The Spatiality of Violence in Post-war Cities analyses violence in post-war cities from different perspectives and in different parts of the world, with a shared attention to space and how it affects violent dynamics.
The world is urbanising rapidly and cities are increasingly held as the most important arenas for sustainable development. Cities emerging from war are no exception, but across the globe, many post-war cities are ravaged by residual or renewed violence, which threatens progress towards peace and stability. This volume addresses why such violence happens, where and how it manifests, and how it can be prevented. It includes contributions that are informed by both post-war logics and urban particularities, that take intra-city dynamics into account, and that adopt a spatial analysis of the city. They focus on cases around the world, including Medellín (Colombia), Johannesburg (South Africa) and Mitrovica (Kosovo). The volume makes a threefold contribution to the research agenda on violence in post-war cities. First, the contributions nuance our understanding of the causes and forms of the uneven spatial distribution of violence, insecurities, and trauma within and across post-war cities. Second, the collection demonstrates how urban planning and the built environment shape and generate different forms of violence in post-war cities. Third, the contributions explore the challenges, opportunities, and potential unintended consequences of conflict resolution in violent urban settings.
Providing novel insights into the causes and dynamics of violence in post-war cities, and challenges and opportunities for violence reduction, The Spatiality of Violence in Post-war Cities will be of great interest to scholars of peace, violence, conflict and its resolution, urban studies, built environment and planning.
The chapters were originally published as a special issue of Third World Thematics.
Table of Contents:
1. Introduction: The spatiality of violence in post-war cities Emma Elfversson, Ivan Gusic and Kristine Höglund 2. Conflict termination, signals of state weakness and violent urban social disorder in the developing world Henry Thompson 3. Uninvited citizens: violence, spatiality and urban ruination in postwar and postsocialist Bosnia and Herzegovina Azra Hromadžić 4. Navigating urban encounters: an infrastructural perspective on violence in Johannesburg’s taxi industry Silvia Danielak 5. Urban peacekeeping under siege: attacks on African Union peacekeepers in Mogadishu, 2007–2009 Emma Elfversson, Sara Lindberg Bromley and Paul D. Williams 6. The role of power for non-state armed groups in cities: marginalised spaces and transitions from armed conflict Antônio Sampaio 7. Inclusive peace mediation in the city: spatial segregation of violence and urban politics of ‘social’ inclusion in gang truces Emma van Santen 8. Urban restructuring, social economics and violence after conflict Brendan Murtagh, Andrew Grounds, Philip Boland and Linda Fox-Rogers 9. Grasping the empirical realities of peace in post-war northern Mitrovica Anna Jarstad and Sandra Segall
