Peacebuilding and Spatial Transformation

Annika Björkdahl is Professor of Political Science, Lund University, Sweden, and is author/editor of numerous titles, including Peacebuilding and Friction (Routledge 2016) and Spatializing Peace and Conflict (2015).Stefanie Kappler is Lecturer in Conflict Resolution and Peace Building, Durham University, UK, and is author of Local Agency and Peacebuilding (2014).

• Foreword, Johan GaltungIntroduction: Space, Place and Agency: Mapping Peace Across Sites1. Space, place and agency2. Cyprus: Contesting the Island3. Kosovo: Emplacing the State and Peace(s)4. Bosnia-Herzegovina: The Ethnic Peace5. Northern Ireland: The "Maze of Peace" 6. South Africa: Perpetuating Spatial Apartheid?Conclusion: Reading the Politics of Peace and Conflict Spatially

'This impressive book is the most significant contribution thus far to the growing literature on "the spatial turn" in peace and conflict studies. Because conflict and peace take place in particular spaces, peacemaking is an inherently spatial project. Yet too often geography has been assumed as the inert stage for (supposedly) more fundamental processes. Drawing on fieldwork from around the world, Annika Björkdahl and Stefanie Kappler demonstrate how spatiality is crucial to understanding the role of agency in peacebuilding. Their sophisticated analysis of how this occurs at the intersections of space and place is required reading for anyone wanting to understand how violent places can be transformed into peaceful ones – and why attempts to do this so often fail.' -- Nick Megoran, Newcastle University, UK'Annika Björkdahl and Stefanie Kappler have made me look at the rebuilt historic bridge in Mostar afresh, so I now can see that it is a place that has been turned into a space for stoking on-going distrust. This book also, though, shows how even modest physical places can be transformed, by commitment and creativity, into spaces where post-war tensions can be reduced.' -- Cynthia Enloe, Clark University, USA