Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: War generates multiple legitimate claims for recognition, redress, political representation, and institutional response. When only partially compatible, these claims may intensify social tensions and political polarization. The study examines this conflict-generating mechanism through conceptual and comparative analysis and a conflict-sensitive approach, drawing primarily on the Ukrainian experience of full-scale war and evidence from other conflict-affected societies.The study conceptualizes competing justice claims as legitimate but not fully compatible demands seeking political recognition and institutional response. Their conflict-generating potential increases when claims and their holders become mutually delegitimized, so that recognition of one group’s demands is perceived as denial of another group’s legitimate experience. The concept of “justice gaps” describes discrepancies between experienced harm, its societal recognition, political representation, and institutional response. The study conceptualizes peacebuilding advocacy as a political practice that advances a legitimate justice claim while considering its effects on other claims, intergroup relations, the legitimacy of political decisions, and risks of polarization. The analysis demonstrates that advocacy effectiveness and peacebuilding impact are not equivalent: advancing one group’s demands may deepen perceptions of injustice among others.The theoretical contribution lies in integrating justice, advocacy, and peacebuilding within a common analytical logic and identifying conflict-sensitive reflexivity as a qualitative characteristic of peacebuilding advocacy. The proposed approach can inform the assessment of advocacy strategies and public policies in war-affected societies. The study’s originality lies in conceptualizing competing justice claims as a conflict-generating mechanism and introducing justice gaps as an analytical concept. Its theoretical design limits empirical generalization; further research should operationalize and test the proposed model in Ukraine and other war-affected societies. The article is theoretical.
Source: Grani
Authors: Лепський, Максим, Лепська, Наталія
Institution: Zaporizhzhia National University
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7225678317