This volume brings to the fore the spatial dimension of specific places and sites, and assesses how they condition – and are conditioned by – conflict and peace processes. By marrying spatial theories with theories of peace and conflict, the contributors propose a new research agenda to investigate where peace and conflict take place.

This book investigates peacebuilding in post-conflict scenarios by analysing the link between peace, space and place. By focusing on the case studies of Cyprus, Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Northern Ireland and South Africa, the book provides a spatial reading of agency in peacebuilding contexts. It conceptualises peacebuilding agency in post-conflict landscapes as situated between place (material locality) and space (the imaginary counterpart of place), analysing the ways in which peacebuilding agency can be read as a spatial practice. Investigating a number of post-conflict cases, this book outlines infrastructures of power and agency as they are manifested in spatial practice. It demonstrates how spatial agency can take the form of conflict and exclusion on the one hand, but also of transformation towards peace over time on the other hand. Against this background, the book argues that agency drives place-making and space-making processes. Therefore, transformative processes in post-conflict societies can be understood as materialising through the active use and transformation of space and place. This book will be of interest to students of peacebuilding, peace and conflict studies, human geography and IR in general.

This book investigates peacebuilding in post-conflict scenarios by analysing the link between peace, space and place. By focusing on the case studies of Cyprus, Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Northern Ireland and South Africa, the book provides a spatial reading of agency in peacebuilding contexts. It conceptualises peacebuilding agency in post-conflict landscapes as situated between place (material locality) and space (the imaginary counterpart of place), analysing the ways in which peacebuilding agency can be read as a spatial practice. Investigating a number of post-conflict cases, this book outlines infrastructures of power and agency as they are manifested in spatial practice. It demonstrates how spatial agency can take the form of conflict and exclusion on the one hand, but also of transformation towards peace over time on the other hand. Against this background, the book argues that agency drives place-making and space-making processes. Therefore, transformative processes in post-conflict societies can be understood as materialising through the active use and transformation of space and place. This book will be of interest to students of peacebuilding, peace and conflict studies, human geography and IR in general.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Table of Contents -- List of figures -- Acknowledgments -- Foreword -- Abbreviations -- Introduction : Space, Place and Agency - Mapping Peace Across Sites -- Introduction -- Advancing the agenda -- Multi-site ethnography -- Outline of the book -- Bibliography -- 1. Space, Place and Agency -- Introduction -- Spaces and places for the construction of peace -- Rethinking and situating agency in spatial politics -- Place -- Space -- Time -- Agency at the intersection between space and place -- Turning a place into a space (space-making) -- Turning a space into a place (place-making) -- Agency through placeand space-making -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- 2. Cyprus: Contesting the Island -- Introduction -- Emplacing the Cyprus problem: transformations and continuities -- Spatial politics in Cyprus - Famagusta and Varosha -- Place-making -- Space-making -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Interviews -- 3. Kosovo: Emplacing the State and Peace(s) -- Introduction -- Transition towards a state -- Spatial politics: manifesting the state -- Space-making -- Place-making -- Conclusion -- Note -- Bibliography -- Interviews -- 4. Bosnia-Herzegovina: The Ethnic Peace -- Introduction -- Transition from war to ethnic peace -- Spatial politics and the ethnicisation of peace -- Space-making -- Place-making -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Interviews -- 5. Northern Ireland: The 'Maze of Peace' -- Introduction -- Segregating the peace -- Spatial politics - the peace walls in Belfast -- Space-making -- Place-making -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Interviews -- 6. South Africa: Perpetuating Spatial Apartheid? -- Introduction -- Transitions from apartheid -- Spatial politics: mechanisms of exclusion and relocation -- Place-making -- Space-making -- Conclusion -- Notes

This book presents narratives of the social use of space in the divided city of Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Through the narratives of movement in the city, the work demonstrates how residents engage informally with conflict transformation through new movement and use of spaces. This book will appeal across the social sciences, and in particular to students, academics, and researchers in the fields of peace and conflict studies, political sociology, and human geography.

This book illustrates the diversity of current geographies, ontologies, engagements, and epistemologies of peace and conflict. It emphasizes how agencies of peace and conflict occur in geographic settings, and how those settings shape processes of peace and conflict. The essence of the book’s logic is that war and peace are manifestations of the intertwined construction of geographies and politics. Indeed, peace is never completely distinct from war. Each chapter in the book will demonstrate understandings of how the myriad spaces of war and peace are forged by multiple agencies, some possibly contradictory. The goals of these agents vary as peace and war are relational, place-specific processes. The reader will understand the mutual construction of spaces and processes of peace and conflict through engagement with the concepts of agency, the mutual construction of politics and space, geographic scales, multiple geographies, the twin dynamics of empathy/othering and inclusivity/partitioning, and resistance/militarism. The book discusses the intertwined nature of peace and conflict, including reference to the environment, global climate change, borders, technology, and postcolonialism. This book is valuable for instructors teaching a variety of senior level human geography courses, including graduate-level classes. It will appeal to those working in political geography, historical geography, sociology of geographic knowledge, feminist geography, cultural and economic geography, political science, and international relations.