A tale of three bridges: agency and agonism in peace building

Annika Björkdahl and Johanna Mannergren Selimovic

Third World Quarterly, 2016, vol. 37, issue 2, 321-335

Abstract: This article explores agonistic processes of peace, which are situated within and constitutive of different spaces and places. Three contested cities, Sarajevo, Mostar and Višegrad in Bosnia-Herzegovina, provide us with local sites where peace and peace building in various forms ‘take place’ as people come together in collective action. Through a close reading of three symbolically and materially important bridges in the towns, we reveal meaning-making processes, as agentive subjects struggle around competing claims in the post-conflict everyday world. The collective, situated and fleeting agency that we explore through the Arendtian notion of ‘space of appearance’ invests space with meaning, belonging and identity. Thus, this article grapples with agonistic peace as it manifests itself in materiality and spatial practices. We use the social and material spaces of the city to locate agency and agonism in peace building as they relate to the conflict legacy in Mostar, Višegrad and Sarajevo in order to advance the critical peace research agenda.

Date: 2016
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DOI: 10.1080/01436597.2015.1108825

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