Code switching can be defined as the use of more than one language, or ‘code’, by someone engaged in speech or text. It is a practise employed by multilinguals in both oral and written...Show moreCode switching can be defined as the use of more than one language, or ‘code’, by someone engaged in speech or text. It is a practise employed by multilinguals in both oral and written conversations. Different multilinguals will have different switching patterns. These patterns can vary depending on the speaker’s language proficiency, community norms, the typology of their languages, and the cultural or political relations these languages might have with one another, among many other reasons. Code switching between Spanish and English and Spanish and French has been the subject of various studies. Although trilingual research is rare (e.g. Parafita Couto et al., 2023; Valdés Kroff et al., 2023), there has also been some research on the connection between Spanish, French and English, but most of this work is based in the French-speaking provinces of Canada (e.g. COLEM, 2023; Pato, 2019, 2022). This paper aims to study the code-switching patterns among a set of trilingual siblings living in Geneva who have Colombian heritage and attend a British school in the city. The participants recorded themselves for up to 30 minutes having casual conversations following a prompt in three separate occasions. The switches were identified alongside general information about the corpus, such as how many languages were present in each clause, the clauses’ matrix language, the general use of each language in the corpus, among others. This paper focuses on intraclausal switching. We followed Deuchar et al. (2007)’s methodology which categorises each intraclausal switch into insertion, alteration, or congruent lexicalisation according to the code switching pattern it most aligned with following Muysken’s typology of bilingual speech patterns (2000).Because English, Spanish and French are typologically similar, combined with the fact our participants are fluent in all three languages, and due to the culturally open context of Geneva, we expected alternation to be the dominant switch pattern in the recorded conversations. Having said this, since the participants go to a British school where their education is mainly in English, and because the Colombian community in Geneva is not as big as other bilingual communities around the world, a dominant insertional pattern was also a possibility. The corpus was composed of mainly unilingual clauses with 7.8% of the first recording being bilingual clauses, 19.6% of the second recording, and 8.95% of the third. Only three clauses in the entire corpus were trilingual out of 1215. Once we had analysed the entirety of the conversations, the dominant pattern was indeed overwhelmingly insertion with 77.55% of the switches in the corpus presenting this pattern. Congruent lexicalisation was present in 11.56% of the switches and alternation in the other 10.88%. Although these results do not necessarily align with our expectations of codeswitching in Switzerland, we believe our participants’ specific background, namely the fact that language separation is encouraged in the different spheres of their lives, could explain the prevalence of insertion over alternation in our case study. We hope our research will contribute to bigger corpus studies of trilingual codeswitching patterns in different communities.Show less
Since 2017, the Netherlands can instrumentalise citizenship deprivation of foreign fighters located abroad as a counterterrorism measure if it is deemed necessary in the context of national...Show moreSince 2017, the Netherlands can instrumentalise citizenship deprivation of foreign fighters located abroad as a counterterrorism measure if it is deemed necessary in the context of national security. This measure was to be evaluated in late 2021 for its effectiveness. Prior to this debate, Dutch governmental advisory bodies, next to academic literature, released reports advising against the measure’s effectiveness. Nonetheless, the decision was made to prolong the policy on citizenship deprivation of foreign fighters abroad, therefore disregarding expert advice. This study adopts a qualitative thematic analysis and an inductive coding process to investigate the political attitudes and positions of political parties and actors involved in the 2021 debate to identify possible underlying reasons for justifying the prolongation of the policy. An underlying reason identified for the justifications made by political parties and actors is their political positions: distinctions in attitudes on the topic between left- and right-wing parties are identified. Another underlying reason is that political parties tend to ignore experts if their advice does not align with the political parties' interests and agenda. Therefore, political parties' and actors’ justifications can be explained by their political attitudes, positions, and agenda.Show less
Cyberspace has become the fifth domain for states to fight for power and poses serious security challenges for states. Where the expectation lay in cyber conflict to evolve into cyber war, the last...Show moreCyberspace has become the fifth domain for states to fight for power and poses serious security challenges for states. Where the expectation lay in cyber conflict to evolve into cyber war, the last decades have shown that cyber conflict remained to be ways for states to conduct subversion campaigns and gain a strategical advantage. Especially large states are dominant players in this arena and responsible for numerous impactful attacks. On the receiving end, small states have considerable disadvantages in handling these attacks. Small states lack the resources and knowledge to respond adequately to attacks and don’t have the power to deter effectively or retaliate. Therefore, the behaviour in this domain is expected to differ from conventional warfare, where states tend to respect a state’s sovereignty and follow international law. However, the nature of this domain creates an image of small states as ‘sitting ducks’ on the receiving end of cyber campaigns by larger states. In this thesis, we examined how small states respond to cyber attacks, presumably conducted by a large state, to answer the research question; To what extent does small state theory explain the cyber response to cyber attacks. We did so by analysing the cases of Estonia and The Netherlands in their respective response to presumed state-sponsored cyber attacks. From the analysis, it becomes clear that models of small state theory apply to the cases in the majority. Both cases exhibit methods of seeking alliances, enforcing institutions and evoking a sense of identity and norms.Show less
Interstate territorial conflict has seen a sharp downward trend since the end of the Cold War. This same trend has continued for claim militarization in general. However, the overall number of...Show moreInterstate territorial conflict has seen a sharp downward trend since the end of the Cold War. This same trend has continued for claim militarization in general. However, the overall number of states since the end of the World War Two has grown. More territorial disputes have come with the increasing number of states but not increasing military conflict over those disputes. This phenomenon is seen as a consequence of a lack of acceptance in the idea of conquest between states and the creation of the Territorial Integrity Norm. The overall trend has continued into the 21st Century but some fatal interstate territorial conflicts do still occur. This thesis asks, what leads to fatal interstate territorial conflict in the 21st Century (2002-2016) despite a strong trend away from fatal conflict over territory between states and how effective is fatal force? A comparative case study examining four fatal territorial conflicts that occurred within the timeline attempts to address this by analyzing the interaction of factors that lead up to a fatal event. It also explores the outcome of such action. This thesis finds that fatal action is the result of a complex interplay of domestic motives and a lack of external costs. When force is used, its effectiveness to assert control over disputed territory is limited but force can be effective in reigniting stalled diplomatic negotiations.Show less
Theories on European integration postulate what actors, processes and developments are central to the construction and functioning of the EU. Therefore, such theorization of integration can be used...Show moreTheories on European integration postulate what actors, processes and developments are central to the construction and functioning of the EU. Therefore, such theorization of integration can be used to explain, clarify and justify specific events. This thesis draws on the authentic arguments and assumptions of Neofunctionalism and Liberal Intergovernmentalism, i.e. two classic integration theories, to test their explanatory power by means of a case study. The context in which this study takes place is the completion of the Single Market, the barriers thereto and the subsequent potential of the Single Market that is left unexploited. One such barrier is the existence of different corporate tax regimes in and across the Single Market. The case used in this study is the proposed legislation on a Common (Consolidated) Corporate Tax Base (C(C)CTB), which is aimed at addressing this issue and to eliminate the negative consequences of tax regime disparities. The research question that guides this thesis is as follows: ‘to what extent can Neofunctionalist and/or Liberal Intergovernmentalist theory explain the proposed legislation on a Common (Consolidated) Corporate Tax Base and associated processes and developments?’ In pursuance of rejecting the null hypothesis and supporting one of the three alternative hypotheses, this study derived six ‘expectations’ from both integration theories to assess their compatibility with what can be observed in practice. Subsequently, the theory with the most accurate presumptions, measured by the degree of compliance, is assumed to hold most explanatory power and, consequently, ‘wins this battle’. The data used for this study is composed of desk and field research, including but not limited to interviews with the European Commission, KPMG EU Tax Centre and the Permanent Representation of the Netherlands in Brussels. With an average score of 4.2 against 2.2 (on a five-point scale), the outcome of the data analysis clearly indicates that the expectations derived from Neofunctionalist theory are significantly better capable of explaining relevant processes and developments underlying the C(C)CTB. Therefore, this study concludes that Neofunctionalism in this case holds more explanatory power than Liberal Intergovernmentalism. Nevertheless, it is acknowledged that due to low external validity the results of this study cannot or to a very limited extent be generalized to other situations. Accordingly, further research, for which this thesis could provide a methodological blueprint, is required to assess the explanatory power of both integration theories in regards to other issues that constitute barriers to the Single Market. Thereafter, it may be verified whether the findings presented in this study do indeed hold and are as such applicable to the broader context in which this study is situated.Show less
This research answers the questions: how suitable are NoSQL databases for funerary archaeology and what are the advantages and disadvantages compared to traditional relational databases? This...Show moreThis research answers the questions: how suitable are NoSQL databases for funerary archaeology and what are the advantages and disadvantages compared to traditional relational databases? This question will be answered using a comparison. Funerary data from six archaeological sites from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B in Southern Levant are used to provide comparative data. This period is best known for the so-called 'Skull Cult', a ritual in which the crania of recently buried family members were dug up to cover them with plasters, before being buried with other crania. The current theory states that this ritual together with several other characteristics indicate that the funerary rites were standardised. Most researchers mention that the buried individuals were often on their side and in a foetal position. The database used in this study was created to test this consensus. In this study, however, testing this theory is second to comparing and assessing the different databases systems. Archaeologists start using relational databases during the 1970s and 1980s. Since then, various database programs have been created and introduced in archaeology, more often unsuccessful than successful. Since archaeological data can only be studied once in its primary form, it is essential to store the data carefully and sustainably. To facilitate this, archaeologists are often looking for new software and hardware. In the ICT world, a new database system has been on the market since 2005 called NoSQL. NoSQL is a term for database systems that do not use SQL and are often used for projects that expect a lot of data. In this research, the NoSQL databases Document store and Graph store are compared with the relational database Microsoft Access. This research studies the mechanics of this different databases. A number of results have emerged from the research. The input per database type is very different. The loose structure of the document store makes it easy to store data in a clear document without taking it out of its original - often written on a form-written context. Both the graph and the document store leave space for creating attributes and separate data. Nevertheless, the graph store and the relational database look alike. Both databases retrieve the data from the original context and place these in different tables. Additionally, both make use of relations between the data. However, these relationships may contain data in the graph store, allowing a more thorough investigation into the relationships between certain archaeological units. The way in which queries are made also differs per database. However, this does not affect the final results, which have remained the same for all three types of databases. This makes the NoSQL databases suitable for funerary archaeological data. In conclusion, the NoSQL databases are suitable for funerary archaeology. Moreover, each database has its advantages and disadvantages, which makes them highly suitable for different tasks.Show less
Why do peace processes initiate? This study is an analysis of the explanatory value of I. William Zartman’s ripeness theory in the resolution of the Colombian internal armed conflict. This was done...Show moreWhy do peace processes initiate? This study is an analysis of the explanatory value of I. William Zartman’s ripeness theory in the resolution of the Colombian internal armed conflict. This was done by testing the elements of the theory – mutually hurting stalemate and sense of a way out – in addition to absence of economic resources and mediation presence elements (necessary even if not sufficient) that facilitate and create a favorable condition to initiate a peace process. Data collection was done through document analysis, and the analysis itself through grounded theory. The scope was of two case studies that started a negotiated settlement, the first one between the state and the 19th of April Movement (M-19) in 1989 and the second one between the state and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People’s Army (FARC) in 1999. The contribution of this study was to understand the causes that generated opposite results, the first one ended successfully and the latter did not, even if both started a peace process. The two guerrilla groups were chosen because they were the largest groups with the characteristics described above, but why choosing Colombia? This conflict is the only one in its complex nature with five decades that still remains in the Latin American region. The findings were that a ripe moment happened only in the first case. While in the first case all elements were present except mediation, in the second one only mediation was present. A gap of the theory was that the role of mediation is not clear and under what conditions it plays a role in ripeness theory. This study may then conclude that attempts of escalation by all parties in a conflict may be necessary to set the favorable conditions for a ripe moment to happen in conflict resolution.Show less
