Suchergebnisse

This thesis critiques liberal peacebuilding in Africa, with a particular focus on Sierra Leone. In particular, it examines the interface between the liberal peace and the "local", the forms of agency that various local actors are expressing in response to the liberal peace and the hybrid forms of peace that are emerging in Sierra Leone. The thesis is built from an emerging critical literature that has argued for the need to shift from merely criticising liberal peacebuilding to examining local and contextual responses to it. Such contextualisation is crucial mainly because it helps us to develop a better understanding of the complex dynamics on the ground. The aim of this thesis is not to provide a new theory but to attempt to use the emerging insights from the critical scholarship through adopting the concept of hybridity in order to gain an understanding of the forms of peace that are emerging in post-conflict zones in Africa. This has not been comprehensively addressed in the context of post-conflict societies in Africa. Yet, much contemporary peace support operations are taking place in these societies that are characterised by multiple sources of legitimacy, authority and sovereignty. The thesis shows that in Sierra Leone local actors – from state elites to chiefs to civil society to ordinary people on the "margins of the state" – are not passive recipients of the liberal peace. It sheds new light on how hybridity can be created "from below" as citizens do not engage in outright resistance, but express various forms of agency including partial acceptance and internalisation of some elements of the liberal peace that they find useful to them; and use them to make demands for reforms against state elites who they do not trust and often criticise for their pre-occupation with political survival and consolidation of power. Further, it notes that in Sierra Leone a "post-liberal peace" that is locally-oriented might emerge on the "margins of the state" where culture, custom and tradition are predominant, and where neo-traditional civil society organisations act as vehicles for both the liberal peace and customary peacebuilding while allowing locals to lead the peacebuilding process. In Sierra Leone, there are also peace processes that are based on custom that are operating in parallel to the liberal peace, particularly in remote parts of the country.

Drawing on theory and examples from several different conflict settings, this paper evaluates the potential for 'placemaking' as a post-conflict peacebuilding tool. Theorists of 'place-making' distinguish between a space which is a geographical location and a place which is 'space plus meaning' (Donofrio, 2010, 152). Spaces become places through rhetorical acts of attributing symbolic value to a particular terrain. Placemaking records and revises history and creates and mediates conflicts, shaping identities in the process. The fluid and socially-interactive nature of placemaking suggests a potentially close relationship with the slow, evolving process of peacebuilding. But the nature of place as a repository of memories holds particular challenges for 'post-conflict' peacebuilding. Based on an analysis of official documents, news articles, and interviews conducted by the author with Belfast youth and youth workers, the paper closely examines the Northern Ireland case. In Northern Ireland, many official projects including mural re-imaging, conflict museums, and historical, commercial enterprises, such the Titanic Quarter, reflect a policy of transforming 'contested spaces' and creating 'shared space'. These official interventions are affected by at least two dynamics related to youth: young people possess little official placemaking authority, but they nevertheless seek to colonize and create their own spaces and reinterpret places. While placemaking has significant potential as a peacebuilding strategy, some post-conflict spatial interventions may be associated with old 'ghosts' of territoriality and exclusion, under the guise of liberal peacebuilding. Adapted from the source document.