Annika Björkdahl | Lund University (original) (raw)
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Papers by Annika Björkdahl
Palgrave Macmillan eBooks, 2016
Routledge eBooks, Nov 25, 2016
Nordic Academic Press eBooks, Jan 3, 2012
Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, Oct 20, 2022
Routledge eBooks, Jul 30, 2020
This article explores the EU’s efforts to reunify and reconstruct Mostar through the seminal expe... more This article explores the EU’s efforts to reunify and reconstruct Mostar through the seminal experiment of EUAM (1994-1996), which combined peacebuilding with urban reconstruction in an innovative way. The aims is to identify lessons to be learned from the experiences of EUAM that can assist the EU to adjust its peacebuilding approach to better address divides in cities such as Nicosia and Belfast where the EU currently is engaged. Cities divided by violent conflict tend to freeze the conflict, as they remained divided regardless of a conflict settlement, and they become serious obstacles to peace and a challenge to peacebuilding. Far too little is known about the role of urban space in building peace in ethno-nationally contested cities. By marrying critical urban studies with critical peacebuilding literature this article brings novelty to EU-studies and advances our understanding of the EU’s role in peacebuilding as well as in the Western Balkans. (Less)
Edward Elgar eBooks, 2019
The program, consisting of several separate but connected research projects, aims to answer the q... more The program, consisting of several separate but connected research projects, aims to answer the question of how state-making and the international system co-evolved in the long 19 th century (1789-1914) and beyond. The program is constructed around three research themes: (1) How did the different dimensions of state-making evolve? What actors and organized interests supported or put up resistance to these processes?; (2) How were these dimensions of state-making affected by geopolitical competition, warfare and the diffusion of novel political technologies?; and (3) What were the consequences for the international system, both with respect to the type of state that emerged and what entities were granted membership in the state system? The program aims to bridge the gaps between comparative politics and IR, as well as those between the study of political thought and positive empirical political science. The research has been made possible by the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation (Riksbankens Jubileumsfond).
Conceptually, this paper is about make-believe states and how such state is a socially constructe... more Conceptually, this paper is about make-believe states and how such state is a socially constructed space, imagined and performed by those who perceive themselves as belonging to that state. It asks through what imaginaries and performative practices does a state come into being? Make-believe is here employed as an analytical category to refer both to the work of the imagination and to the materiality of performance. More specifically, the paper investigates how the imagined state is performed during war hoping to offer insights to the co-constitution of war and the state, and to the entangled processes of war–making and state-making. The analysis of the make-believe state and its suspended state-building process sharpens our eyes to the make-believe quality of every state and may provide insights to what it is that makes a state believable. It may also shed light on the constitutive relationship between war-making on one hand and state-making or state-breaking on the other, as it explores an embryotic process of crafting a state in the midst of war. Empirically, this paper investigates the statebuilding process of Republika Srpska (RS) through the conceptual lens of the make-believe state. Here RS figures both as a real space to be described empirically, and as an example of a make-believe state to be conceptually explored. In particular it reads the irredentism of RS to justify its territorial claims on the basis of real or imagined historic or ethnic affiliations within the context of the dissolution of Yugoslavia and the parallel statebuilding projects that remade the Western Balkans. (Less)
Cooperation and Conflict, Sep 1, 2022
Nordic Academic Press eBooks, Feb 8, 2015
This paper will take into consideration scientific literature as well as institutional documents ... more This paper will take into consideration scientific literature as well as institutional documents in order to outline the present situation of the educational system in Bosnia and Herzegovina. A particular focus will be put on the Interface between politics and religion, as authorities of the latter hold many interests in controlling the education sector. The centuries-old tradition of cultural and religious coexistence in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has been disappearing rapidly since the beginning of the Yugoslav war in 1992. As a matter of fact, the war destroyed multicultural acceptance. In the case of BiH, 'ethnicities' have been forged in order to justify politicaleconomic interests, despite a cultural common background. It is for this reason that it would be more appropriate to use the term "entities" rather than "ethnicities", as historically speaking the three groups share common roots. The case study of the "two schools under one roof" constitutes the worst example of discrimination within the educational environment of BiH. This system sees some school buildings of BiH providing different spaces and curricula for students belonging to different entities. Even though the project was meant to be temporary (OSCE formulated the project in 2000 in order to cope with the highly problematic situation at stake in some areas of the country), it seems that this strategy will persist, for authorities and parents alike have shown no intention to abandon it. It should also be said that the segregated system affects not only students, but teachers as well, as their appointment keeps been carried out on ethnic criteria.
Rethinking peace and conflict studies, Nov 25, 2017
This chapter reflects upon our feminist approach to narrative ethnographic research and how we ex... more This chapter reflects upon our feminist approach to narrative ethnographic research and how we explore the production and circulation of gendered stories in post-war societies. The illustrative case is wartime rape in Bosnia-Herzegovina during the 1992–1995 war. For ethical reasons we rely on women survivors’ accounts of their experiences in order to study how they narratively construct their social worlds and their positions within them. We discuss the practice of “enquiry-as-bricolage” and how narratives produced at diverse sites and by various agents can be put in dialogue with each other—courtroom narratives produced at the ICTY, published life stories, narratives produced at the Women’s Court, interviews with “gatekeepers”, and narratives collected through “being-in-place”—and reflected upon from the positionality of “the vulnerable observer”.
Palgrave Macmillan eBooks, 2016
Routledge eBooks, Nov 25, 2016
Nordic Academic Press eBooks, Jan 3, 2012
Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, Oct 20, 2022
Routledge eBooks, Jul 30, 2020
This article explores the EU’s efforts to reunify and reconstruct Mostar through the seminal expe... more This article explores the EU’s efforts to reunify and reconstruct Mostar through the seminal experiment of EUAM (1994-1996), which combined peacebuilding with urban reconstruction in an innovative way. The aims is to identify lessons to be learned from the experiences of EUAM that can assist the EU to adjust its peacebuilding approach to better address divides in cities such as Nicosia and Belfast where the EU currently is engaged. Cities divided by violent conflict tend to freeze the conflict, as they remained divided regardless of a conflict settlement, and they become serious obstacles to peace and a challenge to peacebuilding. Far too little is known about the role of urban space in building peace in ethno-nationally contested cities. By marrying critical urban studies with critical peacebuilding literature this article brings novelty to EU-studies and advances our understanding of the EU’s role in peacebuilding as well as in the Western Balkans. (Less)
Edward Elgar eBooks, 2019
The program, consisting of several separate but connected research projects, aims to answer the q... more The program, consisting of several separate but connected research projects, aims to answer the question of how state-making and the international system co-evolved in the long 19 th century (1789-1914) and beyond. The program is constructed around three research themes: (1) How did the different dimensions of state-making evolve? What actors and organized interests supported or put up resistance to these processes?; (2) How were these dimensions of state-making affected by geopolitical competition, warfare and the diffusion of novel political technologies?; and (3) What were the consequences for the international system, both with respect to the type of state that emerged and what entities were granted membership in the state system? The program aims to bridge the gaps between comparative politics and IR, as well as those between the study of political thought and positive empirical political science. The research has been made possible by the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation (Riksbankens Jubileumsfond).
Conceptually, this paper is about make-believe states and how such state is a socially constructe... more Conceptually, this paper is about make-believe states and how such state is a socially constructed space, imagined and performed by those who perceive themselves as belonging to that state. It asks through what imaginaries and performative practices does a state come into being? Make-believe is here employed as an analytical category to refer both to the work of the imagination and to the materiality of performance. More specifically, the paper investigates how the imagined state is performed during war hoping to offer insights to the co-constitution of war and the state, and to the entangled processes of war–making and state-making. The analysis of the make-believe state and its suspended state-building process sharpens our eyes to the make-believe quality of every state and may provide insights to what it is that makes a state believable. It may also shed light on the constitutive relationship between war-making on one hand and state-making or state-breaking on the other, as it explores an embryotic process of crafting a state in the midst of war. Empirically, this paper investigates the statebuilding process of Republika Srpska (RS) through the conceptual lens of the make-believe state. Here RS figures both as a real space to be described empirically, and as an example of a make-believe state to be conceptually explored. In particular it reads the irredentism of RS to justify its territorial claims on the basis of real or imagined historic or ethnic affiliations within the context of the dissolution of Yugoslavia and the parallel statebuilding projects that remade the Western Balkans. (Less)
Cooperation and Conflict, Sep 1, 2022
Nordic Academic Press eBooks, Feb 8, 2015
This paper will take into consideration scientific literature as well as institutional documents ... more This paper will take into consideration scientific literature as well as institutional documents in order to outline the present situation of the educational system in Bosnia and Herzegovina. A particular focus will be put on the Interface between politics and religion, as authorities of the latter hold many interests in controlling the education sector. The centuries-old tradition of cultural and religious coexistence in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has been disappearing rapidly since the beginning of the Yugoslav war in 1992. As a matter of fact, the war destroyed multicultural acceptance. In the case of BiH, 'ethnicities' have been forged in order to justify politicaleconomic interests, despite a cultural common background. It is for this reason that it would be more appropriate to use the term "entities" rather than "ethnicities", as historically speaking the three groups share common roots. The case study of the "two schools under one roof" constitutes the worst example of discrimination within the educational environment of BiH. This system sees some school buildings of BiH providing different spaces and curricula for students belonging to different entities. Even though the project was meant to be temporary (OSCE formulated the project in 2000 in order to cope with the highly problematic situation at stake in some areas of the country), it seems that this strategy will persist, for authorities and parents alike have shown no intention to abandon it. It should also be said that the segregated system affects not only students, but teachers as well, as their appointment keeps been carried out on ethnic criteria.
Rethinking peace and conflict studies, Nov 25, 2017
This chapter reflects upon our feminist approach to narrative ethnographic research and how we ex... more This chapter reflects upon our feminist approach to narrative ethnographic research and how we explore the production and circulation of gendered stories in post-war societies. The illustrative case is wartime rape in Bosnia-Herzegovina during the 1992–1995 war. For ethical reasons we rely on women survivors’ accounts of their experiences in order to study how they narratively construct their social worlds and their positions within them. We discuss the practice of “enquiry-as-bricolage” and how narratives produced at diverse sites and by various agents can be put in dialogue with each other—courtroom narratives produced at the ICTY, published life stories, narratives produced at the Women’s Court, interviews with “gatekeepers”, and narratives collected through “being-in-place”—and reflected upon from the positionality of “the vulnerable observer”.
There has been no sustained inquiry into the relationship linking peace and conflict with space a... more There has been no sustained inquiry into the relationship linking peace and conflict with space and place. This innovative edited volume explores conflict and peace through spatial approaches, and proposes a new research agenda investigating where peace and conflict take place. All chapters employ space as an analytic category and develop strong theoretical contributions alongside new empirical insights. From battlefields to memorials, places of encounter shape how agents relate to each other and how their actions are enabled or constrained. Moreover, spaces such as the international peacekeepers camps or sites of atrocity would not exist if it were not for the conflict. Drawing on concepts such as spatial governmentality, scalar politics, relational spatial theory and spatial narratives the authors investigate case studies reaching from divided cities such as Belfast, Dili and Jerusalem, via rape camps and karaoke bars, to war-torn countries.
This book aims to understand the processes and outcomes that arise from frictional encounters in ... more This book aims to understand the processes and outcomes that arise from frictional encounters in peacebuilding, when global and local forces meet.
Building a sustainable peace after violent conflict is a process that entails competing ideas, political contestation and transformation of power relations. This volume develops the concept of ‘friction’ to better analyse the interplay between global ideas, actors and practices and their local counterparts. The chapters examine efforts undertaken to promote sustainable peace in a variety of locations, such as Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and Sierra Leone. These cases provide a greater understanding not simply of local processes, or of the hybrid or mixed agencies, ideas and processes that are generated, but of the complex interactions that unfold between all of these elements in the context of peacebuilding intervention. The analyses demonstrate how the ambivalent relationship between global and local actors leads to unintended and sometimes counter-productive results of peacebuilding interventions. The approach of this book, with its focus on friction as a conceptual tool, advances the peacebuilding research agenda and adds to two ongoing debates in the peacebuilding field; the debate on hybridity, and the debate on local agency and local ownership. In analysing frictional encounters this volume prepares the ground for a better understanding of the mixed impact peace initiatives have on post conflict societies.
This book will be of much interest to students of peacebuilding, conflict resolution, security studies and IR in general.