The economic local turn in peace and conflict studies: economic peacebuilding interventions and the everyday

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article calls for a better integration of economic and socio-economic aspects of peacemaking efforts into critical peace and conflict scholarship and can be read as a corrective to the predominance of top-down and state-centric lenses in the examination of post-war economic recovery. As of yet, academic debates surrounding peace interventions have not adequately integrated the economic with the political, in particular at the level of the everyday. Most theories in International Relations that engage with the connection between economics and politics during and after conflict – as well as the original notions of liberal peace – are based on the idea that international trade and market liberalisation reduce the chances of war between states. This neglects the sub-state level, and does not pay attention to the quality of peace that results. Considering the shift to intra-state conflicts, this article discusses the epistemological consequences of neglecting the economic everyday in conflict-affected societies and its implications for peacemaking, for both international and domestic actors. Shifting the level of analysis to the sub-state level and using an intersectional and inter-disciplinary approach broadens our understanding of peace and peacemaking, and how different segments of the populations experience them.