Project description
Geographies of peace in the wake of violence in the city
Studies have provided valuable insight into the dynamics of urban violence and terrorism but a lot still needs to be learned about urban peace-making. The EU-funded URPEACE project aims to contribute to the knowledge about the peace-building agency of civilian actors in marginalised social housing neighbourhoods that deal with the consequences of terrorist violence in European cities. The approach of this study is novel; it uses a 'geographies of peace' framework to interpret existing and new data on dealing with violence. This approach views peace as an everyday and relational process concerned with the building of ever-expanding networks that share life-affirming rather than life-destroying values. The project's results will help policy makers integrate urban peace-building initiatives of civilian actors into security policy.
Objective
This study aims to contribute to knowledge about peace-building agency of civilian actors in marginalized social-housing neighborhoods that deal with the consequences of terrorist violence in European cities. The bulk of peace and conflict studies literature has provided insight in the dynamics of violence rather than peace. The innovative character of this study therefore is that it interprets existing and new data on dealing with violence with a novel approach, that of geographies of peace. This approach views peace as an everyday and relational process that is concerned with the building of ever-expanding networks that share life-affirming rather than life destructing values. As a result, peace is always in the making and in interaction with, rather than opposite to, violence. This innovative approach breaks with the tendency of peace and conflict studies to focus on the Global South, state processes and armed conflict and makes it very relevant for studying initiatives in European cities that deal with the aftermaths of paroxysmal violence. With the guidance of swisspeace, a leading institute in peace studies, research results will be translated to practice-oriented recommendations with the objective of gaining more insight into how policy-makers can integrate urban peacebuilding initiatives of civilian actors in security policy.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinator
4058 BASEL
Switzerland
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.