Introduction

Brusset, Emery; Coning, Cedric De; Hughes, Bryn

doi:10.1057/978-1-137-60111-7_1

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…These critical engagements with the concept of complexity are, to a large extent, informed by complexity theory debates. While some are only loosely informed by such theories (Moe, 2015; Tamminen, 2016), others contribute actively to theory-building for peacebuilding along the lines of complexity theory (Brusset et al, 2016; Cilliers and Preiser, 2010; Geyer and Pickering, 2011) or rely on peacebuilding empirics to contribute to new conceptualizations of complexity theory itself (Coleman, 2006). While there is no singular theory of complexity, but rather an assemblage of different approaches to complex systems, the perspectives engaged with in this article share a common interest in using the unpredictable nature of the outcomes of social processes as a starting point for continuous processes of experimentation and readjustment.…”

Section: Realizing Complexity In Critical Peacebuilding Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Reframing agency in complexity-sensitive peacebuilding

Randazzo

Torrent

2020

Security Dialogue

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article examines how the growing complexity of peacebuilding settings is transforming the classic notion of purposeful agency into a non-purposeful, adaptive form of being in such contexts. Through an analysis of critical peacebuilding literature and a reflection on the UN’s peacebuilding practices in the field, the article first argues that complexity has been gradually replacing linear, top-down strategies with approaches seeking to draw attention to interdependencies, relationality and uncertainty. The article then suggests that engaging with complexity has critical implications for the traditional understanding of purposeful agency in the peacebuilding milieu that go beyond those of the governmentality critique, which conceptualizes the complexity turn as a strategy for extending control over post-conflict societies. Complexity is eventually conceived of in the article as a performative contextual quality that stems from the non-linear, co-emergent and unpredictable entanglement of interactions between actors in peacebuilding processes. This state of entanglement hinders the autonomous, purposeful agential condition of these actors in war-torn scenarios – in this article, peacebuilding implementers specifically – in which agency seems more and more restricted to its adaptive nature.

show abstract