BSc International Disaster Management and Humanitarian Response and French / Course details

This module concentrates on the key theoretical and conceptual constructs that can help us understand peacebuilding and place it in a wider context. The module will introduce students to key pieces of literature and place an emphasis on the critical deconstruction of ideas and structures. In keeping with the critical ethos that is associated with the study of peacebuilding in Manchester, strong emphasis will be placed on issues of power, agency and bottom-up approaches to peace. In contrast to traditional International Relations-influenced courses, we will concentrate on the agency that people and communities have in building peace, and in questioning the peace that is rolled out for them as part of internationally-supported peacebuilding missions.

• To interrogate key concepts and theories in peace and conflict studies.
• To understand the different actors and levels of response to peace and conflict
• To scrutinize what peace and conflict mean at the level of the everyday
• To consider the tensions and complementarities between bottom-up and top-down approaches to building peace.
• To consider the nature of power and agency in relation to peace, conflict and resistance.
• To engage critically with relevant literature.

The principal teaching and learning methods will be the lecture (an interactive experience) and the tutorial. These would be supplemented by guided and independent reading and assignments designed to encourage students to engage with course material in meaningful ways. The module will be team-taught by experts in the different areas discussed In addition, students would be encouraged to engage with a list of films (available on YouTube, Kanopy, etc.). The module would be Blackboard compliant.

• To understand the difference between local and international approaches to building peace
• To interrogate what the liberal peace means as a dominant peacebuilding paradigm
• To understand how local populations engage with conflict and peace interventions
• Understanding the intersection between different causes of conflict
• To discuss how international peacebuilding can be made more people-centric
• Knowledge of specific case studies (for instance Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cyprus, Northern Ireland)
• Knowledge of key concepts in the peacebuilding field such as power, agency and resistance
• An understanding of the interplay between international and local approaches to peace
• An understanding of what the everyday means and why it is a political concept
• Develop an understanding of how people cope with and react to conflict in their societies

• Deepen critical appraisal
• Appreciate differing methodological/conceptual perspectives
• Link theoretical/conceptual material with case study material

• Analytical skills
• Discursive and argumentative skills
• Editorial skills
• Presentation skills

• Working autonomously
• Working in teams
• Respecting different views
• Giving feedback to others

• Mac Ginty, Roger, and Andrew Williams. Conflict and development. Routledge, 2016.
• Ramsbotham, Oliver, Hugh Miall, and Tom Woodhouse. Contemporary conflict resolution. Polity, 2011.
• Jabri, Vivienne. Discourses on violence: Conflict analysis reconsidered. Manchester University Press, 1996.
• Mac Ginty, Roger. Routledge handbook of peacebuilding. Routledge, 2013.
• Jeong, Ho-Won. Understanding conflict and conflict analysis. Sage, 2008.
• Cheldelin, Sandra I., Daniel Druckman, and Larissa Fast. Conflict. A&C Black, 2008.