“Critical feminist justpeace”: a grounded theory approach to Women, Peace and Security

ABSTRACT

More than 20 years after the landmark achievement of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, feminist scholars and activists are debating the conditions in which peacebuilders should employ the agenda and those in which they should pursue alternatives. This article argues that the conflict and peacebuilding in Manipur, a state in Northeast India, is ripe for creative thinking beyond WPS. India refuses to acknowledge legally this intractable, low-intensity armed conflict, barring international and humanitarian actors from entry. Moreover, the WPS agenda has failed to reach from New Delhi into the marginalized Northeast region, where plentiful forms of direct and structural violence persist. Thus, rather than rallying around the WPS agenda for this case, feminist scholars and activists should find other ways to support longstanding women’s peacebuilding initiatives. Using Ackerly’s critical feminist methodology, I synthesize inductive insights from women’s peacebuilding praxis and apply them to Lederach’s contextual and relational approach to conflict transformation, revising it to incorporate the gendered concerns of women building peace across ethnic and religious differences. The result is a grounded normative theory called “critical feminist justpeace,” an alternative to the WPS approach.

KEYWORDS:

• Women, Peace and Security agenda
• justpeace
• conflict transformation
• critical feminist methodology
• India

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Interviews

BK, July 2, 2015.

BR, June 25, 2015.

DG, July 5, 2015.

FA, June 5, 2014.

GJ, July 1, 2015.

Anurita Hazarika, July 21, 2015.

Jubita Hazarimayum, June 11, 2014.

HN, July 5, 2015.

IA, June 26, 2015.

IN and MP, July 5, 2015.

JG, July 5, 2015.

Kaushikee, July 1, 2014.

KG, July 5, 2015.

LO, July 6, 2015.

Babloo Loitongbam, June 26, 2015.

Meena Longjam, July 6, 2015.

MZ, June 3, 2014.

Binalakshmi Nepram, June 2, 2014.

Ima Nganbi, June 16, 2014.

NH, July 5, 2015.

RU, June 26, 2015.

Grace Satshang, July 8, 2015.

Ruth Singson, July 5, 2015.

ST, July 2, 2015.

SU, July 7, 2015.

Nandini Thokchom, July 8, 2015.

Notes

1 Hans (2016) highlights the MWGSN’s work with UNSCR 1325 as a promising opportunity. However, I found that women in Manipur were generally unaware of UNSCR 1325, and it was a talking point only in Delhi.

2 I join other feminists engaging with Lederach. See also Confortini (2006), Confortini and Ruane (2014), and Omer (2015).

3 In more recent work, Ackerly (2018, 157) builds on Confortini (2012) in agreeing that intelligent compassion is integral to critical feminist methodology. I worked with Ackerly’s earlier methodology when I was in Manipur; thus, I do not include intelligent compassion here.

4 These were Bidisha Mahanta and Sumshot Khular. Mahanta now works for Zubaan Books and Khular is now a doctoral student in linguistics and philosophy at the University of North Texas, USA. During my field research, Mahanta worked with the MWGSN and Khular was the Vice President of the Naga Women’s Union Manipur.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Karie Cross Riddle

Karie Cross Riddle is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Pepperdine University, USA, where she teaches courses on development, international politics, women and politics, and the politics of South Asia. She is developing a book manuscript called Critical Feminist Justpeace, focused on the peacebuilding praxis of women from Manipur, India.