Affiliation:
1. University of Cambridge, UK
2. Makerere University, Uganda
3. University of Ghent, Belgium
Abstract
The limitations of conventional accounts of security and peacebuilding drawing upon the ‘expert’ knowledge of military elites, policymakers and civil society representatives have been widely recognized. This has led security and peacebuilding policymakers, including through the United Nations Women, Peace and Security agenda, to search for alternative forms of knowledge, such as memoirs, photographs or oral histories, that better reflect lived experiences within local communities. Building on existing work on memoirs as knowledge production artefacts and on feminist security studies, this article demystifies experiential security knowledge through an analysis of three memoirs written by women ex-combatants in Uganda. We argue that while the memoirs offer complex and contradictory narratives about women ex-combatants, they are also the products of transnational mediated processes, whereby the interests of power translate complex narratives into consolidated representations and sturdy tropes of the abducted African woman ex-combatant. This means that although the three memoirs provide some hints as to transformative ways of thinking about security and peace, and offer dynamic accounts of personal experiences, they also reflect the politics of dominant representational practices.
Subject
Political Science and International Relations,Sociology and Political Science
Reference91 articles.
1. Akallo G (2009) Statement by Grace Akallo, Security Council Open Debate on Children and Armed Conflict, 29 April 2009. Available at: https://childrenandarmedconflict.un.org/2009/04/29-apr-2009-grace-akallo-at-the-security-council/ (accessed 3 November 2021).
Cited by
3 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献