Contesting Peace in the Postwar City

Belfast, Mitrovica and Mostar

verfasst von: Ivan Gusic

Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Buchreihe : Rethinking Peace and Conflict Studies

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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Über dieses Buch

“Contesting Peace in the Postwar City is key reading for urban and peace and conflict scholars. In this impressive and meticulously researched book, Gusic reflects on the ways in which divisions are routinised in the everyday landscape of divided cities and skilfully investigates how change and continuity are governed in postwar urban spaces. The book provides rich empirical material from the cities of Mostar, Mitrovica and Belfast, drawing on nuanced fieldwork insights.”Stefanie Kappler, Durham University, UK
“Ivan Gusic sets out a powerful, theoretically critical and empirically rich account of the trajectories of cities after war. The strength of the work is that it brings an understanding of the urban condition into relation with ethno-national conflict and the survival of violence. Gusic unsettles dominant narratives in peace studies by offering a grounded evaluation of three cities coming out of violence and points to the importance of place in peacebuilding processes.”Brendan Murtagh, Queen’s University Belfast
This interdisciplinary book explores why the postwar city reinforces rather than transcends its continuities of war in peace. It begins by theorising war-to-peace transitions as essentially contestations over what peace is and how to socio-politically order society and then proceeds to analyse different urban conflicts over peace(s) in postwar Belfast (Northern Ireland), Mitrovica (Kosovo) and Mostar (Bosnia-Herzegovina). Focusing on diverse themes such as segregated education, clientelism, fear, paramilitaries, and built environment, it shows how conflict lines from war – as well as its violence, repression, and disorder – are continuously perpetuated in and by the postwar city. Yet it also discovers glimpses of critical voices that try to bridge the antagonistic divides permeating the postwar city by utilising its transcending potential. This book is written in the nexus between peace research and urban studies, but will also appeal to scholars within political geography, international relations, political science, urban planning, governmentality studies, and anthropology.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Chapter 1. The Postwar City

Abstract

Postwar cities, where war is over yet the socio-political ordering of society remains contested, tend to be highly unstable flashpoints in war-to-peace transitions as well as where the starkest continuities of war in peace are located. This often makes them unsafe and problematic for citizens to live in, dysfunctional as cities, and Gordian knots of wider peace processes. Here the principal research problem of this book emerges. “The city” is namely often theorised and historically proven to have great potential to transcend societal divides, bridge communities, and foster coexistence. “The postwar city”, however, fulfils little to none of this potential. This book takes departure from this unfulfilled potential and focuses on why the continuities of war in peace are reinforced rather than transcended in the postwar city. This chapter introduces and contextualises the principal research problem that the postwar city constitutes and provides an outline of the book.

Ivan Gusic

Chapter 2. Studying the Postwar City Through Urban Conflicts over Peace(s)

Abstract

This chapter theorises the postwar city in order to enable its study. It first theorises the postwar as not the given and linear transition from war to a universal and objective peace, but rather as permeated by conflicts over peace(s) in which heterogeneous and subjective peace(s) strive to socio-politically order society in diametrically different ways. The city is then theorised as constituted by heterogeneity, density, openness and permeability, and centrality within its wider socio-political context while functioning through mixing, conflict, accommodation, creativity, and fragmentation. This unique combination makes it a research object—in the sense that it affects the nature of whatever research foci might be of interest—as well as gives it potential to both transcend and reinforce continuities of war in peace. The postwar city is subsequently theorised as a city where war is over yet the socio-political ordering of society remains contested through urban conflicts over peace(s).

Ivan Gusic

Chapter 3. Three Approaches to Urban Conflicts over Peace(s)

Abstract

This chapter first argues that urban conflicts over peace(s) in the postwar city should be studied through the acts, governing, and spaces underpinning them. It then theorises negotiating agency, governmentality, and relational space as concepts apt for analysing these dimensions. Negotiating agency sees acts are the result of open-ended and constantly on-going negotiations between the subject and the world in which it exists. The key to understanding acts therefore lies neither in the subject nor the world, but in the negotiation between the two underpinning the act itself. Governmentality understands governing as about structuring the field of possible acts for collectives—effectively meaning that anything making collectives choose A instead of B is considered governing. Relational space in turn builds on the notion that space is neither given nor passive to but rather both produced by and productive of society. The chapter ends with some notes on research design.

Ivan Gusic

Chapter 4. Contesting Postwar Mostar

Abstract

This chapter employs negotiating agency on postwar Mostar (Bosnia-Herzegovina) to understand acts come about in its urban conflicts over peace(s). The first line of analysis uses a feature film about the city to explore the negotiation between Slavko (who wants to act in line with the coexisting peace) and a world that enforces the ethnonational—Bosniak and Croat—peace(s). The generated insights on how difficult it to pursue coexisting acts in an ethnonationalist world are then contextualised in non-fiction Mostar where two foci emerge: compliance with as well as resistance towards the ethnonational peace(s) by people supporting the coexisting one. The second line of analysis subsequently explores how the ethnonational grip on employment and the segregated education system drives people towards ethnonational acts while the third line of analysis explores how students at the Old Gymnasium as well as activists at Abrašević manage to negotiate coexisting acts.

Ivan Gusic

Chapter 5. Contesting Postwar Mitrovica

Abstract

This chapter employs governmentality on postwar Mitrovica (Kosovo) to understand how different governing attempts structure the field of possible acts for collectives in its urban conflicts over peace(s). The first line of analysis explores how Belgrade uses its parallel institutions—which encompass everything from healthcare and education to undercover police and criminal networks—to enable, encourage, and pressure Serbs to resist integration into Kosovo in line with the Serb ethnonational peace. The second line of analyses explores how fear governs people on both sides of Mitrovica’s Ibar river into ethnonational division—according to both the Albanian and Serb ethnonational peace(s)—where “the other” is avoided and “our side” (of the city) is protected. The third line of analyses lastly explores the inability of external governing attempts to govern Albanians and Serbs towards coexistence, showing how it is either inefficient or even counterproductive.

Ivan Gusic

Chapter 6. Contesting Postwar Belfast

Abstract

This chapter employs relational space on postwar Belfast (Northern Ireland) to understand the role of space in its urban conflicts over peace(s). The focus is both on how society produces and how it is produced by space in its material, perceived, and lived dimensions. The first line of analysis explores how Belfast’s seemingly given ethnonational geography is not “just there”, but—in contrast—is actively produced by those supporting the Catholic and Protestant ethnonational peace(s). This production happens through everything from erecting flags and painting murals to spreading fear of “the other” or clustering into “our/their” residential areas. The second line of analysis explores how Belfast’s built environment—e.g. its peacewalls and defensive architecture, its houses and roads, and its city centre—“talks back” to society by actively producing ethnonational and socioeconomic divisions that in turn support the ethnonational and normalising peace(s) whilst undermining the coexisting one.

Ivan Gusic

Chapter 7. Conclusions

Abstract

This conclusion combines insights from the analysed of urban conflicts over peace(s) to answer the principal research question. The subsequent argument is that the postwar city reinforces rather than transcends its continuities of war into peace because urban conflicts over peace(s) attack its transcending potential and enhance its destructive potential while the city itself—untouched by postwar contestation—is destructive towards war-to-peace transitions. Yet the chapter also focuses on complementary explanations such as the routinisation of division and the impossibility to combine certain peace(s). It additionally presents an alternative picture of the postwar city by demonstrating that it also transcends its continuities of war in peace. The wider conclusions drawn from this ambiguity is that the postwar city is inherently Janus-faced, that it has a significant transcending potential, that there are no easy solutions to its problems, and that its unique situation necessitates cooperation between peace research and urban studies.

Ivan Gusic

Backmatter

Titel: Contesting Peace in the Postwar City
verfasst von: Ivan Gusic
Verlag: Springer International Publishing
Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-28091-8
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-28090-1
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28091-8