Urban-rural dynamics of community-based conflict management
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Project Leader
Kristine Höglund, Professor
Project Period
2020–ongoing
Other Project Members
Emma Elfversson, Associate Professor
Patrick Mutahi, Researcher
Project Description
In the developing world, rapid urbanisation is reshaping the landscape of violence and conflict management. Sub-Saharan Africa, in particular, will see dramatic rates of in-migration to cities from rural areas. In a region heavily affected by political turmoil, analysts and policymakers have increasingly sought to understand how these factors relate to the challenges of addressing and preventing localized violent conflicts.
While scholarship on violence prevention emphasizes community-oriented strategies to address conflict, it has not been studied how the different conditions in urban and rural areas affect the form, effectiveness and unintended outcomes of such strategies. This project focuses on community policing and has the following research question at its core: How does the rural versus urban context impact on community policing as a strategy for conflict management and violence prevention?
Using both qualitative and quantitative methods the project will compare rural and urban sites of conflict in Kenya to investigate if, why and how the dynamics may differ. The project will advance theory, generate new empirical knowledge and provide research-based policy recommendations of relevance for shaping sustainable conflict management strategies.
Related Publications (selected)
- Elfversson, Emma & Desirée Nilsson (2022). “The pursuit of inclusion: Conditions for civil society inclusion in peace processes in communal conflicts in Kenya.” Cooperation and Conflict, 57(2), 171–190.
- Mutahi, Patrick (2021). Statehood, Sovereignty and Identities: Exploring policing in Kenya’s informal settlements of Mathare and Kaptembwo. Ph.D. dissertation, Edinburgh: School of Political and Social Science, University of Edinburgh.
- Brosché, Johan, Hanne Fjelde, and Kristine Höglund (2020). “Electoral Violence and the Legacy of Authoritarian Rule in Kenya and Zambia.” Journal of Peace Research 57(1).
- Elfversson, Emma and Anders Sjögren (2020). “Do local power-sharing deals reduce ethnopolitical hostility? The effects of ‘negotiated democracy’ in Kenya.” Ethnopolitics 19(1): 45-63.
- Elfversson, Emma, Ivan Gusic, and Kristine Höglund (2019). “The Spatiality of Violence in Post-war Cities.” Third World Thematics: A TWQ Journal 4(2-3): 81-93.
- Mutahi, Patrick & Mutuma Ruteere (2019). “Violence, security and the policing of Kenya’s 2017 elections,” Journal of Eastern African Studies 13(2): 253-271.
- Elfversson, Emma (2019). “The political conditions for local peacemaking: A comparative study of communal conflict resolution in Kenya.” Comparative Political Studies 52(13-14): 2061-2096.
- Elfversson, Emma and Kristine Höglund (2019). “Violence in the City that Belongs to No One: Urban Distinctiveness and Interconnected Insecurities in Nairobi (Kenya).” Conflict, Security and Development 19(4): 347-370.
- Fjelde, Hanne and Kristine Höglund (2018). “Ethnic Politics and Elite Competition: The Roots of Electoral Violence in Kenya.” Violence in African Elections: Between Democracy and Big Man Politics. In M. Söderberg Kovacs and J. Bjarnesen (eds). London, Zed Books.
- Mutahi, Patrick (2018). “Hybrid security governance in Nairobi’s informal settlements.” In: Mkutu K (ed.) Security Governance in East Africa: Pictures of policing from the ground. London: Lexington Books, 59-78.
- Lilja, Jannie and Kristine Höglund (2018). “The Role of the External in Local Peacebuilding: Enabling action – Managing Risk.” Global Governance 24(3): 411-430.
- Elfversson, Emma and Kristine Höglund (2017). “Home of Last resort: Urban Land Conflict and the Nubians in Kibera, Kenya.” Urban Studies 55(8): 1749-1765.