London School of Economics

Graduate Student, International Relations

Thesis Title: 'Grass-roots' Human (In)Security: Civil Society and the Politics of Peacebuilding in Post-war Sri Lanka

About

My PhD dissertation utilizes a Critical 'Grass-roots' Human Security lens to explore the experiences and everyday spaces for grass-roots, local civil society (LCS) organising in contemporary instances of conflict and post-conflict peacebuilding. Specifically, my thesis conducts a 'bottom-up' analysis of the politics of peacebuilding in repressive societies using a case study of post-war Sri Lanka.

Repeatedly the dominant liberal approach to peace has focused on 'one-fits-all' agreements that privilege certain values, systems and actors, overlooking the politics of identity, power, gender, security and the legacies of colonialism on prospects for peace. Furthermore, deeper questions surrounding peacebuilding often fail to be 'unpacked' such as for whom is peace sought, whose peace is implemented, and does peace necessarily equal security?

By re-framing conflict through a Critical Human Security approach that focuses on re-thinking security from below, the grass-roots can be brought into the center of explorations of peacebuilding rather than remaining on the periphery. From this perspective, the provision of security of the individual is no longer confined solely to state institutions as a consequence of national security, but derives from a critical theory standpoint that focuses on contextualisation, power, perception, and 'everyday' spaces in peace and conflict.

My dissertation aims to develop deeper understandings of the nature of grass-roots civil society experiences in order to bring new dimensions to discourses on peace and security. Specifically my research examines (1) perceptions of (in)security, peace and civil society held by grass-roots actors; (2) the roles that grass-roots civil society plays in peacebuilding, including the ways that civil society actors exercise agency; and (3) conflict dynamics and dimensions of power that interface between state-civil-military relations and global-local civil society.

Areas of current research expertise include: civil society, social movements, peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction, third-party dispute resolution/management, human security, social economy, and government/civil society sector relationships.

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