The Challenge of Critical Theories: Peace Research at the Start of the                New Century

Patomäki, Heikki

doi:10.1177/0022343301038006005

Cited by 40 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 29 publications

(4 reference statements)

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“…Despite of some attempts to re-create PR that is informed by critical theories (for example Alker, 1988;Patomäki, 2001), the mainstream PR has become narrowly empirical. It does not reflect on its ontological foundations, epistemological premises or the origins and implications of its concepts (Rytövuori-Apunen, 1990: 289 11 ).…”

Section: Peace and Securitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Critical Approaches to Security in Europe: A Networked Manifesto

Collective¹

2006

Security Dialogue

280

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In the last decade, critical approaches have substantially reshaped the theoretical landscape of security studies in Europe. Yet, despite an impressive body of literature, there remains a fundamental disagreement as to what counts as critical in this context. Scholars are still arguing in terms of "schools" while there has been an increasing and sustained crossfertilization among critical approaches. Finally, the boundaries between critical and traditional approaches to security remain blurred. The aim of this paper is therefore to assess the evolution of critical views of approaches to security studies in Europe, discuss their theoretical premises, investigate their intellectual ramifications and examine how they coalesce around different issues (such as state of exception). The paper then assesses the political implications of critical approaches. This is done mainly by analysing processes by which critical approaches to security percolate through a growing number of subjects (such as development, peace research, risk/crisis management). Finally, ethical and research implications are explored. IntroductionHIS MANIFESTO IS THE RESULT of collective work. The author of this article is a network of both junior and senior researchers referred to as c.a.s.e. collective who share an interest in critically examining contemporary practices of security. The aim of this paper is to collectively assess the evolution of critical views of security studies in Europe, discuss their theoretical premises, examine how they coalesce around different issues, and investigate their present -and possibly future -intellectual ramifications. The specificity of this text thus lies in the very way it has been thought and written through a networked collective. The article is driven by two broad motivations. First, the authors share the view that, over the past two decades, important innovations in the study of 'security' have emerged among European scholars in particular (Waever 2004a). Although the genesis of these innovations involves scholars on both sides of the Atlantic, these approaches have arguably gained momentum and density in Europe, leading to the emergence of distinctive European research agenda(s) in the traditionally US-dominated field of 'security studies'. Conequently, it was hence felt that time had come to evaluate these 'European' approaches both in order to increase their exposure and to push them further in specific directions. Second, the aim of working and writing as a collective, a network of scholars who do not agree on everything yet do share a common perspective, is based on the desire to break with the competitive dynamic of individualist research agendas and to establish a network which not only facilitates dialogue but is also able to speak with a collective voice. In this sense, the article can be read as a 'manifesto'. 2 In order to understand the composition of the text, we believe it is important to briefly explain its genesis. After the COST Paris Training School, paper givers and additional PhD candid...

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Section: Peace and Securitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Critical Approaches to Security in Europe: A Networked Manifesto

Collective¹

2006

Security Dialogue

280

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“…It is justified in terms of development, because the state as sovereign has the power to resist and adapt to global f lows and the power to provide freedoms and entitlements to its people. This refocus on the state is also a feature of the critical peace studies called for by Patomäki (2001). The focus on agents offers much to peace studies, since most contemporary research into the cause of violent conflict focuses on the structural conditions that increase the risk of conf lict rather than the decisions of actors to engage in violent acts.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Galtung's is a theory that speaks more of structures than agents (Boulding, 1977;Patomäki, 2001). He explains this as trying to 'liberate myself from the built in actororiented perspective of so much Western social science ' (1985: 145).…”

Section: Peace According To Galtungmentioning

confidence: 99%

Peace and Development: Towards a New Synthesis

Barnett

2008

Journal of Peace Research

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This article develops a theory of peace as freedom that explains some important relationships between peace and development. It does this by critically examining and then synthesizing Johan Galtung's theory of peace as the absence of violence and Amartya Sen's theory of development as freedom. Galtung's theory of peace is clear on the meaning and causes of direct violence, but vague on the details of structural violence. Sen's theory helps overcome many of the problems associated with structural violence, although its focus on agents and the state tends to downplay the importance of larger-scale political and economic processes. In the theory of peace as freedom, peace is defined as, and in praxis is enlarged through, the equitable distribution of economic opportunities, political freedoms, social opportunities, transparency guarantees, protective security and freedom from direct violence. The institutions required for peace as freedom are considered, and it is suggested that the pluralist state is the best model for providing and maintaining peace as freedom. Some implications of this theory for existing and future analyses of the causes of violent conflict are discussed.

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“…85 For Galtung, emancipation takes place at an individual and societal level, and involves 'conscientisation', or 'the dialectic of liberating oneself from the old Self while at the same time creating the new self'. 85 For Galtung, emancipation takes place at an individual and societal level, and involves 'conscientisation', or 'the dialectic of liberating oneself from the old Self while at the same time creating the new self'.…”

Section: A Quality As Control: Affective Peacebuildingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quality/control: international peace interventions and ‘the everyday’

Mitchell¹

2011

Rev. Int. Stud.

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Current discourses about the everyday in relation to international peace interventions focus on two main aspects. First, the perceived quality or qualities of everyday life tend to be attributed to 'local' organisations or actors and assessed positively. Second, the control of life (including bio-political control and governance) tends to be associated with 'international' actors and viewed negatively. This article challenges these key assumptions by contextualising them in social and political theories of the everyday and in two key examples: 'affective' peacebuilding in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and 'threatworks' in Northern Ireland. It also calls for an approach to the 'everyday' in international interventions which moves beyond local/international power dynamics and is attentive to the pluralities of power and practice that emerge in these settings.

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The Challenge of Critical Theories: Peace Research at the Start of the New Century

Cited by 40 publications

References 29 publications

Critical Approaches to Security in Europe: A Networked Manifesto

Critical Approaches to Security in Europe: A Networked Manifesto

Peace and Development: Towards a New Synthesis

Quality/control: international peace interventions and ‘the everyday’

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