British government and the IRA’. In Track Two to Peace? Public Diplomacy, Cultural Interventions & the Peace Process in Northern Ireland. Los Angeles: USC Center for Public Diplomacy, 1-15.
• S. Malesevic (2009) Collective Violence and Power. In S. Clegg and M. Haugaard (eds.) Sage Handbook of Power. London: Sage. pp. 274-290.
• N. O’Dochartaigh (2008) 'Northern Ireland'. In Martin Klimke and Joachim Scharloth, eds, 1968 in Europe: A History of Protest and Activism, 1956-77, pp.181-203. New York; London: Palgrave.
• S. Malesevic (2008) ’War’ in V. Parrillo (ed.) Encyclopeadia of Social Problems. London: Sage. pp. 1010-1012.
• S. Malesevic (2007) Between the Book and the new Sword: Gellner, Violence and Ideology. In: S. Malesevic and M. Haugaard (eds.) Ernest Gellner and Contemporary Social Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 140-167.
• S. Malesevic (2006) Nationalism and the Power of Ideology. In G. Delanty and K. Kumar (eds.) The Sage Handbook of Nations and Nationalism. London: Sage.

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