Problematising UN-local Civil Society Engagement in Peacebuilding: Towards Non-modern Epistemes Through Relationality

ABSTRACT

This article seeks to argue that the problematic engagement between United Nations peacebuilding and local civil society reveals an ontological tension between different forms of conceiving of actors and processes in peacebuilding contexts. Relationality is introduced as a potential analytical breakthrough. The article problematises UN static categorisations as failing to capture the complexity of local civil society and imposing a highly technical form of engagement. Unaware of these limitations, the UN seeks to instrumentalise local civil society to engage it in peacebuilding settings. This pattern is critically presented here as a totalising process through which the UN attempts to secure modernity.