Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This paper introduces the special issue on “Conflict and Peace: The Cultural Dimension.” It explains the rationale for this collection, underscoring the global reach, interdisciplinarity, and variety of methodological approaches in this volume. The paper also outlines three collective contributions of the papers: First, it underscores that it is important to take symbols seriously when exploring and explaining conflict and peace. Second, it highlights that cultural expressions and institutions can feed directly into the military strategy and political economy of conflict and violence. Third, the paper shows that practices that help reinterpret cultural expressions may erode mutually exclusive visions of national and ethnic membership in conflict-affected settings. However, transition toward a culture of peace is often constrained by the hardening of identities during conflict, the persistence of forms of structural violence beyond the signing of a peace accord, and the need to acknowledge and accommodate the distinctive expressions of conflict-affected groups without reifying and essentializing mutually exclusive identities. The paper concludes by mapping a promising research agenda on culture and heritage in conflict-affected settings.
Source: Nationalism and Ethnic Politics
Author: Giuditta Fontana
Institution: University of Birmingham
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4407113676