Fireside Peace Chats: Insights from South Sudan and Uganda

• Date: 19 December
• label.tijd 18:00 - 19:30
• Location: Leiden University College Campus The Hague

Join peacebuilder Dr Mareike Schomerus and Professor Maja Vodopivec in the third instalment of Leiden University’s Fireside Peace Chats to discuss international development and peace processes in South Sudan and Uganda.

The informal, intimate discussion will happen on Monday, December 19, from 6 pm on the first floor of Leiden University College Campus The Hague.

Mareike will talk about her experience in international development and peace processes in South Sudan and Uganda. Her latest book, Lives Amid Violence: Transforming Development in the Wake of Conflict (Bloomsbury Academic, 2023) raises the question of violence and development (open access https://transformingdevelopment.org/ ). How to deal with violence is an acute question, particularly so for international actors who want to support countries in becoming less violent places. Yet, despite long-term and costly efforts to end violence, international development in violent contexts has had disappointing results and has failed to prevent violence from recurring. Mareike Schomerus, in her book Lives Amid Violence, argues that this is because practitioners adhere to a mental model that emphasises linearity, certainty, and causality. This mental model assumes that violence is best addressed through work plans that deliver state-building, stabilisation and services.

Access is free.

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