Lives Amid Violence

Lives Amid Violence: A Conversation with Mareike Schomerus
2023-05-09 12:30 - 13:30 UTC | The Keller Center, Sky Suite, 1307 East 60th Street, Chicago, IL, 60637, United States

Special Sadat Book Chat in Collaboration with CIDCM and MAIR, University of Maryland at College Park
2023-04-21 12:00 - 13:15 (America/New_York) | Taliaferro Hall (Berlin Room), University of Maryland at College Park, College Park, MD, MD, United States
The Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development is pleased to announce a special Sadat Book Chat in collaboration with CIDCM and MAIR, inviting Dr. Mareike Schomerus, Vice President of the Busara Center, to discuss her new book Lives Amid Violence: Transforming Development in the Wake of Conflict.
The Sadat Book Chat is a book conversation series hosted by the Sadat Chair in order to showcase publications by the department’s faculty, and occasionally others, and to generate a broader conversation.
The event will be on Friday, April 21st from 12:00-1:15pm in 2110 Taliaferro Hall (Berlin Room). This event will be in person and boxed lunches will be provided. Please RSVP for this book chat here: https://forms.gle/vNGH7iJQF5xSS6ew5
If you have any questions, please contact Kirsten at sadatoffice@umd.edu or 301-405-6734.

Changing Aid Conference
2023-04-20 12:30 - 17:00 UTC | American University, Washington, DC, United States

Panel Discussion: The State of the Art on Statebuilding (FB18)
2023-03-17 10:30 - 12:15 (America/New_York) | Ballroom West A, Le Centre Sheraton Montreal Hotel, Canada
The 2021 fall of Kabul to the Taliban has led both scholars and practitioners to question what is really known about international statebuilding. For almost three decades, international statebuilding has been one of the dominant forms of international engagement with conflict-affected states. Scholars have studied it extensively, although from often-dispersed disciplinary and epistemological perspectives. As a result, our cumulative knowledge on statebuilding and our ability to explain its successes and failures is surprisingly splintered. The papers on this panel consider the political dynamics, processes, and outcomes associated with a range of different types of statebuilding — from international interventions and security partnerships to rebel governance transitions — through different ontological, epistemological, and methodological prisms. Collectively, they seek to answer a set of questions about our cumulated knowledge on international statebuilding, including: Given that statebuilding is an endogenous process, regardless of who is involved, what is the difference between top-down and bottom-up approaches? Why are conceptual models of statebuilding so sticky in the face of persistent failure? By addressing these and other questions, this panel aims to help integrate the fractured knowledge on international statebuilding, how it is practiced, and what conditions its successes and failures around the world.

Keywords:
Legitimacy; Statebuilding; Afghanistan; Peacebuilding; Capacity (State/Governmental)

Participants

Discussant: Megan Stewart (University of Michigan)
Author: Naazneen Barma (University of Denver)
Author: Susanna P. Campbell (American University)
Author: Aila M. Matanock (University of California, Berkeley)
Author: Christine Cheng (King’s College London)
Author: Romain Malejacq (Radboud University Nijmegen)
Author: Jessica R. Piombo (Naval Postgraduate School)
Author: Pierre Englebert (Pomona College)
Author: Mareike Schomerus (The Busara Center)

The Problem with Bricks: Statebuilding and Mental Models

People:

Author: Mareike Schomerus (The Busara Center)

Sponsored By:

International Security Studies

Abstract:
Despite efforts to reimagine what international engagement in fragile and conflict-affected situations might need to look like, moves towards genuinely changing the mental models that underpin such engagements have been largely unsuccessful. This paper argues—drawing on ten years of research with the Secure Livelihoods Consortium (SLRC)—that one reason for the continued repetition of established patterns of institution-building, stabilisation and supporting service delivery by governments with the aim to establish greater credibility with citizens is the mental model that underpins such engagement. Western engagement is driven by imagery of the construction ground, of architectural blueprints, of predictability and causality. The mental model also continues to champion modernisation theory and neoliberal economics, both of which assume that, brick by brick, a particular kind of institutions and economic models will create a free market with trickle down effects. These assumptions have not held true and require revision. Changing international notions of statebuilding is thus not a matter of tweaking existing approaches towards context-appropriateness or sequencing: It requires a whole new vision of international development.

Keywords:
Critical Security Studies; Institutions; Statebuilding

Author's Corner: Lives Amid Violence: Transforming Development in the Wake of Conflict
2023-03-17 09:15 - 10:15 (America/New_York) | ISA Montreal
In ‘Lives Amid Violence: Transforming Development in the Wake of Conflict’ (Bloomsbury Academic, 2023), Mareike Schomerus sets out a new vision for what international engagement in situations of violent conflict needs to look like. Drawing on ten years of a major research consortium (the Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium), which conducted longitudinal empirical multi-method work in eight conflict-affected countries, the book puts a number of bold claims to its critics: it posits that the mental models of stabilization and statebuilding set conflict situations on a never-ending violent path, that economic growth models overlook how social economies really work, that violence can often be the least disruptive element of lives in conflict situations, that the invisible elements of what the author calls ‘the mental landscape’ are the most important parts to pay attention to, and that current understandings of identity and identity-based targeting of populations shies away from a more honest discussion about the burdens of categorisation. Putting into question the past decades of international engagement in conflict situations, it turns on its heads the notion of service delivery to achieve legitimacy and suggests a genuine turn towards more creative cooperation by calling for an empirically-grounded relational approach and a deep questioning of not just the practices of international development, but the underpinning beliefs, imagery, metaphors and ideologies.

Author meets critics: Lives Amid Violence: Transforming Development in the Wake of Conflict
2023-03-16 16:00 - 17:30 (America/New_York) | 71-Copier, Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth, Montreal, Canada
International Studies Association Annual Meeting
Panel TD71
Sponsored By:
Real Struggles, High Stakes: Cooperation, Contention, and Creativity (Theme)
Participants:
Chair: Jessica R. Piombo (Naval Postgraduate School)
Participant: Naazneen Barma (University of Denver)
Participant: Larissa Fast (HCRI, University of Manchester)
Participant: David Chandler (University of Westminster)
Participant: Linda S. Bishai (Elliott School of International Affairs, GWU)
Discussant: Mareike Schomerus (The Busara Center)

Book Talk: Lives Amid Violence: Transforming Development in the Wake of Conflict
2023-01-24 12:00 - 13:00 (Asia/Kolkata) | Ashoka University, AC02-205, Sonipat, Haryana, 131029, India

Fireside Peace Chat
2022-12-19 18:00 - 19:30 UTC
Fireside Peace Chat at Universiteit Leiden University College The Hague
Monday, December 19, 2022.
18 – 19.30 (with drinks and oliebollen!)
https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/events/2022/12/fireside-peace-chats—19-december-2022
Hosted by the Knowledge Platform for Security and Rule of Law and Universiteit Leiden University College The Hague

The C in SBCC: Contradictions
2022-12-08 19:00 - 21:00 UTC | Marrakech
Over the years, the SBCC community has curated several novel approaches to understanding people’s behaviours and creative ways to influence them. Communications in the SBCC terminology holds special importance and we have witnessed several success stories of effective use of posters, media, edutainment and the likes to drive impact, be it in the space of global health, education, governance or influencing gender norms. That said, the SBCC world sometimes exposes us to some contradictions: we push for a participatory approach without relinquishing control of our ideas; we talk about the power of youth but also attach skepticism to it given the multiple, often conflicting, identities that youth embodies; we talk about localised approaches and external validity in the same breath. These are just a few of the contradictions we face as part of our work, and there are many more. Through a fun ‘pecha-kucha’ style warm up exercise to hear thoughts on some of these contradictions, this session will be a world-cafe style, free flowing discussion. Participants will walk around the room to debate and contribute to a facilitated discussion around the top five themes of contradictions identified by the participants. We see this session as a way to spark conversation, as a starting point that would feed into the dialogue of shaping up the future of SBCC.

Code of Ethics for Social and Behaviour Change: From Theory to Practice
2022-12-04 13:00 - 17:00 UTC | Marrakech
Co-hosted by UNICEF and the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR), the Global Alliance for Social and Behaviour Change (GA4SBC) will host a 3-hour interactive session to explore the policies and practices needed to promote an SBC Code of Ethics’ values. The session also will highlight measures to ensure benefits and address challenges during implementation. The session will focus on three topics: 1) Power and manipulation: avoidance of abuse of power and dominant power position (power elites) + dialogue, also including neo-colonialism and gender; 2) Behavioural Insights and nudge theory and practice; and 3) The debate about building business value vs. values within the local communities. The session will consist of panel discussions that is followed by breakout groups where participants will have the opportunity to discuss a “good practice”. The session will end with a report-out and an open discussion. The Global Alliance will circulate a summary report highlighting all the ideas presented at this event and promoting awareness of the topics discussed.

Webinar with USAID's Local Systems Community
2022-12-01 09:00 - 10:00 (America/New_York) | Webinar
When Systems and International Engagement Clash (invitation only)
