Peacebuilding and Spatial Transformation Peace, Space and Place Studies in Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding Series

This book investigates peacebuilding in post-conflict scenarios by analysing the link between peace, space and place.

By focusing on the case studies of Cyprus, Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Northern Ireland and South Africa, the book provides a spatial reading of agency in peacebuilding contexts. It conceptualises peacebuilding agency in post-conflict landscapes as situated between place (material locality) and space (the imaginary counterpart of place), analysing the ways in which peacebuilding agency can be read as a spatial practice. Investigating a number of post-conflict cases, this book outlines infrastructures of power and agency as they are manifested in spatial practice. It demonstrates how spatial agency can take the form of conflict and exclusion on the one hand, but also of transformation towards peace over time on the other hand. Against this background, the book argues that agency drives place-making and space-making processes. Therefore, transformative processes in post-conflict societies can be understood as materialising through the active use and transformation of space and place.

This book will be of interest to students of peacebuilding, peace and conflict studies, human geography and IR in general.

Foreword, Johan Galtung

Introduction: Space, Place and Agency: Mapping Peace Across Sites

1. Space, place and agency

2. Cyprus: Contesting the Island

3. Kosovo: Emplacing the State and Peace(s)

4. Bosnia-Herzegovina: The Ethnic Peace

5. Northern Ireland: The "Maze of Peace"

6. South Africa: Perpetuating Spatial Apartheid?

Conclusion: Reading the Politics of Peace and Conflict Spatially

Annika Björkdahl is Professor of Political Science, Lund University, Sweden, and is author/editor of numerous titles, including Peacebuilding and Friction (Routledge 2016) and Spatializing Peace and Conflict (2015).

Stefanie Kappler is Lecturer in Conflict Resolution and Peace Building, Durham University, UK, and is author of Local Agency and Peacebuilding (2014).