Lives Amid Violence

World Bank Fragility Forum: Unseen Forces: Realizing Resilience through Behaviors and Connections
2024-02-28 13:30 - 14:30 UTC | World Bank
This session, hosted by Busara, explores the frontier edges of resilience research and thinking (particularly as it relates to peacebuilding) through a conceptually stimulating discussion that explicitly challenges our mental and institutional models. Resilience to conflict and violence has become a prominent concept in programming. Yet is often unseen, contextually- and culturally specific, and difficult to accurately measure. Resilience in situations of fragility emerges through what people actually do: how they interact, the choices they make based on the resources they have at their disposal, and the behaviors those choices and relationships create. In addition, resilience is aided or hindered by societies’ functioning, and by the trust that exists between different groups and communities. Understanding this relational and ‘doing’ aspect of resilience is fundamental to operationalising more targeted approaches to support it, and to prevent undermining it. Throughout this session, speakers will address some of the principles of a relational and processual approach to resilience and what the implications of this are for development actors who seek to support resilience in complex environments.
Moderator:
Michael Woolcock, World Bank and Harvard University
Speakers:

Patrick Barron, Global Lead for Social Cohesion and Resilience, World Bank
Sara Batmanglich, Senior Operations Officer – Strategy & Analytics, Resilience and FCV, World Bank
Lucy Rist, University of Southern Denmark
Mareike Schomerus, Vice President, Busara; author of Lives Amid Violence: Transforming Development in the Wake of Conflict (2023).

Lives Amid Violence: Transforming Development in the Wake of Conflict
2024-02-20 15:00 - 16:30 UTC | George Mason University, 3434 Washington Boulevard, Floor 5, Suite 5000, Room 5183, Arlington, VA, United States

Book Talk: Lives Amid Violence
2024-02-15 12:00 - 13:30 UTC | School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University

Lives Amid Violence: Transforming Development in the Wake of Conflict
2024-02-01 13:45 - 15:00 (Europe/Paris) | University of Gothenburg, University of Gothenburg School of Global Studies, Institutionen för globala studier, Sweden

Lives Amid Violence: Transforming Development in the Wake of Conflict
2023-12-06 17:30 - 19:00 UTC | Room S209, Senate House, SOAS, London
International engagement in situations of violent conflict—or in the presumed aftermath—sets these situations up for a never-ending violent path. This is a bold claim, but one that a decade of a major research consortium (the Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium), which conducted longitudinal empirical multi-method work in eight conflict-affected countries, supports. In Lives Amid Violence: Transforming Development in the Wake of Conflict (Bloomsbury, 2023), Mareike Schomerus sets out a vision for what international engagement in situations of violent conflict needs to look like. The book posits that what is required is a new mental model to underpins international engagement that moves away from stabilization, statebuilding and economic growth policies towards emphasising the invisible elements of what the author calls ‘the mental landscape’ and an empirically-grounded relational approach. This requires a deep questioning of not just the practices of international development, but the underpinning beliefs, imagery, metaphors and ideologies.
The book is available open access at www.transformingdevelopment.org.

Book Launch Nairobi: Lives Amid Violence Transforming Development in the Wake of Conflict
2023-11-30 16:00 - 18:00 (Europe/Moscow) | British Institute in East Africa, Laikipia Road, Kileleshwa, Nairobi, Kenya
On 30 November 2023, the Rift Valley Forum, in collaboarion with the British Institute in Eastern Africa (BIEA) and the French Institute for Research in Africa (IFRA) in Nairobi, will launch a book by Mareike Schomerus, titled Lives Amid Violence: Transforming Development in the Wake of Conflict. Drawing on a decade of research across eight countries by the Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium, the book challenges traditional approaches to development in conflict contexts.
Schomerus argues that, in conflict situations, violence may be the least disruptive element in people’s lives. It is the invisible elements of what she calls ‘the mental landscape’ that are the most important parts to pay attention to, such as memories and narratives.
The author questions the idea that state legitimacy can be achieved through service delivery. Instead, she advocates for a genuine shift towards more creative cooperation, emphasizing an empirically-grounded relational approach that prioritises relationships over everything else and a profound questioning not only of international development practices but also of the underlying beliefs, imagery, metaphors, and ideologies.
Moderator
Asha Jaffer
Speakers
Mareike Schomerus
Author & Vice President, Busara Center
Leben Moro
University of Juba
Patrick Milabyo
Bukavu High Institute of Medical Technique
Michael Onsando
Poet
Register here.

The problem with bricks: Statebuilding and mental models
2023-09-13 09:00 - 10:30 UTC | King’s College
Conflict Research Society Conference 2023
Panel 4F – S3.30
Rethinking the Process: New Approaches to Peacebuilding
Chair: Meredith Carbonell
● Paper 1: Ali Altiok, Artificial Intelligence and Peacemaking
● Paper 2: Meredith Carbonell, Mediation After Mass Atrocities
● Paper 3: Isabel Philips, Dispute, the state and commercial actors: Mandating mediation for others vs using it yourself
● Paper 4: Mareike Schomerus, The problem with bricks: Statebuilding and mental models

Workshop: Changing Mental Models in International Conflict Engagement
2023-09-11 09:00 - 12:30 UTC | King’s College
Mental Models in International Conflict Engagement
International engagement in situations of violent conflict—or in the presumed aftermath—sets these situations up for a never-ending violent path. The most recent and painful examples of this are events in Myanmar and Sudan, with the situation rapidly deteriorating in other places, for example Tunisia. That international engagement has a part to play in the return to violence is a bold claim, but one that a decade of a major research consortium (the Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium SLRC), which conducted longitudinal empirical multi-method work in eight conflict-affected countries, supports.
In book Lives Amid Violence: Transforming Development in the Wake of Conflict (Bloomsbury 2023, open access), Mareike Schomerus (who was one of the SLRC’s research directors) shows why a new mental model that underpins international engagement is required. Mental models, a concept rooted in behavioural science, are the fundamental short cuts that all humans use to make sense of the world around them, to establish the causality that seems plausible to them, and to shape their engagement. This interactive workshop is designed following behavioural learning principles and is particularly aimed at peacebuilding practitioners and programme designers (and welcomes researchers) and offers two related trainings:
1. It breaks down the empirical research that shows the flawed mental model in action (for example by showing how an economic growth models overlooks how social economies really work, how violence can often be the least disruptive element of lives in conflict situations, to what extent the invisible elements of the so-called ‘the mental landscape’ are the most important parts to pay attention to, and how current understandings of identity and identity-based targeting of populations obscure the burdens of categorisation.
2. It then offers an interactive introduction to understanding how mental models are created, how they link to the latest research in behavioural science and how this can be put to use in understanding and engaging in conflict situations. It elaborates how a mental model revision (and the challenges this poses) allows unpacking the underpinning beliefs, imagery, metaphors and ideologies that stand in the way of more constructive engagement.
Upon concluding this workshop, participants will be able to
– Recognize basic concepts in behavioural science, including mental models;
– differentiate between standard and behavioural approaches as applied in the analysis of or the engagement in situations of violent conflict;
– articulate the specifics of common mental models in conflict engagement;
– critique the mental models that profoundly shape peacebuilding or conflict-engagement work; and
– Have a better understanding of the implications of the UN’s commitment to mainstream behavioural science in all its programmes.

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)
