Franca Elena Kappes (2021 mASTERS in INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS and Political Science)

Franca Elena Kappes' thesis convinced this year's Jury for it's thoroughness and insightful research.  Franca is currently PhD student at the International Relations and Political Science Department at the Graduate Institute. Her academic interests lie at the intersection of Critical Security Studies, Global Governance, International Political Sociology, and Migration and Diaspora Studies - with a regional focus on the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Paradise Lost? The Relational Topologies and Conjunctural Paths of Stateless Diaspora Cohesion and Fragmentation in light of Factionalised Contention

Abstract
Intra-ethnic conflict is not only an important phenomenon in itself but it is also intimately linked to dynamics of inter-group conflict. Although a growing body of scholarship is increasingly more aware of the relevance of individual and group-level processes for the explanation of macro-level outcomes, the lack of systematic comparative assessments of intra-movement fractionalisation has led to a neglect of one sub-group’s agency in particular: Since a stateless diaspora’s ontological security depends on the continued existence of a united “homeland”, imported schisms pose an interesting puzzle: What impact do partisan fractions have on the cohesiveness of stateless diasporas and what factors condition their behaviour? The study adopts a frame-based relational approach and deploys a sequential-mixed-methods-design combining Qualitative Social Network Analysis with Qualitative Comparative Analysis. It relies on data collected through online ethnography and the consultation of secondary sources. The thesis’ main findings suggest that (a) diaspora groups rarely display high levels of factionalisation, and (b) that this is conditioned by host land related constrains and the presence of external incentives provided by transnational advocacy networks and diaspora governance policies.