Abstract
While the naïve optimism of the liberal peacebuilding perspective has been tempered by recent real-world events that have revealed the complex and stubborn nature of conflict-ridden societies, peacebuilding remains a relevant tool for recovering from post-conflict devastation. This edited volume aims to examine the relevance of contemporary peacebuilding to post-conflict reconstruction by relying on evidence that illustrates how these programs work to address conflict-related problems on the ground. To contextualize the arguments contained in this volume within recent debates on peacebuilding, this chapter introduces the theoretical and practical trends and the validity of micro-level approaches to peace and conflict studies.
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Notes
- 1.
https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations (accessed on March 25, 2022).
- 2.
- 3.
- 4.
According to such viewpoints, liberal peacebuilding efforts are seen as the modernization of the developing world, which is often in tension with traditional, ethnic, and religious politics (Newman 2009, 44).
- 5.
- 6.
These alternative views can be categorized as the sole approach in the sense that they focus on the complex nature of sociopolitical relations and dynamics in the locality, on which they seek to base conflict resolution. However, they are referred to using different terms, such as adaptive, communitarian, emancipatory, pragmatic, social, sustaining, and transformatory peace (building). For more on the nuanced differences between these “local turn” perspectives, see Paffenholz (2015).
- 7.
It is also noted that there is a divergence in findings on the effects of peacebuilding efforts at the local level across cases (Autesserre 2017, 118–9).
- 8.
- 9.
This does not deny that like men, women are often engaged in armed struggles (see Jacobs et al. 2000).
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Kubota, Y. (2022). Introduction: Empirics for Peacebuilding. In: Kubota, Y. (eds) Micro-evidence for Peacebuilding Theories and Policies. Evidence-Based Approaches to Peace and Conflict Studies, vol 8. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-4899-2_1
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