Peace Infrastructures and State-Building at the Margins in a Philippine Province

Abstract

<p>Since its beginnings at the end of the Cold War, liberal peace-building has become increasingly coterminous with state-building. Its results have been mixed, both in terms of securing the peace at the level of the state, and, where local communities are concerned, often leaving unpeaceful conditions in place. In recent years practitioners and researchers have increasingly turned to the local level of society to better understand those processes that generate violence and those that contribute to peace.</p> <p>The creation of peace infrastructures – networks of institutions spanning all levels of society that contain the expertise of conflict resolution and which address conflict – has been proposed as a way of addressing the shortcomings of peace-building at the local level.</p> <p>This thesis is a pioneering critical investigation of the relationship between liberal peace-building and peace infrastructures. The relationship is guided by statism, the under-theorised ideological underpinning of contemporary peace-building. The thesis argues that the model that has come to dominate the discourse and practice is deeply statist, and that this typically sees peace infrastructures deployed as a more efficient means to liberal peace-building, rather than harnessing its transformatory potential to rethink some of the underlying assumptions of peace-building itself. </p> <p>Through a qualitative study of the Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan (Peaceful and Prosperous Community – PAMANA) programme of the Philippine government, this research shows, first, the limitations of a centrally planned peace infrastructure oriented towards state-building in attempting to transform society. The emergence of diverse forms of engagement with the programme in villages illustrates its hybridisation, and resultant tendency to deviate from its planners’ intended outcomes. Second, it puts the internal contradictions of state-building in a stark light, revealing the inherently fragmented and conflictual nature of the state. The internal contradictions of state-building are not incidental, but rooted in the fundamental tenets of contemporary peace-building. The thesis shows that the potential of peace infrastructures to transform peace-building is diminished when deployed as a statebuilding project</p> <p>I certify that the ideas, field work, analyses, and conclusions reported in this thesis are entirely my own effort, except where otherwise acknowledged. I also certify that the work is original and has not been previously submitted for any other award, except where otherwise acknowledged.</p>