Masculinity and Transitional Justice: An Exploratory Essay

In recent years, there has been a growing focus on includingwomen in transitional justice processes. Some scholars questionwhether transitional justice mechanisms take obstacles for women,such as ongoing domestic violence, into account. This articlefollows this line of inquiry using the prism of ongoing violenceagainst women in South Africa. It focuses on masculinity, andquestions the degree to which masculinity, and violent masculinitiesin particular, are considered in transitional justice studies.The article calls for a nuanced understanding of masculinitiesand their relationship to transitional justice, and sets parametersfor a more concerted study of the subject.     

There Is a Crack in Everything: Problematising Masculinities,Peacebuilding and Transitional Justice

The study of masculinity, particularly in peacebuilding and transitional justice contexts, is gradually emerging. The article outlines three fissures evident in the embryonic scholarship, that is the privileging of direct violence and its limited focus, the continuities and discontinuities in militarised violence into peace time, and the tensions between new (less violent) masculinities and wider inclusive social change. The article argues for the importance of making visible the tensions between different masculinities and how masculinities are deeply entangled with systems of power and post-conflict social, political and economic outcomes. An analysis of masculine power within and between the structures aimed at building the peace in societies moving out of violence is considered essential. The article argues for an analysis that moves beyond a preoccupation with preventing violent masculinities from manifesting through the actions of individuals to considering how hidden masculine cultures operate within a variety of hierarchies and social spaces.