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Copyright of Socioloski Pregled is the property of Srpsko Sociolosko Drustvo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Based on folk tales of Northern European nations, Arnold’s poems ‘The Forsaken Merman’ (1849) and ‘The Neckan’ (1853), both tell a story of human women who marry sea creatures, mermen, and replace their home on the land with the mermen’s underwater world. By crossing the boundaries between their worlds, they cause numerous problems, most significantly the tension resulting from their different religious beliefs. In ‘The Forsaken Merman’, Margaret, the merman’s wife, fearing that her soul will be damned because of her marriage to a pagan, decides to rejoin the human world on the most important Christian holiday, Easter. In ‘The Neckan’, in order to comfort his wife, the Neckan goes to the human world to find a priest who would be willing to baptise him, but he is rejected because he is a ‘monster’ who cannot be saved. The paper will examine the way in which Arnold’s poems reflect the fears of the Victorian era as well as his own anxieties. This will be accomplished by comparing the two opposite worlds of the poems – the human world of everyday activities, rules, laws, and expectations; and the mermen’s home, the mysterious, colourful, and peaceful world of sea-beasts. In addition, the paper will analyse the reversal of traditional gender roles and re-examine literary, cultural, and social stereotypes. The paper will also attempt to find a connection between the main topics of these poems and Arnold’s life and career of a poet and literary critic.

This paper approaches the topic of missing Serbs in Kosovo and Metohia by the application of the anthropological theoretical framework on waiting, which treats this waiting process as socially and politically constructed. Furthermore, it considers the role of the families of missing persons in memory praxis related to this humanitarian problem. By outlining the relevance of understanding the position of families of missing persons, it was shown that their personal stories contribute to the formation of a collective narrative, which is important to the wider community of displaced Serbs from Kosovo and Metohia. Additionally, it was concluded that the ability of this humanitarian problem to contribute to the conflict resolution, depends not only on the investigation of missing people, but also on a wider recognition of victims and the protection of their family members and organizations formed by them, which carry on the duties of establishing interethnic cooperation. The misuse of this humanitarian problem, as outlined by their families, is shown as a serious impediment to mending interethnic relations. The paper tries to give a closer look at the voices and silences of families of missing persons by showing how their waiting for investigation and information regarding the disappearances is politically structured, and at the same time charged with the promise of social change.

Nigeria is a nation with plural ethnic, religious, lingual and cultural identities that are constantlyexploited by the political class to promote their selfish interest. Although not a determinant forconflict, diversity in Nigeria has unjustifiably sparked identity-based conflicts which necessitateseparatism, insurgency and ethnic restiveness – among others, which threatens to drive thecountry to a perpetual state of fragility. This paper thence sought to assess Nigeria’s tortuousexperience with identity and identity politics with particular reference to ethnic, religious andlingual challenges. The paper furthers the discussion on identity politics in Nigeria to profferpracticable solutions. It argues that identity consciousness has overtaken national consciousnessand engendered a relationship characterized by domination, superiority and hegemony by thevarious groups. It reveals that the currency of politics is an ethnic-hegemony-rivalry sentimentthat threatens national integration. The paper reviews available literature on the subject matterfrom peer-reviewed journal articles, reports of reputable international organizations, workingpapers and newspaper articles. It concluded that identities have become powerful manipulativeinstruments in the hands of the political elites used to divide the Nigerian populace. Itrecommended the promotion of justice, equity and fairness in governance to ameliorate thechances of identity dissension and identity-based conflicts.

Modern society is critically dependent on information as a strategic resource and information and communications technology, which carries out its transmission, processing and exchange. Information and communications technology has created a new environment, cyberspace, in which tensions, disagreements and incidents are becoming more frequent. In recent years, the mentioned area has increasingly appeared as a domain of conflict between the leading world and regional powers. The paper gives a brief description of the concept of operations in several domains and elements of the new concept of joint warfare of the US Armed Forces. The importance of cyberspace for the US has been pointed out with a review of organizational changes and the adoption of certain strategic and doctrinal documents. The paper presents certain events and activities in cyberspace, in recent years, between the United States on the one hand, and Iran and North Korea on the other. The United States Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM) was created in 2009. USCYBERCOM was elevated to the status of a full and independent unified command in May 2018. It indicates the importance of cyberspace for the Pentagon. In many ways, the separation of USCYBERCOM from Strategic Commands, which oversees strategic rejection, is a symbol of the change in the US attitude in cyberspace from "defensive" to "persistent engagement." The United States is still the strongest force in cyberspace and shows ambition to carry out cyber operations at all levels of command. It is unlikely that Iran will provoke the United States into a large-scale military conflict and wage a direct war in cyberspace. Iran has rapidly improved its ability to operate in cyberspace, and it is estimated that this trend will continue. The imbalance can prevent Iran from a direct military conflict with the United States and its allies. Greater action is expected with an asymmetric arsenal such as e.g. cyber attacks. Iranian and North Korean operations are similar in target selection, planning and exploitation of attacks. Both countries undertake different variants of phishing attacks in an attempt to deceive their victims into downloading malicious software by presenting it as a legitimate link or file. Whereas Iran usually had a motive only to cause disruption to the functioning of financial institutions, North Korean motive was both financial and political retaliation. Certain discovered incidents indicate that North Korea devotes much more time to conducting invasive surveillance before carrying out attacks. Numerous examples show that some activities have been prepared over the years and with the support of certain state bodies. Regardless of the fact that an investigation has been launched against certain groups, most often sponsored by states, it is unlikely that this will deter countries such as North Korea and Iran from giving up further activities and will pose an increasing threat to the US security.

Copyright of Bulletin of the Institute of Ethnography of the Serbian Academy of Sciences & Arts / Glasnik Etnografskog Instituta SANU is the property of Institute of Ethnography, SASA and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The subject of the analysis of this paper is the mutual relation between the judicial authorities and non-judicial institutions, those whose decisions directly or indirectly influence the exercise of judicial power. The author's attention will not be directed towards relations with institutions of legislative and executive power, but on non-judicial institutions that do not belong to governmental ones, and have an impact on judicial decision making. This relationship will be presented through the prism of the conflict of authority, which is based on the institutional position of the analyzed institutions, the legal effect and the possibility of reconsidering their decisions, and the conflicting relationship in the decision making process. The complexity of the analyzed relationship also speaks of the dilemma of the author regarding the name of this paper, so the analysis can thus be described as 'the interrelation of the judicial authorities and non-judicial institutions, as an attachment to the functionality or dysfunctionality of the legal system', 'encroaching on powers of judicial authorities by non-judicial institutions', 'allowed and disallowed operation frameworks for non-judicial institutions in relation to the exercise of judicial power', or 'conflict of jurisdiction between regular courts and non-judicial institutions'. It seems that, regardless of the different angle of observation, and the different marking of the disputed points, the essence of the disputed relationship is precisely the authority of the analyzed institutions, the conflict based on legitimate reconsidering of judicial decisions (a real conflict of authority), and a potential conflict in case of an illegitimate impact (not real conflict of authority). Non-judicial institutions whose relationship with the judicial ones is being considered are the Constitutional Court and the State Audit Institution, which, regardless of whether it is an allowed or disallowed influence, have the possibility, due to the nature of their position and the nature of the decisions, influence the exercise of judicial power.

Conflict of Yugoslavia and Cominform certainly represents the first and the most significant conflict in the so-called Eastern Bloc, which was under the leadership of the USSR. The epilogue of the conflict was the split between Yugoslavia and the Eastern Bloc, and the establishment of closer relations between Yugoslavia and the countries of the so-called Western Bloc led by the United States. Many papers have so far been written trying to decide what were the main reasons that led to the conflict. They have been discussing the ideological reasons, foreign policy reasons, a combination thereof, and so on. This paper does not present the final word on this, but only offers possible answers to the question of what were the reasons that led to that the two close allies of World War II, only a few years after its completion, came to the verge of starting a war between them.

The paper represents a consideration of attitudes related to the national-political status of Vojvodina after the death of Josip Broz, during the (re)affirmation of the constitutional and national identity of the socialist Yugoslav federation and its constituent elements. Relying on the existing continuity of discussions about the position of Vojvodina in the Republic of Serbia and the Yugoslav Federation, temporarily interrupted due to the honoring of the personality and work of Comrade Tito, the transition process, which increasingly turned into a process of disintegration of the joint state, testifies to the increasing number of contradictions regarding the future of the status of AP Vojvodina. Arising from ambivalent motives, they soon transformed into uncompromising antagonisms that persistently insisted on their own orthodoxy at the cost of a decisive conflict. In such circumstances, all interested parties ignored the fact of an overly cumbersome and bureaucratized party apparatus, and thus the state apparatus, which had long since lost any foothold in the political will of the population. For this reason, the massing of support, in one moment, became a decisive moment of prestige that led to the final political triumph. The accompanying populist manifestations decisively influenced the specific development of democratic pluralism, which intended to make a departure from the compromised ideology of the Yugoslav federation.

The paper deals with ethnic and religious conflicts in Lebanon, particularly focusing on the impact of external forces and religious teachings on the course and intensity of the violence. At the beginning the paper examines the role of religion in conflicts and roots of ethno-religious conflicts in Lebanon. Then, it discusses the factions and the participants in the civil war, as well as the key external factors that led to the transformation of the civil war into a prolonged international conflict. The final section of the paper summarizes the factors that led to the change in the situation after 2000, and presents the current inter-ethnic and inter-religious situation in Lebanon, with an overview of the prospects of further development. Apart from considering the immanent factors of inter-ethnic and inter-religious conflict in Lebanon, the paper emphasizes the role of external forces and international conflicts in contributing to the internal fragmentation of Lebanese society.

The paper presents and discusses changes in certain dress and clothing practices and their effects on conflict within oneself and others. In this context, the paper analyzes certain conflict situations faced by the Goranci females in Belgrade. This conflict was brought about by the changes that have occurred in the females clothing during the second half of 20th and the first decade of 21st century. The focus is placed on changes that were initiated by external factors - legislation, migration and fashion trends. Accepting novelties in dress and clothing was not always simple and easy, especially if they implied the elimination of those garments implying a certain symbolic significance within the Goranci community and female subculture. Besides, changes in clothing imply and initiate changes in other spheres of life, especially in the sphere of (self) identification, on several levels at the same time (gender, religious, ethnic, etc.). The initiation of the clothing changes impacted the women in such a way to become somewhat at odds with themselves, to feel discomfort because of the fear that the (non) acceptance of the novelty could cause conflicts with some family members and relatives. A reconciliation with oneself and others imply that a women accepts a new way of dressing, but also the rest of whatever this may imply. Such reconciliation - assessed in this way - is not an end in itself. It is a process that involves several aspects simultaneously, and clothing is just one among them. In addition, a reconciliation on a personal level does not imply in itself reconciliation with others, and vice versa. Conflicts due to clothing do not represent an exception in this respect, but proved to be indicative for understanding complex socio-cultural processes such as reconciliation.

Scholarly works on pipeline vandalism have paid extensive attention to empirical questions of causes and consequences. But there remains a dearth of studies on the representation of the acts of vandalism in newspapers, which is necessary for evaluating what message about the problem is being disseminated to the citizens and how that could contribute to resolving the problem or sustaining it. This paper examines the identity construction for critical social actors in Nigerian newspaper reports on pipeline vandalism. Sixteen –news samples were purposively selected from three newspapers: The Tide, New Waves, and The Guardian published between 2015 and 2019. Theoretically, the study is anchored on a combination of Fina’s (2011) identity process and van Dijk’s (1995, 2006a, 2006b) in-group/out-group description. The analysis involved accounting for the deployment of group self-schemata (van Dijk, 1995, 2005) and ideological strategies (van Dijk, 2006) in realising the three identity processes of indexing, positioning, and local occasioning established by Fina (2011). The study finds that through a combination of media identity ascription and social actors’ positive-self description in the news reports, each of the major stakeholders in the conflict assumes an identity of innocence and responsible entity while shifting the blame to others. It concludes therefore that this could be responsible for the difficulty in ending the conflict.

Based on available sources and literature, this paper analyzes the first municipal elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina within the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, their results and the consequences caused by the establishment of local authorities on the state-level political scene. Although the elections were held in the shadow of the great political crisis that shook the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes from the assassination in the Assembly on June 20, 1928, a sharp election campaign, led in a nationalist tone, in shady political circumstances and with pronounced national tensions, provoked new social and national divisions.Inter-party skirmishes and mutual accusations shook an earlier coalition agreement between the Yugoslav Muslim Organization and the People’s Radical Party, which required parties to collaborate wherever possible after the election and work to restore trust among the people, which was severely disrupted by years of nationalist and chauvinist harangue. Special difficulties arose after the election and constitution of municipal councils, when parties in some places formed a coalition with other political parties. The constitution of municipal leaderships in some places without the NRS the Bosnian Radicals characterized as a pact against the Serbs and launched an action to oust the JMO from the government. Thus, the local elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina heated up already the tense political atmosphere and became a first-class issue in the country.

From the very beginning of its existence the media has represented an important part of people’s livesand media generated messages significantly affected the forming of attitudes and opinions of the public.No matter how advanced technology was, the media has always succeeded to find the way to theaudience. In contemporary society, in the age of the Internet, finding that way is easier than ever. The Internet provided a possibility that various contents become available to everyone on the Earth, which is important from media aspect because state borders are removed and people can easily find out about events from any part of the world. In such conditions the public doesn’t need to wait or to rely oninformation sourced from a traditional media, so masmedia communication gets completely new outlines. This concept of informing can be very useful for sure, but it can also be very dangerous. If weconsider how popular social networks are, which represent some sort of virtual communities and whichserve as an important platform to the media in online environment, although they can be observed assome sort of media themselves, possibilities for creating different trends are clear. Such platform can beabused, for instance, for attracting a huge number of readers. It can specifically be applied to countriesof ex-Yugoslavia among which many questions have remained unsolved, so that creates a convenientbase for a constant revitalization of conflicts. Considering not so distant war past between Serbia and Croatia, for a case study in this paper the reporting of Serbian and Croatian most popular online media about official visit of Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić to Croatia was chosen. The applied method was the quantitative-qualitative analysis of the content focused on media presentation of the other one through topic selection, titles, the way of reporting and visual representation.

water is an unavoidable and very important factor of social and economic development of each country. It also occurs more and more as a deficient resource at a global level. The needs for drinking water grow enormously fast due to anthropogenic factors: the rise in world population, the increased scope of commercial and industrial activities and climatic changes. Taking this into consideration, the management of drinking water resources as a significant task in the time we live in becomes an imperative. During the history of human society the quantity and quality of this resource on earth has constantly decreased followed by an increase in tension between countries. The intention to dominate scarce drinking water resources in arid and subarid regions has resulted in a greater number of conflicts, which have often been resolved by the use of force. This paper emphasizes the role, importance and state of drinking water resources in the world, factors that threaten its available resources, as well as increase in tension, conflicts and regional conflicts over control of remaining drinking water resources.

By reporting on some conflicts but not on others, and by representing conflicts they report on in particular ways, the media strongly influence the dynamics and outcomes of democratisation conflicts, and thus also shape the prospects of success of conflict parties. This paper explores the literature on media and conflict by focusing on the ways in which media frame inter-state and civil wars, institutionalised conflicts and social movements in western democracies, and conflicts in nondemocratic and democratising states. Much of the literature discusses the ways in which western media frame foreign conflicts and domestic election campaigns and policy debates, while there is considerably less focus on domestic conflicts in nonwestern settings, such as those that arise during and after transitions from nondemocratic rule. There are only limited attempts to draw parallels between the media coverage of disparate conflicts. In contrast, this study builds upon research findings in these related areas to draw lessons for empirical research of media framing of the contentious dimension of contemporary democratisation. This study concludes that the political context is the main factor that shapes the media framing of various forms of political conflict. Several dimensions of the political context matter in this respect, such as regime type, international (foreign) or domestic perspective, elite consensus or conflict, policy consensus or uncertainty, policy area, more or less institutionalised nature of the political conflict at stake, and the stage of democratisation. Also, the literature suggests that media framing strongly influences political outcomes and thus fosters or undermines democratic institutions in new democracies. .

The paper reviews Sorokin's cyclical conception of history through relevant literature. The social role of war is analysed, in accordance with Sorokin's understanding of the three cultural types (sensate, idealistic, and ideational) which alternate through the history of mankind. Due to the fact that war as a social phenomenon depends on the cultural style that is dominant at a given moment in history, its social role changes as well, manifesting as a regress or progress in sociocultural process. Sorokin ascertains that we can notice the decrease in values of the dominant sensate culture in the twentieth century in all aspects of life. By examining Sorokin's sociology of war, the author concluded that war lost the meaning it had for mankind due to the acceleration of military-technological development and that by being estranged from it, it became its own cause, turning into a conflict that may or may not lead to war. Such a conflict as a surrogate of war, that Sorokin hadn't predicted, has no social role but leads to a destruction of civilization.

This paper describes restorative justice training courses the author delivered in Serbia and Montenegro in the period 2003-2006, set in the context of the post-conflict situation, and reflects on the intercultural elements added to this course. The author also makes reference to recent work on hate crime and restorative justice in the UK as an extreme example of intercultural conflict. The final two sections discuss the potential of the arts in providing an extra (non-verbal) tool in this work, using as examples two courses the author ran in Serbia.

The author of this paper attempted the interpretation of Huntington's thought that the clash of civilizations is tribal conflict of global proportions. In the first interpretation of the conflict, we think of civilization as a tribe in conflict with the other tribes, they mutually perceive each other as barbarians, denouncing each other's civilizational identity. In the second interpretation, the clash of civilizations is perceived as a clash of postmodern immigrant groups (tribes) with the dominant culture of the local population within a state. In the age of the universal conflict, we see Huntington's pessimistic view of the social world and the temporary man, whom we characterize as a synthesis of immigrants, migrants and foreigners, as a kind of personification of the spirit of the times of postmodern twenty-first century.

In order to understand the 1990-1991 Iraqi-Kuwaiti conflict, it is essential to study the roots of the conflict, when Kuwait was part of Basra Vilayet1 within the Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth century. Also, we should stress the role of the imperialist powers which played a role in the autonomous status of Kuwait and in the division of the Ottoman territories after World War I, and we should emphasize their role in their quest to influence and control the politics of the region. In addition, we should investigate the changes in Iraq's politics since its independence in 1932 in order to understand its policy toward Kuwait. Kuwait's relations with Britain during this period (the nineteenth and twentieth centuries) also have bearing on this discussion because Britain protected and prevented Kuwait from becoming an integral part of the Ottoman Empire, and becoming part of Iraq when it was created after World War I. Britain's power was stronger than the Ottoman power and the Ottomans could not challenge it. Also, this paper will examine Iraq's policy in 1961 when it claimed Kuwait after independence from Britain was granted. Change in Iraq's policy in 1963 and its recognition of Kuwait due to regime change will be explained. I will also examine Iraq's policy after July 17, 1968, when the Ba'ath came to power for the second time. I will also look at the emergence of the presidency of Saddam Hussein in 1979. Moreover, I will address the Iran-Iraq war and its impact on Iraq's relations with Kuwait to demonstrate that Iraq improved its relations with Kuwait during the war to serve Iraqi national interests by getting financial aid and using Kuwaiti territory for trade and war purposes. The outcome of war and Iraq's need for capital to build its economy and military turned Iraq to confront Kuwait when the balance of power was perceived by the Iraqi leadership to be in its favor. These issues will be addressed with reference to realist notions of power and national interest and the use of Arab nationalism to justify the invasion. Finally, I will be blending the review of literature into this historical overview, starting with Iraq's modern history.

This paper examines noted and emphasized dramatic conflicts in the tales of Laza K. Lazarević, which are one of the reasons of the attractiveness and popularity of these narratives. It discusses the dramatic storyline that involves an individual or family and the dramatic flows of active and tense human emotions such as love, passion and existential threat. Through the analysis of dramatic situations and conflicts, it is revealed the similarity of these tales when it comes to the themes and motifs, especially the themes of the patriarchal family in those tales that show the individual and psychological problems of the individual. The roots of the dramatics of tales of Laza Lazarević arise from the conflict of emotion and consciousness, passions and commitments, temperament and settled order between the environment and the individual or within an individual. The collective spirit and the individual are confronted, duty and passion, family loyalty and love, revealing to readers problematic social relations in Serbia of writer's time.

One of the aspects of social changes during the transitional period in most post-socialist countries was the revival of religion. The revival of Churches that accompanied the national upsurge in some countries was associated with the growth of post-socialist nationalism. This discussion focuses on the development of a different, transnational religious option in an area of ethnic conflict. It analyses the development of the Baptist Church in the post-conflict region of Banovina. The paper is based on interviews conducted mostly among representatives and members of the Baptist Church. After the Croatian Homeland War, in Banovina there was an increase in the number of members of this Church. Among new members the majority were ethnic Serbs, persons from mixed marriages and former communists. Neither the Catholic Church nor the Serbian Orthodox Church were acceptable options to them. The authors conclude that the Baptist option was sustainable due to three factors. First, the development of the Church was based on an already existing tradition and on memories of events from World War II, which were activated by the new war situation at the beginning of the Nineties. Second, the Baptist Church ensured a middle, transnational option in an ethnically mixed setting, and in this way attracted all those who were looking for a neutrality niche in an ethnically strongly divided and conflictive society. Third, the active involvement and help of humanitarian organisations associated with the Baptist Church, during the war and the afterwards, helped to create an image of the Baptist Church as a shelter. These humanitarian activities made it possible for the Baptist Church to leave the shadows and become “visible”, and thus prevail over perceptions in which it was seen as an obscure sect.