The 'Local Turn' in Peacebuilding: The Liberal Peace Challenged

Contemporary practices of international peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction are often unsatisfactory. There is now a growing awareness of the significance of local governments and local communitites as an intergrated part of peacebuilding in order to improve quality and enhance precision of interventions. In spite of this, ‘the local’ is rarely a key factor in peacebuilding, hence ‘everyday peace’ is hardly achieved. The aim of this volume is threefold: firstly it illuminates the substantial reasons for working with a more localised approach in politically volatile contexts. Secondly it consolidates a growing debate on the significance of the local in these contexts. Thirdly, it problematizes the often too swiftly used concept, ‘the local’, and critically discuss to what extent it is at all feasible to integrate this into macro-oriented and securitized contexts. This is a unique volume, tackling the ‘local turn’ of peacebuilding in a comprehensive and critical way.

This book was published as a special issue of Third World Quarterly.

Joakim Öjendal is Professor in Peace and Development Research at the School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Isabell Schierenbeck is Associate Professor in Political Science at the School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Caroline Hughes is Professor of Conflict Resolution and Peace at the University of Bradford, UK.