Spaces of Peace, Security and Development – serie

Using detailed insights from those with first-hand experience of conducting research in areas of international intervention and conflict, this handbook provides essential practical guidance for researchers and students embarking on fieldwork in violent, repressive and closed contexts.Contributors detail their own experiences from areas including the Congo, Sudan, Yemen, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Myanmar, inviting readers into their reflections on mistakes and hard-learned lessons. Divided into sections on issues of control and confusion, security and risk, distance and closeness and sex and sensitivity, they look at how to negotiate complex grey areas and raise important questions that intervention researchers need to consider before, during and after their time on the ground.

Using detailed insights from those with first-hand experience of conducting research in areas of international intervention and conflict, this handbook provides essential practical guidance for researchers and students embarking on fieldwork in violent, repressive and closed contexts.Contributors detail their own experiences from areas including the Congo, Sudan, Yemen, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Myanmar, inviting readers into their reflections on mistakes and hard-learned lessons. Divided into sections on issues of control and confusion, security and risk, distance and closeness and sex and sensitivity, they look at how to negotiate complex grey areas and raise important questions that intervention researchers need to consider before, during and after their time on the ground.

During the second half of the 20th century, Colombia suffered extreme levels of political violence. This book explores the involvement of the international community in peacebuilding efforts in Colombia since 2016. In particular, it examines how interventions were framed in order to promote and sustain their involvement and questions whether these frames reflected reality within Colombia. The book focuses on key donors, including the US, the EU, Canada, Sweden and the UK, as well as multinational actors, such as the UN and the World Bank, to demonstrate how their framing of local issues for national and international consumption can have real world implications for peacebuilding efforts on the ground.

Moving beyond state-centric and elitist perspectives, this volume examines everyday security in the Central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and written by scholars from Central Asia and beyond, it shows how insecurity is experienced, what people consider existential threats, and how they go about securing themselves.It concentrates on individuals who feel threatened because of their ethnic belonging, gender or sexual orientation. It develops the concept of ‘securityscapes’, which draws attention to the more subtle means that people take to secure themselves – practices bent on invisibility and avoidance, on disguise and trickery, and on continually adapting to shifting circumstances. By broadening the concept of security practice, this book is an important contribution to debates in Critical Security Studies as well as to Central Asian and Area Studies.

This book explores relationships between war, displacement and city-making. Focusing on people seeking refuge in Somali cities after being forced to migrate by violence, environmental shocks or economic pressures, it highlights how these populations are actively transforming urban space. Using first-hand testimonies and participatory photography by urban in-migrants, the book documents and analyses the micropolitics of urban camp management, evictions and gentrification, and the networked labour of displaced populations that underpins growing urban economies. Central throughout is a critical analysis of how the discursive figure of the ‘internally displaced person’ is co-produced by various actors. The book argues that this label exerts significant power in structuring socio-economic inequalities and the politics of group belonging within different Somali cities connected through protracted histories of conflict-related migration.

This book explores relationships between war, displacement and city-making. Focusing on people seeking refuge in Somali cities after being forced to migrate by violence, environmental shocks or economic pressures, it highlights how these populations are actively transforming urban space. Using first-hand testimonies and participatory photography by urban in-migrants, the book documents and analyses the micropolitics of urban camp management, evictions and gentrification, and the networked labour of displaced populations that underpins growing urban economies. Central throughout is a critical analysis of how the discursive figure of the ‘internally displaced person’ is co-produced by various actors. The book argues that this label exerts significant power in structuring socio-economic inequalities and the politics of group belonging within different Somali cities connected through protracted histories of conflict-related migration.

EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.Drawing on decolonial perspectives on peace, statehood and development, this illuminating book examines post-liberal statebuilding in Central Asia. It argues that, despite its emancipatory appearance, post-liberal statebuilding is best understood as a set of social ordering mechanisms that lead to new forms of exclusion, marginalization and violence.Using ethnographic fieldwork in Southern Kyrgyzstan, the volume offers a detailed examination of community security and peacebuilding discourses and practices. Through its analysis, the book highlights the problem with assumptions about liberal democracy, modern statehood and capitalist development as the standard template for post-conflict countries, which is widespread and rarely reflected upon.

How is peace built at the local level? Covering three Lebanese municipalities with striking sectarian diversity, Saida, Bourj Hammoud and Tyre, this book investigates the ways in which local service delivery, local interactions and vertical relationships matter in building peace. Using the stories and experiences of municipal councillors, employees and civil society actors, it illustrates how local activities and agencies are performed and what it means for local peace in Lebanon. Through its analysis, the book illustrates what the practice of peacebuilding can look like at the local level and the wider lessons - both practical and theoretical - that can be drawn from it.

How is peace built at the local level? Covering three Lebanese municipalities with striking sectarian diversity, Saida, Bourj Hammoud and Tyre, this book investigates the ways in which local service delivery, local interactions and vertical relationships matter in building peace. Using the stories and experiences of municipal councillors, employees and civil society actors, it illustrates how local activities and agencies are performed and what it means for local peace in Lebanon. Through its analysis, the book illustrates what the practice of peacebuilding can look like at the local level and the wider lessons - both practical and theoretical - that can be drawn from it.

The frequent failure of military or armed interventions to protect civilians is well known. This edited collection provides a comprehensive account of a different, effective paradigm: unarmed civilian protection (UCP).The principles and methods of UCP have been used for many decades to protect both specific, threatened individuals as well as whole communities. Featuring contributions from around the world, this book brings together a wide range of UCP practices in order to examine their underlying theory and interrelated strategies. The book provides an important illustration of the contributions UCP can make, while also discussing its limitations and failures.

The frequent failure of military or armed interventions to protect civilians is well known. This edited collection provides a comprehensive account of a different, effective paradigm: unarmed civilian protection (UCP).The principles and methods of UCP have been used for many decades to protect both specific, threatened individuals as well as whole communities. Featuring contributions from around the world, this book brings together a wide range of UCP practices in order to examine their underlying theory and interrelated strategies. The book provides an important illustration of the contributions UCP can make, while also discussing its limitations and failures.

This book explores how political actors draw on memories of violent pasts to generate political power and legitimacy in the present. Drawing on fieldwork in post-violence Cambodia, Rwanda and Indonesia, the book demonstrates in what way power is derived from how roles are assigned, exploring who is deemed a perpetrator, victim or hero, as well as ambivalences in this memory. The author interrogates the ways in which these roles are attributed and ambivalences created in each society’s political discourses, transitional justice processes and cultural heritage. The comparative empirical analysis illustrates the importance of memory for political power and legitimacy today.

This book explores how political actors draw on memories of violent pasts to generate political power and legitimacy in the present. Drawing on fieldwork in post-violence Cambodia, Rwanda and Indonesia, the book demonstrates in what way power is derived from how roles are assigned, exploring who is deemed a perpetrator, victim or hero, as well as ambivalences in this memory. The author interrogates the ways in which these roles are attributed and ambivalences created in each society’s political discourses, transitional justice processes and cultural heritage. The comparative empirical analysis illustrates the importance of memory for political power and legitimacy today.

Through two Colombian case studies, Sanne Weber identifies the ways in which conflict experiences are defined by structures of gender inequality, and how these could be transformed in the post-conflict context. The author reveals that current, apparently gender-sensitive, transitional justice (TJ) and disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) laws and policies ultimately undermine rather than transform gender equality and, consequently, weaken the chances of achieving holistic and durable peace. To overcome this, Weber offers an innovative approach to TJ and DDR that places gendered citizenship as both the starting point and the continued driving force of post-conflict reconstruction.

Through two Colombian case studies, Sanne Weber identifies the ways in which conflict experiences are defined by structures of gender inequality, and how these could be transformed in the post-conflict context. The author reveals that current, apparently gender-sensitive, transitional justice (TJ) and disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) laws and policies ultimately undermine rather than transform gender equality and, consequently, weaken the chances of achieving holistic and durable peace. To overcome this, Weber offers an innovative approach to TJ and DDR that places gendered citizenship as both the starting point and the continued driving force of post-conflict reconstruction.

Trajectories of Governance studies the complex dynamics of order-making, violence and governance in peripheral cities in Latin America from a comparative, historical and multi-scalar approach.It aims to discover more about the drivers, contexts and uneven levels of violence through the case studies of Chalatenango and Sonsonate in El Salvador and Pereira and Tunja in Colombia. Based on a multidisciplinary analytical framework, it explains why and how some peripheral cities have become the locus of violent orders, whereas others have managed to control violence, and to examine the role of violence in the workings of local governance.

Trajectories of Governance studies the complex dynamics of order-making, violence and governance in peripheral cities in Latin America from a comparative, historical and multi-scalar approach.It aims to discover more about the drivers, contexts and uneven levels of violence through the case studies of Chalatenango and Sonsonate in El Salvador and Pereira and Tunja in Colombia. Based on a multidisciplinary analytical framework, it explains why and how some peripheral cities have become the locus of violent orders, whereas others have managed to control violence, and to examine the role of violence in the workings of local governance.

This book paints a clear picture of Burmese political and social dynamics between 1948–2024 that is not distorted by seeing Burma as simply another case of western-inspired democratization or its failure. The book makes the argument that instead of focusing exclusively on the faults of Burma’s army-state and political leaders, the country’s spatial constitution is fundamental to understanding its post-1948 failure to achieve national unity. Throughout the analysis, Seekins reveals how the struggle to defend space from the homogenizing and coercive power of the state is essentially one of autonomy.

Through analysis of political events in Madrid, Spain, this book explores what the figure of the neighbour can tell us about the current political conjuncture and interrogates the possibilities it offers for imagining new, and more just, forms of political community. The book traces the emergence of contemporary forms of neighbouring through social formations and moments of crisis in Spain. Its analysis provides insights into how neighbouring has been envisaged and contested. It reveals both changing conceptions of space and community while underlining how previous conflicts reverberate in the physical landscape, ideas and memories which inform contemporary political interventions.

How does an authoritarian regime simultaneously suppress dissent whilst leveraging civil society for its own ends? This study examines Cambodia's transformation from the 1990s to today, revealing the state's strategy of 'flexible coerciveness'—a dual approach of restricting political space while co-opting civil society organizations for governance gains.Through rigorous analysis of state-civil society dynamics, this timely work exposes how Cambodia's government has undermined democratic institutions while maintaining strategic partnerships with NGOs and international donors. Essential reading for scholars of authoritarianism, Southeast Asian politics and development studies, the book offers fresh insights beyond traditional democratization theories for our increasingly complex global political landscape.

This book explores the political economy of Chinese and Japanese infrastructure financing in Indonesia, examining how Chinese and Japanese actors utilize diverse modes including Official Development Assistant, commercial loans, export credits, business-to-business investments, and public–private partnerships to ensure profitability and manage risks.Moving beyond traditional views of these financing modes as geoeconomic statecraft, the book exposes readers to a new perspective by situating infrastructure financing in the context of capitalist development. It reveals how contestation, conflicts, and compromise between socio-political forces including different segments of Japanese and Chinese capital, state actors, and civil society actors in Indonesia give shape to distinct modes of financing. Through detailed case studies and interviews across Japan, China and Indonesia, it uncovers the interplay between these forces and how their relations are sustained through regulatory complexes underpinning large-scale projects.

The liberal approach to transitional justice and peacebuilding has been widely critiqued for its shallow approach to gendered inclusion and inattention to local context, yet has historically remained dominant. This book puts forward an alternative framework: agonistic transitional justice.Agonism embraces contestation and multiplicity rather than trying to work towards consensus or objectivity. To assess the feasibility of agonistic approaches as an alternative to the liberal model, the book compares three cases reflecting different degrees of institutional adoption: Colombia (high), Northern Ireland (mixed) and Uganda (minimal). Taking gender as an entry point, it examines how agonistic transitional justice addresses identity-based hierarchies, domination and oppression.Combining theoretical innovation with original empirical research, the book offers insights for scholars and practitioners seeking alternatives to liberal peacebuilding and transitional justice.