Dereje Feyissa – författare

Focusing on ethnicity and its relation to conflict, this book goes beyond sterile debates about whether ethnic identities are ‘natural’ or ‘socially constructed’. Rather, ethnic identity takes different forms. Some ethnic boundaries are perceived by the actors themselves as natural, while others are perceived to be permeable. The argument is substantiated through a comparative analysis of ethnic identity formation and ethnic conflict among the Anywaa and the Nuer in the Gambella region of western Ethiopia. The Anywaa and the Nuer are not just two ethnic groups but two kinds of ethnic groups. Conflicts between the Anywaa and Nuer are explained with reference to three variables: varying modes of identity formation, competition over resources and differential incorporation into the state system.

This book examines the complex subject of violence against women (VAW), moving beyond ways of thinking that privilege Western positions and subordinate local perspectives. Chapters analyse the profound clashes between different perspectives on VAW, demonstrating how actors engage with such norms in diverse places from Ethiopian villages, to government offices in Addis Ababa, to meeting rooms in the UN headquarters in New York.Norms and Violence Against Women in Ethiopia proposes a novel theoretical framework that sees norms and normative engagement through interconnected situations rather than hierarchical chains. This decolonizing approach recognizes the equal legitimacy of different normative realities without privileging Western perspectives – questioning any notion of the global as universal and the local as periphery. The result is a nuanced understanding of norm interaction and contestation that better explains both resistance to and potential for social change. Chapters cover key issues including intimate partner violence, marital rape, and child marriage, as well as the impacts of positive masculinity on gender violence.This timely book is an essential resource for scholars and students of sociology, international relations, global governance, and postcolonial studies. Providing insights on resistance to the implementation of social norms, the book is also beneficial to practitioners of international development and political sociology.

This book seeks to broaden the conversation in migration studies by incorporating a collective perspective, as illustrated by the case study of Hadiya migration from Southern Ethiopia to South Africa.Rather than presenting individualism and communalism as opposing forces, the authors conceptualize them as points on a continuum. At the starting end, communal ties are crucial, particularly in the early stages of the Hadiya migration, but over time, as migrants accumulate wealth and encounter increasing competition in South Africa’s informal economy, individualism begins to take precedence, gradually unravelling the social fabric that initially supported collective success. This temporal perspective offers a more nuanced understanding of migration, revealing how it transitions from a collective endeavour to an increasingly individualistic one as circumstances evolve.A convincing and compelling new volume which highlights the transformation of the migration process from a predominantly collectivist endeavour to one characterized by increased individualism, and the resulting need for a temporal perspective to avoid the pitfalls of a binary framework, it will appeal to scholars and students of migration studies, development studies, sociology and African studies.

Borders offer opportunities as well as restrictions, and in the Horn of Africa they are used as economic, political, identity and status resources by borderland peoples.State borders are more than barriers. They structure social, economic and political spaces and as such provide opportunities as well as obstacles for the communities straddling both sides of the border. This book deals with the conduits and opportunities of state borders in the Horn of Africa, and investigates how the people living there exploit state borders through various strategies.Using a micro level perspective, the case studies, which includethe Horn and Eastern Africa, particularly the borders of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, focus on opportunities, highlight the agency of the borderlanders, and acknowledge the permeabilitybut consequentiality of the borders. DEREJE FEYISSA, Max Planck Institute of Social Anthropology, Halle, Germany; MARKUS VIRGIL HOEHNE, Max Planck Institute of Social Anthropology, Halle, Germany.