Lisa Strömbom

Thick recognition: Advancing theory on identity change in intractable conflicts

This study relates the concept of recognition to processes of conflict transformation. The recognition concept has been underdeveloped in recent International Relations literature, where the main emphasis has been on interstate relations and on recognition as cause of conflict. This article challenges that understanding through the introduction of the concept of thick recognition. Thus an understanding of recognition which is applicable also in intrastate conflicts is developed. Through a strong emphasis on intrastate relations and identity politics, I develop thoughts on how narratives of war can be reversed through the introduction of narratives of recognition. The study thus provides theoretical concepts and distinctions that can be used as a framework for the study of thick recognition and its relationship to broader processes of conflict transformation. The theoretical framework is employed in a case study on the Israeli debates about ‘New History’. Insights from the case contribute to understandings of inhibiting and facilitating circumstances for the introduction of narratives of thick recognition in conflicted societies. The study ends with a discussion on the usefulness of the theoretical concepts for further work on recognition within the field of International Relations.

Disempowerment and marginalisation of peace NGOs: exposing peace gaps in Israel and Palestine

This article analyses the enabling and restraining conditions of local peace organisations in Israel and Palestine. It utilises the analytical notion of peace gaps to accentuate the interplay between local and elite levels. It also highlights the discrepancies when it comes to expectations of peace, the ability to communicate peace discourses and the power to influence and build wider domestic peace constituencies. The empirical findings reveal how current vertical and horizontal peace gaps result in the disempowerment and marginalisation of local peace NGOs on both sides. Such a precarious situation hinders broader peace mobilisation and is further exacerbated by widespread political apathy and peace fatigue among Israeli and Palestinian publics. By way of conclusion, the article argues for the need to re-politicise and re-negotiate space for a more agonistic peacebuilding, which allows for differences to co-exist.

Towards agonistic peacebuilding? : Exploring the antagonism–agonism nexus in the Middle East Peace process

Many contemporary conflicts are framed as antagonistic and difficult to resolve because of their zero-sum framing among the disputants. This article addresses the antagonism–agonism nexus and the political and contested nature of building peace. It has a three-fold aim: (1) to critically assess the interplay between constructive and destructive dynamics; (2) to analyse the circumstances under which conflict may move from antagonism to agonism; and (3) to advance the novel notion of agonistic peacebuilding. The Middle East Peace process is used as a critical case of intractable conflict to elucidate the enabling and restraining conditions for agonistic peacebuilding.

Whose place?: emplaced narratives and the politics of belonging in East Jerusalem's contested neighbourhood of Silwan

This article explores the relationship between politics of belonging, narratives and place. We do this through a case study of the contested neighbourhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem, partly appropriated by an archaeological excavation site. Three conflicting narratives that make claims to the place are identified. They are geographically anchored, (re)produced in and through the material form of the place, and symbolically retold through social and moral meaning-making activities. Such an emplaced reading makes it possible to understand how divergent narratives produce insecurity and violence when enacted in and through materially and geographically contested sites.

Counter-conduct in divided cities : Resisting urban planning policy in Jerusalem

Abstract This article explores practices of counter-conduct in Jerusalem. Its aims are threefold: (1) to deepen understandings of how practices of counter-conduct relates to the structures it aims to subvert; (2) to probe how counter-conduct is expressed through subjectivities that undermine and bolster relationships in the conflict; (3) to further understandings of resistance against Jerusalem’s urban planning practices. The analytical framework builds on earlier analytical work on counter-conduct, related to the governmentality approach. In that way, the so far underdeveloped notion of resistance in peace and conflict studies is advanced and our knowledge of counter-conduct in divided cities is increased. This article shows that quite intense practices of counter-conduct against current spatial governmentality are taking place in Jerusalem. Small-scale reactive practices tend to succeed, whereas more innovative technologies have been inhibited. Moreover, the study indicates that the divisive dynamics of relationships in conflict trickles down to actors performing counter-conduct, creating antagonistic and destructive dynamics among them.

Boundaries and Recognition in Israeli Counter Narratives

When previously closed state archives were opened to the public in the early 1980s, historians of a new generation used the “new” data to formulate a different historical account of the Jewish collective of Israel, voicing a substantial critique against the message inherent in the master commemorative narratives. The later works regarding history and the subsequent debates touched on different eras in Israeli history, both pre- and post-state building. The largest controversy concerned the creation of the state around 1948, and that controversy is the one focused on in this study.

Thick Recognition — Past and Present

Through the investigation into understandings of identity construction in conflictual settings and the development of the concept of thick recognition, this book has addressed the linkage between the transformation of intractable conflicts and understandings of history. The analysis unpacked the Israeli history debates and divided them into two cycles of narrative constellations, social interactions and narrative elaborations. It was clear that the twists and turns of the debates had clear connections to the general domestic political climate at the time, as well as to the relationship between the conflict’s two main parties. Thus, links between changes in historical understandings and constructions of identity as well as relationship and conflict transformation have been probed. The research served to increase our understanding of processes of identity change in intractable conflicts as commemorative narratives were linked to important narratives of identity and conflict in the present. Hence, the importance of the construction and reconstruction of historical understandings in intractable conflicts has been highlighted.

Thick Recognition and Conflict Transformation

This chapter introduces the concept of thick recognition, which captures the transformative potential of changed understandings of identity in settings of intractable conflict. In the elaboration of the concept of thick recognition, I point to a deep level of conflict analysis, which is well suited for addressing aspects of identity. This approach underlines the importance of endogenous processes among actors within conflict-ridden societies. Thus, possible intrasocietal bases for conflictual change are located. In order to expand knowledge of the transformative potential of changed historical understandings in societies involved in intractable conflict, I also introduce the notion of conflict transformation which furthers the processual approach employed here. An introduction to the fields of recognition and conflict transformation is crucial to the understanding of the rationale of this study. The perspectives also offer valuable insights into hardships and possibilities when it comes to the possibility of changed identities and relations in intractable conflicts characterized by stubborn enemy images and non-recognition such as in Israel/Palestine, Sri Lanka and Cyprus.

Identities in Conflict

This chapter goes deeper into processes of identity construction and points to the transformative potential of narratives of thick recognition when it comes to trajectories of conflicts. The notion of core constructs is introduced as a way to understand why identities, even though they are understood as inherently fluid and changeable, still tend to be stabilized in setting of intractable conflicts. With this serving as a backdrop, the chapter carves out dimensions which are distinctive for narratives of thick recognition, which are: (1) self-transformation; (2) other-transformation; and (3) boundary-transformation. Here the dimensions are elaborated in terms of theory, but they can and will later on be used as analytical devices when assessing if and to what degree different narratives contain elements of thick recognition. In the analytical chapters, it will be evident that they are helpful analytical tools when it comes to assessing constructions of identity in understandings of history. The chapter ends by connecting notions of recognition and identity change to narratives of history — commemorative narratives.

Identity shifts and conflict transfromation - Probing the Israeli history debates

This article investigates narratives of Israeli history and identity and ways in which they can be understood as linked to the transformation of intractable conflicts. By using the case of Israeli New History, this study elaborates on the interplay between master and counter-commemorative narratives of identity and history, and the potential impact of that interaction when it comes to the development of conflict. The Israeli case exhibits an elaboration on societal boundaries and understandings of identity, which makes it apt to illustrate processes in which new understandings of history tie into the development of conflicts.