http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6817-6542
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ABSTRACT
The literature on peacebuilding has increasingly emphasized the importance of the local level – a trend that has been called the local turn. For some researchers, the local turn can improve international peacebuilding interventions, while for others it is an agenda to promote an emancipatory and legitimate peace. There is however mixed evidence backing the argument that addressing local level issues in peacebuilding can make a substantial difference. The local turn reposes on assumptions that appear particularly problematic in an environment characterized by the lack of an elite-level pact, such as a conflict terminated in a military victory. Looking at the crisis in Côte d'Ivoire, which terminated in 2011 with the defeat of former president Laurent Gbagbo, this article highlights how the lack of elite level reconciliation compromises the effectiveness of actions aiming to promote local ‘social cohesion’. It also shows how the discourse and practices of the local turn can be appropriated by semi-authoritarian post-conflict governments in order to depoliticize the peacebuilding process. It concludes that the popularity of the ‘local turn’ among peacebuilders might be due more to the opportunity that it offers to eschew delicate national-level political issues, than to its supposed emancipatory potential.
Acknowledgements
Fieldwork on which this work is based was supported by the Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation, through an Alexander Von Humboldt post-doctoral fellowship. I would like to thank John Heathershaw, Maria Martin de Almagro, the editor Philip Cunliffe and the anonymous reviewers for useful comments that have helped me to improve the manuscript. I would also like to thank Kai Kenkel for the opportunity to present an earlier version of this article at a workshop at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Giulia Piccolino is a Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at Loughborough University. She was awarded her PhD at the University of Florence in Italy in 2012, with a dissertation where she explored the political use of nationalism during the conflict and peace process in Côte d’Ivoire. From 2014 to 2016, she was a Post-doctoral researcher sponsored by the Alexander Von Humboldt foundation at the GIGA Institute of Global and Area Studies in Hamburg. She has carried out extensive fieldwork in West Africa on conflict resolution and peacebuilding and has worked in the field of post-conflict electoral observation and assistance for the United Nations and the Carter Center. Her current research focuses on non-liberal forms of post-conflict reconstruction and on the redeployment of state authority in former rebel-controlled areas. Dr Piccolino has published widely in peer reviewed journals, including African Affairs, Development and Change, Third World Quarterly and Democratization.
ORCID
Giulia Piccolino http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6817-6542
Notes
1 Allouche and Jackson, “Zones of peace.”
2 Piccolino, “Peacebuilding and statebuilding in post-2011 Côte d'Ivoire.”
3 Kalyvas, The Logic of Violence in Civil War; Allouche and Jackson, “Zones of peace.”
4 Autesserre, The Trouble with the Congo.
5 Lederach, Building Peace.
6 Mac Ginty and Richmond, “The Local Turn in Peace Building.”
7 Richmond, A Post-Liberal Peace, 95.
8 Mac Ginty and Richmond, “The Local Turn in Peace Building.”
9 Mac Ginty, “Where Is the Local?”
10 Lederach, Building Peace.
11 Autesserre, “There’s another way to build peace”. See also Autesserre, “The Crisis of Peacekeeping.”
12 Ernstorfer, Chigas, and Vaughan-Lee, “From Little to Large.”
13 Simons et al., “Power-Sharing in Africa’s War Zones.”
14 Stearns, “The Trouble with the Congo.”
15 Mac Ginty, “Where Is the Local?”
16 Ibid.
17 Richmond, A Post-Liberal Peace.
18 Heathershaw, Post-Conflict Tajikistan.
19 Jones, Soares de Oliveira, and Verhoeven, Africa’s Illiberal State-Builders; Lyons, “Victorious Rebels and Postwar Politics.”
20 Lewis, Heathershaw, and Megoran, “Illiberal Peace?”
21 Piccolino, “Winning Wars, Building (Illiberal) Peace?”.
22 Heathershaw, Post-Conflict Tajikistan.
23 Fearon and Laitin, “Violence and the Social Construction of Ethnic Identity,” 853.
24 Kalyvas, The Logic of Violence in Civil War.
25 Stewart, Horizontal Inequalities and Conflict; Cederman, Weidmann, and Gleditsch, “Horizontal Inequalities.”
26 Kalyvas, The Logic of Violence in Civil War.
27 Autesserre, The Trouble with the Congo, 43.
28 Kalyvas, The Logic of Violence in Civil War.
29 Stewart, Horizontal Inequalities and Conflict; Cederman, Weidmann, and Gleditsch, “Horizontal Inequalities.”
30 Fearon and Laitin, “Violence and the Social Construction of Ethnic Identity.”
31 Langer, “Horizontal Inequalities and Violent Conflict.”
32 Erdmann and Engel, “Neopatrimonialism Reconsidered”; Daloz, “‘Big Men’ in Sub-Saharan Africa.”
33 Daloz, “‘Big Men’ in Sub-Saharan Africa.”
34 Bach, “Patrimonialism and Neopatrimonialism.”
35 Posner, “Regime Change and Ethnic Cleavages in Africa.”
36 Olivier de Sardan, “The Eight Modes of Local Governance.”
37 Lemarchand, “Political Clientelism and Ethnicity in Tropical Africa,” 70.
38 Simons and Zanker. “Questioning the Local in Peacebuilding,” 15.
39 Piccolino, “Peacebuilding and statebuilding in post-2011 Côte d'Ivoire.”
40 Lewis, Heathershaw, and Megoran, “Illiberal Peace?”; Piccolino, “Winning Wars, Building (Illiberal) Peace?”.
41 For a discussion of other cases of ‘victor’s peace’, see for instance Piccolino, “Winning Wars, Building (Illiberal) Peace?”; Jones, Soares de Oliveira, and Verhoeven, Africa’s Illiberal State-Builders; Lyons, “Victorious Rebels and Postwar Politics.”
42 Akindès, The Roots of the Military-Political Crises in Côte d’Ivoire; Marshall-Fratani, “The War of ‘Who Is Who’.”
43 Marshall-Fratani, “The War of ‘Who Is Who’.”
44 Akindès, The Roots of the Military-Political Crises in Côte d’Ivoire; Marshall-Fratani, “The War of ‘Who Is Who’.”
45 Langer, “Horizontal Inequalities and Violent Conflict”; Akindès, The Roots of the Military-Political Crises in Côte d’Ivoire.
46 Dembele, “Côte d’Ivoire: La Fracture Communautaire.”
47 Marshall-Fratani, “The War of ‘Who Is Who’.”
48 Charles and Handy. “L’Accord Politique de Ouagadougou.”
49 Piccolino, “David against Goliath in Côte d’Ivoire?”.
50 International Criminal Court, “ICC Trial Chamber I acquits Laurent Gbagbo and Charles Blé Goudé.”
51 Piccolino, “One Step Forward, Two Steps Back?”.
52 Calculation based on République de Côte d’Ivoire, Second tour de l'élection du Président de la République, and Abidjan.net, Election du Président de la République.
53 Piccolino, “Côte d’Ivoire’s president announced an amnesty program.”
54 UNOCI, “Civil Affairs.”
55 UNOCI, “Activity report.”
56 World Bank, “Project Information Document (PID).”
57 Lopes, “La Commission Dialogue Vérité et Réconciliation en Côte d’Ivoire.”
58 The author had the opportunity to compare a confidential summary of the uncensored report and the version published (CDVR, “Rapport Final”).
59 Présidence de Côte d’Ivoire, “Message du Nouvel An 2018 .”
60 PNCS, “Réalisations 2015 en Matière de Cohésion Sociale.”
61 Interview with PNCS official, 27 May 2015, Abidjan.
62 Ministère de la Solidarité, Programme National de Réconciliation, Introduction, 5.
63 Ministère de la Solidarité, Programme National de Réconciliation, ‘Contexte et justification du programme’, 18.
64 Ministère de la Solidarité, Programme National de Réconciliation, ‘Structure du Programme National de Réconciliation et Cohésion Sociale’, 23.
65 Piccolino, “David against Goliath in Côte d’Ivoire?”.
66 Miquel and Rosenberg, “Shadow of Gbagbo.”
67 Gbagbo, “Rapport n.1–2017: interrogations sur la cohésion nationale.”
68 Garat, “Invité Afrique.”
69 Akindès, “‘On ne mange pas les ponts et le goudron’”.
70 Focus group, market women in the Abobo neighbourhood, Association des Femmes la solidarité, Abobo, Abidjan, 20 May 2015; Focus group, youth from the Yao Sehi neighbourhood, Comité de Coordination de la Société Civile de Youpougon, Yopougon, Abidjan, 21 May 2015; Focus group, representatives of students’ syndicates, Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Cocody campus, Abidjan, 27 May 2015; Focus group, representatives of associations of autochthonous women, Sous-préfecture office, Gagnoa, 13 July 2015.
71 Focus group, market women from the Abobo neighbourhood, May 20, 2015, Association des Femmes la solidarité, Abobo, Abidjan; Focus group, youth from Yao Sehi neighbourhood, May 21, 2015, Civil Society Committee of Youpougon, Yopougon, Abidjan.
72 Focus group, representatives of student unions, May 27, 2015, Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Cocody campus, Cocody, Abidjan.
73 Focus group, planters and villagers, June 27, 2015, Village of Seria, Daloa; Interview with NGO official, May 26, 2015, Abidjan.
74 Focus group, Federation of women associations of the Bas Sassandra region, June 17, 2015, Townhall of Daloa, Daloa.
75 Focus group, former internally displaced persons, June 30, 2015, Headquarters ONG Bonne Action, Duékoué.
76 Focus group, Federation of women associations of the Bas Sassandra region, June 17, 2015, Townhall of Daloa, Daloa.
77 Focus group, former internally displaced persons, June 30, 2015, Headquarters ONG Bonne Action, Duékoué,
78 Focus group, planters and villagers, June 27, 2015, Village of Seria, Daloa
79 Focus group, representatives of associations of women from the autochthonous communities, July 13, 2015, Sous-préfecture office, Gagnoa.
80 Focus group, market women from the Abobo neighbourhood, May 20, 2015, Association des Femmes la solidarité, Abobo, Abidjan.
81 Focus group, representatives of women associations, May 19, 2015, Centre Sociale de Abobo, Abobo, Abidjan.
82 Focus group, youth from Yao Sehi neighbourhood, May 21, 2015, Civil Society Committee of Youpougon, Yopougon, Abidjan.
83 Focus group, representatives of associations of the autochthonous community, July 11, 2015, Restaurant “Le Talier du chef”, Gagnoa.
84 Focus group, planters and villagers, June 27, 2015, Village of Seria, Daloa; Interview with NGO official, May 26, 2015, Abidjan.