An Ethnographic Approach to Peacebuilding: Understanding Local Experiences in Transitional States by Gearoid Millar

Excerpt

In An Ethnographic Approach to Peacebuilding. Understanding local experiences in transitional states, Gearoid Millar proposes an original ethnographic approach to evaluate international peacebuilding interventions, which in turn provide us with a new explanation for why peacebuilding often fails to achieve its intended objectives in post-conflict societies. Based on extensive fieldwork in Sierra Leone, the author demonstrates the importance of what he terms “experiential peacebuilding” to understand how local people experience and are impacted by international interventions. The book asks key questions, including: What are the local community’s experiences of international interventions for building peace? What do peacebuilding projects do for the local people? Do peacebuilding projects deliver what they claim to, including reconciliation, democracy, peace, and justice? Can international peacebuilding projects be emancipatory for the local people? …