Governance in conflict

Governance in Conflict is one of the five main research programmes of the Conflict Research Group.

Programme coordinator: Koen Vlassenroot

War and violent conflict are often presented as anarchic, with most basic governance activities abolished and all public services lacking. CRG research programme ‘Governance in Conflict’ wants to challenge this popular assumption, examining the different forms and modes of governance that emerge during conflict. Moreover, after formal peace agreements, modes of governance in conflict often persist.

Often this type of governance is 'hybrid', with multiple actors – rebel groups, state officials, politicians, businesspeople, traditional leaders – levying taxes and providing protection, justice, and other services to specific groups or individuals. The interactions between these different actors–and between them and the people they try to govern– can result in confrontation, but also offer room for negotiation.

CRGs micro-level approach to conflict analysis is particularly well suited to identify and investigate these multiple and hybrid forms of governance in conflict and their impact on populations living in conflict situations.

People

Current Projects:

Nani Mponyaji (contact: Christoph Vogel)
On the pursuit of Islamic Statehood (contact: Marte Beldé)
Rebels in space (contact: Christoph Vogel)
Pro Paix (contact: Koen Vlassenroot)
Polisi Siku Kwa Siku (contact: Michel Thill)
Peacebuilding and conflict management in Muslim Mindanao (contact: Jeroen Adam)
Violence and public order in urban Bangladesh (contact: Bert Suykens)
Local government elections and electoral violence in Bangladesh (contact: Krishna Kumar Saha)
Centre for Public Authority and International Development (CPAID) (contact: Koen Vlassenroot)
Conflict Research Programme (contact: Koen Vlassenroot)

Past Projects

For more info, contact Bert Suykens, unless stated otherwise:

Political order in Middle Bangladesh: Structured subjectivities (contact: Julian B. Kutti g)
Aesthetics of violence: Kashmir in film and other narrative forms
Customary justice and negotiated legitimacy in Southern Shan State, Myanmar (contact: Jeroen Adam)
Understanding the logic of violence in Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), Bangladesh: A micro-level analysis
Sites of memory in North Uganda (contact: David Mwambari)
Governance4Development (G4D) (contact: Thomas Vervisch)
The conundrum of violence against civilians in eastern DRC (contact: Judith Verweijen)
Accommodation of justice for displaced in DRC (contact: Koen Vlassenroot)
Political party activism and community mediation in the Terai, Nepal
Daily Bread, Daily Dread: Everyday interactions between security staff and small-scale economic operators in DR Congo (contact: Judith Verweijen)
Local tax practices and hybrid governance
Decentralization and pastoral women's participation in local governance: A study of Kondoa local authority in Tanzania (contact: Koen Vlassenroot)
Beyond the shadow of war: A study of 'post-conflict' governance in Nepal
Governance in 'rebellious' society: An ethnography of governance complexes in central and northeast India
Local coalitions and the political economy of conflict in India: The analysis of a livelihood complex in Telengana (Andhra Pradesh) and Nagaland (contact: Bert Suykens)
MICROCON - A Micro Level Analysis of Violent Conflict (contact: Koen Vlassenroot)
MICROCON Project 28: The political economy of entitlement to resources in rural Tanzania – an institutional perspective (contact: Koen Vlassenroot)
Failed states or failed paradigms? Political order in non-state societies: West-, Central-Africa and the Horn (contact: Koen Vlassenroot)
The role and position of civil society in processes of decentralization in comparative research in Burkina Faso, Uganda, Cambodja and Equador (contact: Koen Vlassenroot)