WPS and Peacekeeping Economies

Citation:

Jennings, Kathleen M. 2019. "WPS and Peacekeeping Economies." In The Oxford Handbook of Women, Peace, and Security, edited by Sara E. Davies and Jacqui True, 237-47. New York: Oxford University Press. 

Author: Kathleen M. Jennings

Abstract:

In recent years, scholars have sought to understand the relationship between international interveners and locals within peacekeeping communities. To do so, these scholars explore the everyday encounters between these actors through their interactions in the “peacekeeping economy.” Peacekeeping economy refers to the formal and informal economic activity that would or would not occur at a lower scale and pay-rate, without the presence of international peacekeepers and peace-builders. They are highly gendered in ways that accord to common understandings of “women’s work” and “men’s work.” However, the venues and services of the peacekeeping economy offer the rare opportunity for peacekeepers and “ordinary” locals to meet, transact, and interact in peacekeeping environments. This chapter examines the peacekeeping economies in Liberia and the DR Congo gaining unique insight into how the goals of “protection” and “prevention” are understood and embodied in the largely informal, “everyday” spaces that populate peacekeeping environments. Drawing on these case studies, this chapter argues that the everyday political-economic contexts in which peacekeeping missions unfold challenge the WPS aims of gender equality.

Keywords: DR Congo, Liberia, peacekeeping economy, everyday spaces, women's work, men's work

Topics: Economies, Gender, Gender Roles, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, International Organizations, Livelihoods, Peacekeeping Regions: Africa, Central Africa, West Africa Countries: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia

Year: 2019