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abstract: |-
Civil Society Iraq: Ethnic, Religious, and Location Influences on Outgroup Perception
Jon Gresham*
April 2004
A significant research question in the immediate post-war (May 2003) environment of Iraq
was: "How do Iraqis’ ethnicity, religious affiliation, and location affect expressed perceptions of
threat from outgroups?"
We collected 479 surveys of Iraqi opinions, in five locations in Iraq, Jordan, and The
Netherlands, with a single page instrument. Religion, ethnic origin, and location alone had little direct
bearing on respondents’ attitudes towards outgroups or change (another type of threat) in Iraq.
However, certain sets of interacting elements did reflect significant differences in perceptions of
threat. For example, Shi’a Muslims of urban Basra had very different expressions towards return of
expatriate Iraqis than did Baghdad residents.
A serendipitous innovation was that of publishing our research process onto a "wiki" web
page where visitors could add to or change contents of the documents. The wiki live publishing
helped fellow scientists, decision-makers, resource agencies, and Iraq fieldworkers participate in our
project.
Why Civil Society? The term describes both behavior and social systems and provides a
sociological framework from which to explore social interactions in Iraq.
Follow-up is warranted. We found, for example, that "moderate Arabs" in Iraq were the most
opposed to foreign involvement and were the most opposed to expatriate Iraqis returning to Iraq. This
finding is relevant to decision-makers and field workers in relief, development, and reconstruction in
Iraq.
This paper describes our research process in a post-regime-change environment. I would
welcome comments onto the web site: http://CivilSocietyIraq.seedwiki.com.
_____________
* Jon Gresham is a visiting scholar at the University of Utrecht, Netherlands. His work focuses on
the Cyprus-Syria-Iraq-Iran area. Special thanks are given to Hub Linssen, Assistant Professor at the
University of Utrecht, with interest in cross-national comparative survey methodology.
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keywords: 'civil society, Iraq social systems, post-regime change, democratization, social network, social capital, appreciative inquiry, ERCOMER, repatriation, ethnic conflict, inter-ethnic, tribalism, nationalism, inter-group, ethnic identity, refugee, expatriate, terrorism, terrorist, social psychology, irak, iran, civil stability, linked, network analysis, utrecht, social network, interethnic, tribal'
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End Notes
2 M Edwards, Civil Society, Cambridge: Polity, 2004, p. 4.
3 M Edwards, "Enthusiasts, Tacticians and Skeptics: The World Bank, Civil Society and Social
Capital" http://www.worldbank.org/poverty/scapital/library/edwards.htm, p.1.
4. S Kaviraj, Civil Society & its Possibilities, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001, p. 17.
5. L Drake, "Implosion of Iraq" in Middle East Insight March 1996, and personal communications
7/1996.
6. A Wimmer, "Democracy and Ethno-religious Conflict in Iraq" in Survival, Vol. 45, no. 4, Winter
2003-04, p. 119).
7. ibid, p. 113.
8. P Adler, and S Kwon, "Social Capital: Prospects for a New Concept" Academy of Management
Review 27(1), p.17.
9 J Glubb, A Short History of the Arab Peoples, New York: Dorset Press, 1969, p. 68.
10 (ibid, p 275; P Marr, The Modern History of Iraq, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1985, .p.
36.
11. In Basra, we tested a repeated measures effect in combination with the priming effect. There were
three versions of the survey form (ethnic primed, religious primed, and neutral). We administered the
three versions of the survey to the same respondents, at one sitting, to assess if they would respond to
the priming, or if they would differ in their responses to the primed versus neutral versions of the
surveys. In other locations, each respondent completed only one survey form, with one of the three
versions only.
12. Adler, p.37.
13. L Wantchekon, "The Paradox of 'Warlord' Democracy: A Theoretical Investigation" in American
Political Science Review, Vol. 98, No. 1 (February 2004), p. 21.
14. Adler, p. 18.
15 ibid, p.20.
16. ibid, p. 37.
15
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relation_type: []
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status_changed: 2007-09-12 16:52:34
subjects:
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succeeds: 3473
suggestions: |
Hello.
I request advice on a pre-press peer review, with suggestions as to appropriate e-publishing routes.
Thank you for your kind attention.
JN Gresham
European Research Centre On Migration & Ethnic Relations
Faculty of Social Sciences
University of Utrecht
Netherlands
Email: intl@securenym.net
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title: 'Civil Society Iraq: Ethnic, Religious, and Location Influences on Outgroup Perception'
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