This book offers a grounded framework for Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS) that not only analyses conflict but also actively contributes to the well-being of marginalized communities.
In response to rising authoritarianism and shrinking democratic spaces, the volume calls for inclusive peacebuilding processes that center the voices, experiences, and agency of those historically excluded, particularly those on the periphery of the global system. The book critically engages with the limitations of traditional, Western-centric PACS frameworks and proposes a decolonial restructuring of the field. It foregrounds the lived experiences, knowledge systems, and aspirations of marginalized communities such as artists, members of the diaspora, and LGBTQIA+, thereby challenging dominant paradigms and positioning the periphery as a vital site of transformative action and knowledge production. Through practical, context-sensitive solutions, the volume seeks to make PACS more responsive, equitable, and capable of fostering sustainable peace in an increasingly complex world.
This book will be of much interest to students and practitioners of peace and conflict studies, social justice, development studies, and international relations.
Chapter 1: Introduction: Marginalism, Violence, and Emancipatory Peacebuilding Section I: Mapping Marginalism and Confronting Violence Chapter 2: Am I Complicit? Seven Harms and Seven Remedies Chapter 3: “Ethnopatriarchy:” Mohajir Women, Intersectionality, and Emancipatory Peacebuilding Chapter 4: From the Margins: Informal Markets, Gender, and Everyday Peacebuilding Chapter 5: Reclaiming Peace from the Margins: Queer Necropolitics and Activist Resistance in Bosnia and Herzegovina Chapter 6: Stepping Out Violence in the Venezuelan-Colombian Border: Academics and Local Communities Overcoming Marginalization Chapter 7: Trust and Sustainability in Return Migration: Insights from Conflict-Affected Communities and Implications for Peacebuilding Section II: Creative Resistance and Emancipatory Peacebuilding Chapter 8: The Aesthetics of Peace Chapter 9: Meditations on Core-Periphery Relations, Marginal Spaces, and the Roaming Selves: A Postscript Chapter 10: Spatial Identity and the Migrant’s Impulse: Selfhood, Justice, and Peace Chapter 11: Not in My Backyard, Not My Problem: The Effect of Social Justice Discourse in Calling to Action for Community Wellbeing Chapter 12: Social Inclusion, Peacebuilding, and Reconciliation: Lessons from Northern Ireland’s Peace Programs Chapter 13: Protracted Absence, Disabled People, and Peace and Conflict Studies Chapter 14: Conclusion: Weaving the Margins for Decolonial Peace
Benjamin Maiangwa is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Lakehead University, Ontario, Canada. He is the author of The Crisis of Belonging and Ethnographies of Peacebuilding in Kaduna State, Nigeria (2021), editor of The Paradox(es) of Diasporic Identity, Race and Belonging (2023), and One Boy: A Boarding School Memoir (2026).
