Mundane Peace and the Politics of Vulnerability: A Nonsolid Feminist Research Agenda

Citation:

Väyrynen, Tarja. 2019. “Mundane Peace and the Politics of Vulnerability: A Nonsolid Feminist Research Agenda.” Peacebuilding 7 (2): 146–59.

Author: Tarja Väyrynen

Abstract:

This article draws on critical feminist theorising and post-colonial theories of the body, relatedness, vulnerability and the everyday to offer an alternative framing of peace and suggest a new research agenda. Although there are multiple ontologies in feminist peace theory, the concern for marginalisation and the understanding of the relational and vulnerable nature of human existence are the key contributions that enable a new take on mundane practices of peace. The article argues that traditional ways of thinking about peace ignore the notion that peace is best studied as an event that arises within mundane and corporeal encounters. Furthermore, the article provides a novel take on eventness that centers peace in the lives of ordinary people, and develops the concept of choreography as a means to grasp the richness and fluidity of the everyday techniques of interaction that are relevant for peace.

Keywords: peace, mundane, gender, feminist theory, vulnerability

Topics: Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Feminisms, Gender, Peacebuilding

Year: 2019