Peacebuilding and Spatial Transformation ─ Peace, Space and Place

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

By viewing the transitions from violent conflict to peace, where spaces and places are highly contested, through a spatial lens, this book presents a fundamentally new tool of analysis, which has mainly been used in human geography, but has so far not been applied in politics, international relations and peace and conflict studies. The main argument of the book is the notion that agency and power can be read through an investigation of space and place. The book will present the argument that the ability to transform space (symbolic meanings of location) into place (material realities of localities), and vice versa, are indicative of the social power of actors. Investigating a number of post-conflict cases, including Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Cyprus, Northern Ireland and South Africa, this book outlines infrastructures of power and agency as manifested in spatial practice. It will address examples of contested spaces, including evictions, anti-eviction campaigns, spatial segregation, framing of spaces through cultural markers (museums, sports, anthems) and the political (re-)allocation of space to create infrastructures of inclusion and exclusion.

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

Stefanie Kappler is Lecturer in International Relations, Liverpool Hope University, UK, and is the author of Local Agency and Peacebuilding: EU and International Engagement in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cyprus and South Africa (2014).

Annika Bjorkdahl is Professor of Political Science, Lund University, Sweden, and is the author/editor of numerous titles including Urban Peacebuilding in Divided Cities (2015) and Rethinking Peacebuilding: The Quest for Just Peace in the Middle East and the Western Balkans, (with K. Aggestam, Routledge, 2013).