The Temporal Dimension in Accounts of Violent Conflict: A Case Study from Darfur

ABSTRACT

This article explores the notion of time in relation to the recording of peace and conflict. In particular the article is interested in how concepts of time (linear, seasonal, vague, precise, etc.) shape the narrative of events – giving them an apparent order. A close look at the mechanics of how accounts of conflict are compiled and presented, and how time is represented within them, reveals an ambiguity and social construction of the temporal dimension in accounts of conflict. This article draws on two data sets on violence in Darfur – one quantitative, one qualitative – to investigate how time is represented, focusing on how ‘events’ are captured and produce real-time actionable data, and how the data sets cope with narratives of chronic insecurity.

KEYWORDS:

• conflict
• data
• security
• framing
• time
• Darfur

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers and to Dr Zuhair Bashar for his assistance with some of the interview material.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Róisín Read is a research associate and coordinator of the ‘Making Peacekeeping Data Work for the International Community’ project at the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute, University of Manchester, UK, looking at the use and production of UN peacekeeping data in Darfur. Her research explores the politics of international interventions in conflict with a special focus on knowledge production and the Sudans ([email protected]).

Roger Mac Ginty is Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute, and the Department of Politics, University of Manchester, UK. His research focus includes peace processes, political violence and local responses to international peace-support interventions. He has conducted field research in Bosnia-Herzgovina, Croatia, Georgia, Jordan, Kosovo, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Uganda and the United States. He edits the journal Peacebuilding (with Oliver Richmond) and a book series with Palgrave entitled ‘Rethinking Political Violence’ ([email protected]).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by The Economic and Social Research Council is the funder [grant number ES/L007479/1].