Critical Realism, Somalia and the Diaspora Community

137 Pages·2014·1.104 MB·English

by  Abdullahi Haji-Abdi

Critical Realism, Somalia
and the Diaspora Community

Critical Realism, Somalia and the Diaspora Community equips new
researchers with a simplifi ed knowledge of critical realism suitable to the
degree of their comprehension. Moreover, it offers a step-by-step example
of research using all levels of critical realism. This book resulted from the
endeavour of a researcher new to critical realism who, however, sought to
apply all parts and phases of critical realism to his subject matter.
The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 provides an outline of the
three phases of critical realism: original/basic critical realism, dialectical
critical realism and the philosophy of meta-reality. Part 2 presents a case
study that applies critical realism as a research-theory framework. The case
study explores the formation of the Somali community organisations in the
UK and develops a retroductive model that outlines their role in engaging
the Somali Diaspora community with the issue of sustainability. Part 3
presents refl ections towards the geo-historical study of Somalia and
explains the origins of the civil war and the dispersal that resulted in the
formation of Somali Diaspora communities in different parts of the world.
This book will be of interest to critical realists, researchers on and in
Africa, agencies interested in Somali affairs, researchers on diaspora and
refugees, Somali community co-ordinators and local council authorities in
the UK and Europe.
Abdullahi Haji-Abdi i s a researcher at London South Bank University, UK.
Ontological Explorations
Other titles in this series:
From One ‘Empire’ to the Next
Radha D’Souza
Science for Humanism
The recovery of human agency
Charles R. Varela
Philosophical Problems of Sustainability
Taking sustainability forward with a critical realist approach
Jenneth Parker
Dialectic and Difference
Dialectical critical realism and the grounds of justice
Alan Norrie
Interdisciplinarity and Climate Change
Transforming knowledge and practice for our global future
Edited by Roy Bhaskar, Cheryl Frank, Karl Georg Høyer,
Petter Naess and Jenneth Parker
Conversations about Refl exivity
Edited by Margaret S. Archer
Relational Sociology
A new paradigm for the social sciences
Pierpaolo Donati
Sociological Realism
Edited by Andrea M. Maccarini, Emmanuele Morandi
and Riccardo Prandini
The Economics of Science: A Critical Realist Overview
Volume 1: Illustrations and philosophical preliminaries
David Tyfi eld
The Economics of Science: A Critical Realist Overview
Volume 2: Towards a synthesis of political economy and science
and technology studies
David Tyfi eld
Ontology Revisited
Metaphysics in social and political philosophy
Ruth Groff
Childhoods, Real and Imagined
Volume 1: An introduction to critical realism and childhood studies
Priscilla Alderson
Naturalizing Critical Realist Social Ontology
Tuukka Kaidesoja
What’s Critical About Critical Realism? Essays in
Reconstructive Social Theory
Frederic Vandenberghe
Integrating Knowledge Through Interdisciplinary Research
Problems of theory and practice
Dominic Holland
Post-Secularism, Realism and Utopia
Transcendence and immanence from Hegel to Bloch
Jolyon Agar
Critical Realism, Somalia and the Diaspora Community
Abdullahi Haji-Abdi
This page intentionally left blank
Critical Realism,
Somalia and the Diaspora
Community
Abdullahi Haji-Abdi
Routledge
Taylor &.Francis Group
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2014
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2014 Abdullahi Haji-Abdi
The right of Abdullahi Haji-Abdi to be identifi ed as author of this
work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections
77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identifi cation and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Haji-Abdi, Abdullahi .
Critical realism, Somalia, and the diaspora community / Abdullahi
Haji-Abdi.
pages cm. – (Ontological explorations)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-415-71212-5 (hbk : alk. paper) – ISBN 978-1-315-
85556-1 (ebk : alk. paper) 1. Somalis–Great Britain. 2. Somalia–
Politics and government–1991 – I. Title.
HV640.5.S58H35 2013
305.893’54041–dc23
2013024923
ISBN: 978-0-415-71212-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-85556-1 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Deer Park Productions
Contents

L ist of fi gures and tables viii
A cknowledgements ix
1 Introduction 1
PART 1
Setting the context 11
2 The theoretical context 13
3 The geo-historical context 23
PART 2
The Somali Diaspora community in the UK 41
4 Agency and sustainability 43
5 The spatio-temporal formation of the SCOs 67
6 Sustainability leadership learning 90
PART 3
Somalia, the Diaspora and the future 105
7 Kinship, nationalism and Islam 107
8 How is transformed, transformative
leadership possible? 114
References 118
Index 124
Figures and tables
Figures
2.1 Traditional sociological theories 18
2.2 Transformational model of society/person connection 18
3.1 A map of Somali-speaking people in the Horn of Africa 24
3.2 Clan subdivision 25
3.3 Somali clan structure in a top-down model 27
3.4 The Somali fl ag 32
4.1 TMSA model of SCO/SCO co-ordinators’ connection 53
4.2 TMSA model for Somali Diaspora community/SCOs/SCO
co-ordinators’ connection 54
4.3 The Somali Diaspora community and the SCOs’ roles 65
6.1 Revised retroductive model, modifi ed from TMSA 102
Tables
2.1 The three ontological domains 14
5.1 Summary of the investigation process under dialectical
critical realism and meta-reality applied in this study 87
Acknowledgements
I am deeply indebted to Professor Roy Bhaskar, the founder of critical real-
ism, for his generosity and scholarly wisdom that led me to my interest in
critical realism and its application to this study. Without his guidance and
permission to attend the post-graduate reading seminar on critical realism
held in the Institute of Education, this study would have taken much longer
to complete. I would also like to thank other scholars who regularly
contributed to the post-graduate reading seminars, particularly Professor
Alan Norrie, Professor Priscilla Alderson and Dr Paddy Walsh. I particu-
larly thank Mervyn Hartwig for his contructive comments on the original
thesis. I would like to thank my supervisors, Professor Gaim Kibreab and
Peter Winbourne for both providing advice and for their useful and inspir-
ing comments.
My sincere thanks go to the co-ordinators of the UK Somali Diaspora
Community for their contributions to this study.
Finally, I would like to thank my wife, Deeqa, and children, Mohamed,
Muna, Leyla and Nadiya, for their patience and constant support.