Constructing civil society: Gender, power and legitimacy in United Nations peacebuilding discourse

Abstract

The United Nations Peacebuilding Commission was created in 2005 to have oversight of United Nations peacebuilding operations. In the foundational resolution, adopted simultaneously by the United Nations Security Council (S/RES/1645) and the United Nations General Assembly (A/RES/60/180), the Peacebuilding Commission is mandated to encourage meaningful participation in peacebuilding-related activities by civil society actors. This article investigates the construction of ‘civil society’ as a subject of United Nations peacebuilding discourse, drawing on both policy documents and interview data. The inclusion of civil society actors in peacebuilding-related activities is currently considered central to the success of these activities; if it is taken for granted that the meaningful participation of civil society actors ensures that United Nations programmes build better peace, and I argue that it is, then it is important to understand what is meant by ‘civil society’ and to comprehend the kinds of actions that are prescribed and proscribed by the meanings attached to the concept. Specifically, I map out a peacebuilding discourse that (re)produces the United Nations — as representative of ‘the international community’ — as the architect/legitimate knower of peacebuilding practice, and the communities working on building peace as the labourers/known objects. This has significant implications for the ways in which civil society organisations, and the forms of knowledge that these organisations represent, are encountered and engaged in peacebuilding practices; ‘local’ knowledge is at once valued (in the process of extraction) and yet subordinated.