Thursday 17 January 2013

Shared Societies and Armed Conflict: Costs, Inequality and the Benefits of Peace

an article by Patricia Justino (Institute of Development Studies, Brighton, UK; MICROCON – A Micro-Level Analysis of Violent Conflict; and Households in Conflict Network) published in IDS Working Papers Volume 2012 Issue 410 (November 2012)

Summary

This paper examines how the relationship between economic exclusion, inequality, conflict and violence shape the goal of establishing shared societies.

The chapter discusses how this impact is largely determined by the emergence and organisation of social and political institutions in areas of violent conflict.

Two areas of institutional change are central to understanding the relationship between armed conflict and shared societies.
The first is the change caused by armed conflict on social interactions and norms of trust and cooperation.
The second is the influence exercised by informal mediators, informal service providers and informal systems of governance – often controlled by non-state armed actors – that emerge from processes of violence and are prevalent in areas of armed conflict.

These forms of institutional transformation are central to understanding how societies may be able to restrict the use of violence as a strategic way of resolving social conflicts and how to transition from violence-ridden to shared societies.

JEL classifications: D63, D74, O17

Full text (PDF 23pp)

Hazel’s comment:
This item made me think not only of the war-ridden states in Africa and the Middle East but the smaller conflicts that happen within supposedly affluent societies. There is only so far that people can be pushed before they rebel.



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