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Intersectionality refers to how multiple factors or systems of power and oppressionsuch as gender, race, class, age, and sexualityintersect in defining the societal structures and people's lived experiences. In conflict-affected societies, intersectionality helps in understanding not only the kinds of violence people might suffer but also the varied interests, needs, agencies, and views toward what constitutes inclusive and sustainable peace. This approach, however, has so far largely been absent in both peace research and peacebuilding practice.

Looking beyond and beneath the macro level, this special issue is interested in the processes and outcomes of the interaction of economic reforms, socioeconomic peacebuilding programmes and international interventions with people's lived realities. Despite decades of international involvement, many of the debates about peacebuilding and conflict prevention are still detached from the basic livelihoods and everyday concerns of citizens in conflict-affected societies. While the formerly strict distinction between conflict-related and development efforts has been problematised and rethought in recent decades (Duffield 2007, Mac Ginty and Williams 2009), the (socio-)economic aspects of peace formation still remain on the margins of the discussion. For instance, the 2016 report of the joint United Nations Development Programme/Department of Political Affairs Programme on Building National Capacities for Conflict Prevention 1 barely mentions economic aspects of peace, entirely omitting any mention of the word 'economy' (UNDP 2017). This is puzzling considering the strong focus of the United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development on socioeconomic matters, including poverty, hunger, decent work, economic growth, reduced inequalities and their intersection with peace and justice. 2 This special issue begins to fill this research gap. We argue that disregarding socioeconomic aspects of peace and how they relate to people's everyday lives leaves a vacuum in our understanding of peace, particularly a just and sustainable peace, and the formation of post-conflict economies. We define 'postconflict economy formation' as a multifaceted phenomenon, including both formal and informal processes that occur in the post-conflict period and contribute to the introduction, adjustment or abolition of economic practices, institutions and rules that inform the transformation of the socioeconomic fabric of the society. It is influenced by socioeconomic legacies from before CONTACT Birte Vogel

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