Pushing the boundaries of peace research: Reconceptualizing and measuring agonistic peace

PUSHPEACE is a 5-year research program (2019-2023) centered around the broad objective of finding new ways to conceptualize and build peace in order to identify ways to create more sustainable peace practices. Three in depth case studies of the peace processes in Colombia, Israel/Palestine and Northern Ireland are conducted. A larger sample of protracted conflict will subsequently be analyzed in order to validate the results of the case studies.

The project challenges shortcomings in current peacebuilding theory by claiming that the possible success of peace processes depends on whether they can turn long-standing violent conflicts into inclusive and plural interactions, suppressing and channeling, yet not eradicating conflict. To that end, it advances an analytical framework where institutional inclusion and identity-change are the two central pillars by which peace is measured.

The project’s guiding concept is agonistic peace and the study aims to answer the following research questions:

- To what extent have processes of recognition and institutional inclusion in the Colombian, Israeli-Palestinian and the Northern Ireland Peace Processes contributed to the creation of agonistic peace in respective society?
- Which are the favoring and/or inhibiting conditions for the creation of agonistic peace in the Colombian, Israeli-Palestinian and Northern Ireland Peace Processes?
- Do the findings from Colombia, Israel/Palestine and Northern Ireland pertaining to the agonistic peace concept apply to the broader category or protracted conflict?

Funded Riksbankens Jubileumsfond through the Swedish Foundations' Starting Grant.