Choosing Peace: An Exploration of Motivations and Means of Peace Agency
Annotated Bibliography
Peace agency can be defined as the capacity and intentional effort of individuals or communities to act in ways which seek to positively and nonviolently transform conflict situations toward more peaceful and just realities. This bibliography offers a starting point in developing a “theory of peace agency”, with hopes of better understanding some of the motivations and means that spark and sustain such intentional peace efforts. As such, it combines three primary lines of literature that contribute to the fields of conflict resolution and peace studies: 1) social agency theory, 2) theory and practice of peacebuilding, and 3) post-liberal criticism of peacebuilding. At the nexus of these three arenas of debate we may begin to explore the possible foundations of a “theory of peace agency”.
Social Agency Theory
Bandura, Albert. “Human Agency in Social Cognitive Theory.” American Psychologist. September 1989. p. 1175-1184.
Social Cognitive Theory. Eds. Van Lange, Paul and Kruglanski, Arie. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Ltd., 2012. (Chapter by Bandura, Alberto on social agency theory, p 349-373).
Weaver, Gary. “Virtue in Organizations: Moral Identity as a Foundation for Moral Agency,” Organization Studies. Vol 27. Marh 2006. p. 341-368.
Wiseman, Robert and Cuevas-Rodriguez, Gloria. “Towards a Social Theory of Agency,” Journal of Management Studies. Vol 49. January 2012. p. 202-222.
Peacebuilding Theory and Practice
Anderson, Mary B. Opting out of War: Strategies to Prevent Violent Conflict. Boulder; London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2013.
Anderson and her team use field-based interview research to analyze 14 case studies of communities that successfully chose nonviolence or neutrality in the midst of civil wars. Identifying the importance of community identity, core values, leadership, participatory decision-making, and direct engagement with armed actors, the book marks a seminal contribution to a still relatively narrow field of research on social agency for peace. Particularly valuable for theory building and specific case examples in developing further research on how and why people choose peace.
Boulding, Elise. Building a Global Civic Culture: Education for an Interdependent World. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1990.
A classic in international peace studies, Boulding’s book traces the rise of international non-governmental organizations and transnational civil society movements as a fundamental part of peacebuilding. She advocates strengthening social, cultural, educational, and informational ties across nations and recognizing the actions of civil society, individuals, and local communities as a primary source of peacebuilding. While broader in scope than my research, the book provides useful foundational peace research related to peace agency, local peacebuilding, and the interconnections between individual-community-national-international peace systems.
Boulding, Elise. Cultures of Peace: The Hidden Side of History. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 2000.
Boulding’s final book before her death, this provides an updated summary of her thinking and theorizing on how people contribute to the construction of peace through everyday choices and activities from the individual to the international levels. In addition, the book includes some of her insights into the importance of visioning and belief in the possibility of a different future as a key to motivating peaceful action. Useful as well for theory-building on transforming systems and cultures away from violence, toward peace, through collective and individual choices and action.
Funk, Nathan C. “Building on What’s Already There: Valuing the Local in International Peacebuilding.” International Journal 67 (2012 2011): 391.
Lederach, John Paul. Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Societies. Washington, D.C: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1997.
A classic in conflict transformation theory and practice, Lederach’s work provides foundational thinking on relationships, linkages, and change processes that bridge from local communities through mid-level leaders to elite high-level decision-making. Drawing on his experience with community-level peacebuilding, he also provides useful examples, insights, and theory on individual and community agency for peace that is relevant to my research.
Lederach, John Paul. The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.
Lederach provides a seminal work in transformative peacebuilding theory and practice by exploring core human motivations, expressions, and experiences of what peace is, how it is constructed, and how it survives amid violence. With stories and research from over 20 years of community-level peacebuilding work, Lederach’s book is a critical resource for theory-building around peace agency and how it can transform societies.
Local Peacebuilding and National Peace: Interaction between Grassroots and Elite Processes. Edited by Christopher R. Mitchell and Landon E. Hancock. London ; New York: Continuum, 2012.
Toh, Swee-Hin. “Peacebuilding and Peace Education: Local Experiences and Global Perspectives.” Prospects vol. XXXII, no. no. 1 (March 2002): 87–93.
Van Tongeren, Paul. “Potential Cornerstone of Infrastructures for Peace? How Local Peace Committees Can Make a Difference.” Peacebuilding 1, no. 1 (2013): 39–60.
Post-Liberal Peacebuilding Critique
Barrs, Casey. “How Civilians Survive Violence: A Preliminary Inventory.” The Cuny Center, November 2010.
The result of a study for Oxfam, this paper outlines various strategies by which civilian groups avoid, resist, or actively transform violence. Drawing from a wide range of cases spanning refugee camps, communities caught in civil war, and international peacekeeping missions, it provides a useful overview of practical ways by which groups and individuals confronted with the threat of violence are able to avoid becoming victims of it. Designed as a policy document it serves as more a practical and policy guide than a source of robust theory or rigorous academic study.
Chandler, David. “Peacebuilding and the Politics of Non-Linearity: Rethinking ‘hidden’ Agency and ‘resistance.’” Peacebuilding 1, no. 1 (2013): 17–32.
Chandler offers a strong theoretical rethinking of the relationship between systems, agency, and peacebuilding. Drawing from complexity and systems theory, the article challenges the field of peacebuilding to reconsider power relationships between local/internal and international/external actors. Chandler proposes a fundamental shift in consideration of the primary source of agency for peacebuilding as the local actors themselves, who often must work against the problematic approaches brought by outsiders.
Cubitt, Christine. “Constructing Civil Society: An Intervention for Building Peace?” Peacebuilding 1, no. 1 (2013): 91–108.
Donais, Timothy. “¿Empoderamiento O Imposición? Dilemas Sobre La Apropiación Local En Los Procesos de Construcción de Paz Posconflictos | Empowerment or Imposition? Dilemmas of Local Ownership in Post-Conflict Peacebuilding Processes.” Relaciones Internacionales 0, no. 16 (February 28, 2011).
Examining a number of cases of post-conflict peacebuilding endeavors, Donais finds consistent failures from the international system to recognize and empower the resources, agency, and potential of local actors. Even when external actors use rhetoric of supporting local ownership, too often the structures, policies, and practices of international organizations lead to a stifling of local voices and capacities. Donais raises some important questions and offers valuable recommendations for considering how to reshape local-international relationships in post-conflict peacebuilding that are relevant to my research.
Hattingh de Coning, Cedric. “Complexity, Peacebuilding and Coherence: Implications of Complexity for the Peacebuilding Coherence Dilemma.” Dissertation Paper, presented for defense to Stellenbosch University, December 2012.
Through his dissertation, de Coning applies complexity theory to examine peacebuilding processes and ask what new insights in might offer. His research reveals the inherent problems of externally-driven interventions that misunderstand, misrepresent, and distort local realities, and too often involve poor coordination and even damaging results. Through a lens of complexity theory, he proposes a shift to locally-led peacebuilding approaches that can better recognize and leverage the interconnected nature of conflict and peace.
Jabri, Vivienne. “Peacebuilding, the Local and the International: A Colonial or a Postcolonial Rationality?” Peacebuilding 1, no. 1 (2013): 3–16.
Jabri critiques the modern liberal peacebuilding field for a fundamental dissonance between its rhetoric of empowerment, partnership, and support to local communities and the reality of externally driven interventions that rely on systems of power and decision-making that reckon back to colonialism. While largely theoretical and at times highly critical of the field, the article provides an important critique on the current realities and directions of the field that still favor international, not local, actors.
Kaplan, Oliver. “Protecting Civilians in Civil War: The Institution of the ATCC in Colombia.” Journal of Peace Research 50, no. 3 (May 16, 2013): 351–367.
Using an in-depth case study of a community-led initiative in Colombia, Kaplan illustrates how civilians can lead in their own protection and peacebuilding processes, often without any connection to or direct support from external actors. Kaplan draws from the ATCC example in Colombia to propose new theory on how communities design and implement their own strategies for protecting themselves from violence and engaging with armed actors to try to advance peace beyond their own community.
Lidén, Kristoffer. “In Love with a Lie? On the Social and Political Preconditions for Global Peacebuilding Governance.” Peacebuilding 1, no. 1 (2013): 73–90. doi:10.1080/21647259.2013.756273.
Mac Ginty, Roger, and Oliver P Richmond. “The Local Turn in Peace Building: A Critical Agenda for Peace.” Third World Quarterly 34, no. 5 (2013): 763–783.
Richmond, Oliver P. “Beyond Local Ownership in the Architecture of International Peacebuilding.” Ethnopolitics 11, no. 4 (2012): 354–375.
Richmond, Oliver P, and Audra Mitchell. Hybrid Forms of Peace: From Everyday Agency to Post-Liberalism. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire; New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.