Conflict in Cities - Briefing Paper 10 - Urban Conflicts from local to Global (original) (raw)
2000
Cities have always been arenas of social and sym- bolic conflict. As places of encounter between dif- ferent classes, ethnic groups, and lifestyles, cities play the role of powerful integrators; yet on the other hand urban contexts are the ideal setting for marginalization and violence. The struggle over control of urban spaces is an ambivalent mode of sociation: while producing
Understanding the tipping point of urban conflict: global policy report
Manchest er M13 9PL UK www.urbant ippingpoint .or g 1 1 . I n t r od u ct ion This con cept ual paper pr ovides a back gr ound docum ent for t he r esear ch pr oj ect on 'Underst anding t he Tipping Point s of Urban Conflict ' ( UTP) . I t s obj ect ive is t w ofold: first , t o briefly out line t he obj ect ives of t he proj ect ; and second, t o elaborat e on t he concept ual fram ew ork underpinning t he r esear ch. The proj ect is gr ounded in r ecent debat es r elat ing t o conflict and violence, arguing t hat w hile cit ies are inherent ly conflict ual spaces, t his conflict is generally m anaged m or e or less peacefully t hrough a range of social, cult ural and polit ical m echanism s. At t he sam e t im e t he reasons as t o w hy and w hen conflict t ips ov er int o chr onic, gen eralised or ov ert violence in som e cities and not in ot her s are poorly under st ood. Globally increasing levels of violence in cit ies, w het h er based on endem ic gang, crim e or drug-relat ed violence, gender-based at t ack s, et hnic st rife, t er r orism , or out right w arfare, m ak e t his a crit ical issue t o consider, part icularly as it is widely recognised t hat violence has im plicat ions not only for count ry and m et ropolit an level econom ic dev elopm ent , but also for t he livelihoods and w ell-being of t hose poor households and com m unit ies who are oft en at t he front line of urban conflict . Prevent ing and reducing violence is t herefore a key priorit y t o be t aken int o account in designing povert y reduct ion init iat ives and social prot ect ion m easures for t he poor.
Debating contemporary urban conflicts: A survey of selected scholars
Cities, 2013
This survey presents the results of a questionnaire sent to a list of key scholars and professionals in fields related to urban processes and planning – town planning, geography, sociology, architecture and anthropology. The survey raised four simple, straightforward questions. What are the most pressing conflicts with regard to contemporary cities? What are the main fields of action for solving them? How can your discipline contribute with respect to this task? Could you mention an intervention that could serve as an example of that line of work? The response represents a plural and multidisciplinary perspective on contemporary urban issues from which a series of research and intervention perspectives emerges. Keywords: Urban conflict, urban planning, urban geography, urban sociology, urban anthropology, social inequality
Cities, conflict and state fragility
2011
Cities have long been connected with processes of bureaucratisation and state building, as they have been to conflict and war. In bringing these two associations together Charles Tilly (1992) provided a useful analytical linchpin by famously highlighting the interaction between cities and war making as a critical factor in state making. He showed how in early modern Europe urban merchants struck bargains with medieval power brokers when agreeing to help fund wars aimed at extending or consolidating sovereignty. The intersection of cities, states and violent conflict remains significant today, although it manifests in different and more complex ways, particularly under conditions of state fragility.
Comparative Research on Urban Political Conflict: Policy Amidst Polarization
Open Urban Studies Journal. Based on field research in politically contested cities in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, this paper provides a methodological guide to analyzing urban policy in jurisdictions with multiethnic conflict. It seeks to stimulate the intellectual development of comparative conflict studies by illuminating the issues involved in cross-national urban research in troubled settings of ethnic conflict and fragmentation. It describes why scholars must be clear in articulating the types of cities under study and how a specific analytic " lens " can be used to gain access to wider issues of urban govern-ance and policymaking in divided societies. Key urban ethnic conditions-territoriality/control over land, distribution of economic benefits and costs, access to policy-making, and group identity-are described in terms of how they can facilitate or impede the movement toward peaceful coexistence. The paper positions the " city " not as a unitary actor but one that is internally differentiated and externally linked. A comparative analytic framework (" scaffolding ") for cross-national research on urban conflict is then presented. Finally, empirical vignettes from eight contested cities in Spain, the former Yugoslavia, Israel/Palestine, South Africa, Cyprus, and Northern Ireland are provided to highlight how theoretical and conceptual understandings can make sense of case study findings and provide footing for theoretical advances and further case study selection as a multi-city research program continues.
Conflicts in urban peripheries in Europe
Land Use Policy, 2023
Urbanization is a global trend which is taking place at the costs of agricultural, forest, and other natural or seminatural areas. As a result of urbanization, transitioning zones in urban peripheries located between urban and rural areas have a mixed character from a spatial, ecological, socio-demographic, and economic point of view. Different land use mixes and interests exist there in parallel and cause tensions and conflicts. In our research, we aimed at investigating the specific characteristics of conflicts in urban peripheries across Europe, showing striking examples and discussing possible recommendations for policy and planning addressing those conflicts. A structured literature review of 94 papers was conducted. The findings reflected a huge diversity in locations, contexts, and methods. Conflicts in urban peripheries in Europe is an interdisciplinary topic that is handled by social as well as natural sciences. We have identified four main conflict categories in urban peripheries: (a) landuse conflicts that relate to diverging interest in land use, (b) socioeconomic conflicts that related to social aspects emerging between governance actors and different economic interests, (c) ethnic conflicts that related to race, religion, and custom, and (d) human-wildlife conflicts. The majority of papers were found in the category of landuse conflicts in urban peripheries. The main conflict topics in urban peripheries were related to socioeconomic imbalances, house construction, and ethnic differences. Several types of governance actors and conflict topics could be assigned to each conflict category showing the variety in this context. A general recommendation to mitigate conflicts in urban peripheries could be a combination of various top-down and bottom-up policy and planning approaches, consulted and implemented by the governance actors who have been sensitized for the different viewpoints.
Before and after urban warfare: Conflict prevention and transitions in cities
The rising pressures of urbanization in fragile and conflict-affected countries have increased concerns about the vulnerability of cities to armed threats. Changes in the character of armed conflict during the twenty-first century and its effects on cities in the developing world have exposed gaps in the planning and practice of peace and security, which retain a " nation-State bias " that circumvents local perspectives and agencies. Whereas full-scale use of military power in cities remains as destructive today as it has ever been, international organizations such as the United Nations have called for changed approaches to State tactics in urban areas. Mechanisms designed to prevent conflict or to help countries transition back to peace are particularly key if massive human and economic damages are to be avoided in a world of increasingly dense cities. Another key concern is the vulnerability of developing-world cities to low-intensity, if protracted, forms of violence by non-State actors, particularly in post-conflict contexts.
Peacebuilding , 2023
This special issue explores geographies of peace in violently contested cities – cities where the socio-political order is contested by actors who use violence and repression to either challenge or reinforce the prevailing distribution of power and political, economic, and social control. The articles within the special issue theorise and explore where, when, how, and why urban conflicts manifest themselves in the context of contested cities. Together, they also uncover strategies and mechanisms that can break dynamics of violence and repression, lead to urban coexistence, and generate peaceful relations in cities, grounding their analyses in rich case studies of different violently contested cities. The special issue thereby advances the research front on violently contested cities by studying their previously underexplored constructive potential. Bringing together different disciplinary perspectives, the special issue speaks to broader issues of conflicted and conflict-driven urbanisation, political violence in cities, and wider processes of urban change.
Urbanisation, Violence and City-Led Policymaking
As the global population is increasing – especially in Africa, Asia and Latin America – and ever more people are moving to cities, urbanisation is shaping the security environment. Although urbanisation is often associated with higher levels of socio-economic development and prosperity, the phenomenon also creates societal problems, particularly when combined with rapid population growth. Fast-paced, unmanaged and poorly serviced urbanisation generates an array of infrastructural, economic, social and security challenges. These problems are most apparent in slums and other informal settlements, where unofficial, often illicit governance and economic structures challenge the host state and licit economy. Many such areas become disputed territories: pockets of high-intensity armed activity in which governance challenges and the activities of non-state armed groups converge.
Working Paper 85. Cities, Conflict and State Fragility
2011
Cities have long been connected with processes of bureaucratisation and state building, as they have been to conflict and war. In bringing these two associations together Charles Tilly (1992) provided a useful analytical linchpin by famously highlighting the interaction between cities and war making as a critical factor in state making. He showed how in early modern Europe urban merchants struck bargains with medieval power brokers when agreeing to help fund wars aimed at extending or consolidating sovereignty. The intersection of cities, states and violent conflict remains significant today, although it manifests in different and more complex ways, particularly under conditions of state fragility. Urban politics are critically important to the way social tensions and antagonisms are managed in cities. We identify four ways in which this occurs: i) manipulation of contestation into violent conflict; ii) deferral and/or suppression of contestation; iii) clientelist cooption of the aggrieved; and iv) fostering of generative engagement. Each of these has a distinct impact on state fragility through processes of state erosion, consolidation and transformation. The third and fourth of these approaches offer the best route for avoiding conflict in the medium and long term; but only the last is likely to allow for state transformation and dynamic development. Civic conflict can be positive and creative, but when violent and destructive it represents a significant contemporary threat to human security, state consolidation and development. Peace settlements and reconstruction processes brokered nationally need to take careful account of their impact on urban populations and the state at city level. 'Post'-conflict urban stability cannot be taken for granted, especially in the context of state fragility, while reconstruction efforts can actually undermine the potential of cities to accommodate inclusive political coalitions that promote development and state transformation in the city and beyond.
New frontiers in twenty-first century urban conflict and violence
Environment and Urbanization, 2014
that establish parameters within which something is identified, made into a problem (7) and acted upon as a humanitarian concern …", such that, as Antonio Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees has commented, "… increasingly, cities will be the main site of humanitarian response to the needs of the population." (8) a. from violence reduction towards its management and contestation
Urban peace, a spatial approach
2021
This paper presents research in developing spatial approaches to peacebuilding in post-conflict cities. While studies of postwar cities usually focus on past violence and continuous divisions, we in addition look at spaces where the coming together of people from different ethnonational groups is unproblematic. To Working Papers The interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed Working Paper series provides a forum for critical and original contributions to international debates on peace and conflict. The series is a space to publish ideas in development, innovative conceptual contributions, empirical research, but also practice-oriented and practice-informed insights. We are also interested in contributions that critically reflect on the concept and practice of peace. As such we welcome contributions from scholars, especially those who want their academic work to reach practitioners, practitioners who are looking for a platform for their reflections, early career scholars, and others who seek to contribute to the discussion.
Urban Violence Is Not (Necessarily) a Way of Life: Towards a Political Economy of Conflict in Cities
Urbanization and Development, 2010
Cities generally … comprise a motley of peoples and cultures, of highly differentiated modes of life between which there often is only the faintest communication, the greatest indifference, … occasionally bitter strife, but always the sharpest contrast. (Wirth 1938: 20) As the world moves towards its so-called urban 'tipping point', urbanization in the global South has increasingly come to be portrayed as the portent of a dystopian future characterized by ever-mounting levels of anarchy and brutality. The association between cities, violence, and disorder is not new, however. In a classic article on…/
Urban Planning and its Relationship to Conflict Dynamics
Mahmoud Alturkmani, 2024
Urban planning has been a significant factor in warfare throughout history, yet it has not received systematic scientific evaluation. Viewing conflictual events from a purely planning perspective could lead to a better understanding of the critical dynamics of many of today's civil wars and nations conflicts. Additionally, it can also help recognize how these dynamics influence conflict resolution and post-conflict peacebuilding. This paper argues that urban planning should be seen as an essential piece to contemporary conflict analysis and legislative policy development by governmental authorities, international organizations, donor agencies, NGOs, and privatized firms interested in conflict resolution, et cetera. While there is a growing consensus that there is a certain linkage between urban planning and conflicts continuation and resolution, there are significant disagreements about how important it is in relation to other political, social, cultural, and identity factors. This paper focuses on the relationship between urban planning and conflict dynamics and how it contributes to severe conflicts.
Politics and Conflict in a Contested City
2013
This paper asserts that urban planning is a critical tool in designing an effective, attractive, functioning city. A strong urban planning system provides a way of balancing the interests of various groups (public and private) and communities within the city – under an umbrella that protects the public interest, and allows the city to flourish. In Jerusalem, where planning and ethno-national politics merge, the system of urban planning has been used over the last few decades to achieve Israeli national political goals, bolstering the Israeli population and its control of the land in the city, and limiting the urban development of, and control of land by, the Palestinian community. The paper starts with a brief review of contested cities literature, continues with an analysis of Jerusalem’s urban planning history and concludes with a more contemporary analysis of planning and politics in the contested city of Jerusalem