To Conform or to Confront? CSOs and Agrarian Conflict in Post-Conflict Guatemala

2010 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
MATHIJS VAN LEEUWEN
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Organisational Change ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Civil Society Organisations ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Peace Agreements ◽  
Conflict Settings ◽  
Conflict Situations ◽  
Strategic Options

AbstractThis article is about the role of civil society after violent conflict. It argues that the transformations that civil society organisations (CSOs) make are more ambiguous than supporting donors and NGOs presume. The article analyses how, ten years after the 1996 peace agreements, Guatemalan CSOs deal with agrarian conflict. It discusses in detail the case of a church-related organisation assisting peasants with agrarian conflicts and the challenges it faced in defining its strategies. The article argues that supporting donors and NGOs should stop seeing the difficulties of organisational change in post-conflict situations exclusively in terms of the internal incapacities of civil society. Instead, they should re-politicise their analyses and focus on the importance of broader social and political processes in post-conflict settings for the strategic options open to CSOs.

scholarly journals The role of Civil Society Organisations in post-conflict development of northern Uganda

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-148
Author(s):  
Denis Musinguzi
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Qualitative Methodology ◽  
Northern Uganda ◽  
Community Needs ◽  
Civil Society Organisations ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Dialectical Relationship ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Violent Conflicts

This article examines the role of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in post-conflict reconstruction and development of northern Uganda. The analysis is informed by the increased spate of violent conflicts in Africa since the end of the Cold War; the destruction caused by violent conflicts; and the significant role played by CSOs in post-conflict reconstruction and development. The northern part of Uganda witnessed the most protracted and devastating Lord‘s Resistance Army (LRA) conflict in the country‘s post-independence history, which forms the central focus of the study. To generate a deeper analysis of the role of CSOs, this article delves into the historical evolution of civil society from the classical thought of ancient Greece to the modern and contemporary perspectives of civil society. The analysis of the role of CSOs in post-conflict reconstruction and development is framed in the war-topeace transition; and recognises the dialectical relationship between peace and development. The article examines the community‘s perceptions on the role of CSOs and its responsiveness to community needs. It concludes with a reflection on simmering issues, which if not properly addressed, could destroy the positive inroads and peace dividends being realised in northern Uganda. A constructivist and qualitative methodology guided the study, which sought to interpret reality from the context of the espondents.

The role of international organizations in the reconstruction of countries affected by war

2019 ◽  
pp. 4-12
Author(s):  
Gabriella Horváth-Csikós ◽  
Samir Zaien
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Human Factor ◽  
International Organisations ◽  
Reconstruction Process ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Conflict Situations ◽  
International Ngos ◽  
Sustainable Economic Growth

There is no doubt that post-conflict situations call for physical reconstruction. However, a well-developed civil society along with independent media, reliable police and judiciary are equally essential to physical reconstruction for obtaining sustainable economic growth and stability. Reconstruction in post-conflict situations must go beyond the technical aspects of reconstructing infrastructure and services. It also, essentially, should include a human factor contributing to the reintegration of people into civil society. The role of international NGOs will be accomplished when the governmental structures supported by civil society are completely able to take over their tasks with credibility (e.g. political and economic willingness, impartiality and accountability) and feasibility (specific capabilities and professionalism). The aim of the paper is to show the role of international organisations in the reconstruction process of the countries affected by war. In the summary the authors conclude that the role of international organisations acting as a ‘puzzle’ and having a certain piece of the picture could rather lead to devastation and not to reconstruction.

International Governance in Post-Conflict Situations

2001 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 495-529 ◽  
Author(s):  
Outi Korhonen
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
International Governance ◽  
International Organisations ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Conflict Situations ◽  
Systematic Scheme ◽  
Institutional Structures ◽  
Democratic Elections

International organisations have recently assumed a more intrusive role in settling conflicts in all continents. At the same time, post-conflict or post-settlement tasks seem to be emerging as an important function, encompassing the conduct of democratic elections, the guarantee of security, development of civil society, etc. In order to operationalise such wide-ranging and deeply intrusive social aims it is not sufficient to have peace-keepers or elections monitoring missions sent into the conflict-torn territories. Concentrated and centrally planned efforts of international governance are needed. In the present day, however, there is no such systematic scheme to which to refer. Yet institutional structures are needed to administer the extensive tasks and functions assigned in certain post-conflict situations. Therefore many questions of legitimacy and fundamental accountability arise.

scholarly journals Antimicrobial resistance control efforts in Africa: a survey of the role of Civil Society Organisations

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 1868055
Author(s):  
Jessica L. Fraser ◽  
Yewande H. Alimi ◽  
Jay K. Varma ◽  
Tracie Muraya ◽  
Tapiwanashe Kujinga ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Antimicrobial Resistance ◽  
Civil Society Organisations

scholarly journals Peace Governance and Multiculturalism: What role for Peace Education in the Balkans

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lidija Georgieva
Keyword(s):  
Peace Education ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Negotiated Settlement ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Negotiated Settlements ◽  
Peace Agreements ◽  
Critical Issues ◽  
Violent Conflicts

This article will focus on theoretical and practical dilemmas related to the concept of peace governance, and within this context on the possible transformative role of peace education trough facilitation of contact between communities in conflict. The basic assumption is that violent conflicts in the Balkans have been resolved trough negotiated settlements and peace agreements. Yet, education strategy including peace education and its impact on post-conflict peacebuilding and reconciliation are underestimated. Peace governance is recognized as a dynamic but challenging process often based on institutional and policy arrangements aimed to at least settle conflict dynamics or in some cases even to provide more sustainable peace after signing of negotiated settlement in multicultural societies. We will argue that education in general is one of the critical issues of peace governance arrangements that could facilitate peacebuilding and create a contact platform between communities. The first question addressed in this article is to what extend peace agreements refer to education as an issue and the second one relate to the question if education is included in peace agreement to what extent it contributes for contact between different conflicting communities. Although it is widely accepted that contacts between former adversaries contributes for multicultural dialogue it is less known or explained if and in what way peace agreements provisions on education facilitate contact and transformation of conflicting relations.

scholarly journals ‘Moving life stories tell us just why politics matters’: Personal narratives in tabloid anti-austerity campaigns

Journalism ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (10) ◽  
pp. 1346-1363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jen Birks
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Welfare Reform ◽  
Life Stories ◽  
Personal Narratives ◽  
Political Agency ◽  
The Political ◽  
Civil Society Organisations

This article examines the use of personal narratives in two tabloid newspaper campaigns against a controversial welfare reform popularly known as the ‘bedroom tax’. It aims first to evaluate whether the personal narratives operate as political testimony to challenge government accounts of welfare reform and dominant stereotypes of benefits claimants, and second to assess the potential for and limits to progressive advocacy in popular journalism. The study uses content analysis of 473 articles over the course of a year in the Daily Mirror and Sunday People newspapers, and qualitative analysis of a sub-set of 113 articles to analyse the extent to which the campaign articles extrapolated from the personal to the general, and the role of ‘victim–witnesses’ in articulating their own subjectivity and political agency. The analysis indicates that both newspapers allowed affected individuals to express their own subjectivity to challenge stereotypes, but it was civil society organisations and opinion columnists who most explicitly extrapolated from the personal to the political. Collectively organised benefits claimants were rarely quoted, and there was some evidence of ventriloquisation of the editorial voice in the political criticisms of victim–witnesses. However, a campaigning columnist in the Mirror more actively empowered some of those affected to speak directly to politicians. This indicates the value of campaigning journalism when it is truly engaged in solidarity with those affected, rather than instrumentalising victim–witnesses to further the newspapers’ campaign goals.

The Role of Historical Memory in the Socio-Political Processes of Chechnya (1986—1994)

Istoriya ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (10 (108)) ◽  
pp. 0
Author(s):  
Cécile Druey
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Mikhail Gorbachev ◽  
Relational Approach ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Local Newspapers ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Autonomous Republic

During the years that preceded and followed the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the Autonomous Republic of Chechnya in the south of Russia has experienced an intensive movement of civil society mobilisation, nationalist radicalisation and armed conflict. Referring to the case of the society “Kavkaz” as an example for the emerging movement of civil society, this paper traces the mobilising role of history and historical memory during the period of reform under Mikhail Gorbachev in the late-1980s, until the onset of the first Chechnya War in 1994. It argues, that the use of historical memory is not that much a cause, than it is an indicator of conflict and radicalisation in society, and that these processes of radicalisation are closely linked to their context at a local, national and international level. Drawing on data collected from interviews with representatives of the Chechen national movement, from local newspapers and legal acts, the paper tracks the evolution of civil society movements in Chechnya in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Doing so, it departs from a relational approach to conflict analysis (della Porta, 2018; Alimi, Bosi, and Demetriou, 2012; Tilly and Tarrow, 2015; Hughes and Sasse, 2016). Located at the intersection between conflict- and memory studies, the paper thus adds insights to the study of the pre-war period in post-Soviet Chechnya, and in general to the conceptual discussion about the link between historical memory, mobilisation, radicalisation and conflict.

Engendering the Post-Liberal Peace in Cyprus: UNSC Resolution 1325 as a Tool

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga Demetriou ◽  
Maria Hadjipavlou
Keyword(s):  
United Nations Security Council ◽  
Conflict Processes ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Conflict Situations ◽  
Participation Of Women ◽  
Liberal Peace ◽  
Women And Girls ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
New Institutions

This chapter discusses the role of women in forging paths into post-liberal peace formations. The adoption of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 in 2000 could be said to have marked the incorporation of key tenets of gender rights discourse in the global liberal peace agenda. The resolution is based on liberal principles of representation and participation of women in all levels of peacebuilding and on democratisation in setting up new institutions and norms of gender equality in the post-conflict processes; it also recognises the specific protection needs of women and girls in conflict situations as well as the underutilised contribution women make to conflict prevention, peacebuilding, conflict resolution, and peacekeeping. Ultimately, the chapter asks whether gender discourse can uphold the promise of peace formation by holding peacebuilders accountable to just, democratic, and equal societies.

Agency, autonomy and compliance in (post-)conflict situations: perspectives from Jammu and Kashmir, Cyprus and Bosnia-Herzegovina

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena B. Stavrevska ◽  
Sumona DasGupta ◽  
Birte Vogel ◽  
Navnita Chadha Behera
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Constitutional Rights ◽  
Ethnic Segregation ◽  
Power Politics ◽  
Jammu And Kashmir ◽  
Conflict Zones ◽  
Peace Accord ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Conflict Situations ◽  
Everyday Resistance

Chapter 4 looks into ways in which agency is exercised within civil society with particular focus on manifestations of compliance and resistance. The authors claim that despite the power imbalances, the agency still manages to find its way in both active and post-conflict zones. They identify different ways in which this agency is manifested in the three settings that they discuss: Jammu and Kashmir, Cyprus and Bosnia-Herzegovina. In Jammu and Kashmir they give examples of youth protesting against the police, and parents’ associations which use constitutional rights to introduce the change. In Cyprus, they discuss non-compliance to the EU trade regulations which were meant to foster interdependence on a divided island. In case of Bosnia, they examine acts of everyday resistance to ethnic segregation which was imposed by the peace accord. The authors stress the important role that power politics play in such settings and conclude that it is necessary to analyze how power is shaped and perceived through interactions of various actors in the setting.

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