The Diffusion of Ethnic Violence in Germany: The Role of Social Similarity

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in AbstractIn this paper we develop and test an encompassing theoretical framework for the explanation of the geographical and temporal spread of extreme right violence. This framework combines internal precipitating factors related to ethnic competition, social disintegration, and political opportunity structures, which make certain localities more prone to exhibit ethnic violence, with diffusion variables that determine the degree to which ethnic violence diffuses across time and across localities. We employ an event history analysis of instances of racist violence in 444 German counties for the time period 1990-1995. In line with previous research we demonstrate that political opportunities, ethnic competition and social disorganization, media coverage, and the severity of previous violence are significant explanatory factors for the evolution of xenophobic violence. In contrast to previous research we find that geographical distance does not affect the diffusion of ethnic violence when controlling for social similarity which exerts a significant influence on diffusion. Results make a strong case for empirically neglected homophily arguments.

Social Media Mechanisms for Right-Wing Political Violence in the 21st Century: Discursive Opportunities, Group Dynamics, and Co-Ordination

“…More recent studies have provided consistent evidence of the negative impact of political opportunities in mainstream politics for the level of radical right violence, as well as the positive impact of discursive opportunities in the mass media. 14 Furthermore, Braun and Koopmans 15 have demonstrated the impact of reactions from bystander publics on racist and radical right violence, as well as the increased chances of perpetrators of racist and radical right violence emulating previous incidents of the same kind in geographically close and/or socially similar areas. They stress that radical right and antirefugee activists care more about direct approval from peers than about the general attitudes of the mainstream media.…”

Immigration into Europe: Economic Discrimination, Violence, and Public Policy

“…In his interpretation, party activity effectively substitutes for violence. A similar inverse relationship turns up at the level of the county (Kreis) within Germany (Braun & Koopmans 2010). Yet, evidence from the United Kingdom is not consistent with these results.…”

Economic grievances and political protest

“…At the level of an individual, mobilisation occurs through two different channels: a demonstration effect and an attribution effect. The more information media convey about protests, the more potential adopters are exposed to information whether collective actions are considered legitimate, reasonable and realistic by society at large (Braun & Koopmans 2009;McCammon et al 2007). This threshold for mobilisation is particularly important in contexts where protesting is very costly (e.g., in terms of (violent) repression), but it is likely to matter even without repression, as existing protest conveys informational cues to citizens about the legitimacy and value of voicing their discontent.…”

“…Protest can then spread through bandwagon effects (e.g., Tarrow 1994) and informational cascades (Lohman 1994), meaning that media coverage of the protests multiplies the signals received by the population. The more information media convey about protests, the more potential adopters are exposed to information whether collective actions are considered legitimate, reasonable and realistic by society at large (Braun & Koopmans 2009;McCammon et al 2007). The second channel through which citizens may be mobilised to protest has less to do with informational cues emanating from existing protest but with the attribution of grievances.…”