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Justice and reconciliation are both highly complex concepts that are often described as incompatible alternatives in the aftermath of violent conflicts, despite the fact that both are fundamental to peacebuilding in societies divided by the legacies of political violence, oppression and exclusion. This thesis examines the relationship between justice and reconciliation, pursued as essential ingredients of peacebuilding. After advancing an inclusive working conceptual framework in which seemingly competing conceptions regarding justice and reconciliation are reconceived to work compatibly for building peace, the thesis presents the results of an in-depth case study of Rwanda¿s post-genocide justice and reconciliation endeavour. The thesis focuses on Rwanda¿s justice and reconciliation efforts and their relationship to the ongoing challenge of reformulating Rwandans¿ social identities. A field research conducted for this study revealed that issues of victimhood, justice and reconciliation were highly contested among individuals and groups with varied experiences of the country¿s violent history. Resolving these conflicting narratives so that each Rwandan¿s narrative/identity is dissociated from the negation of the other¿s victimhood emerged as a paramount challenge in Rwanda¿s quest for justice and reconciliation. Rwanda¿s approach to justice and reconciliation can be seen as an innovative both/and approach that seeks to overcome dichotomous thinking by addressing various justice and reconciliation concerns in compatible ways. However, by limiting its efforts to the issues that arose from crimes committed under the former regimes, the justice and reconciliation endeavour of the Rwandan government fails to reconcile people¿s conflicting narratives of victimhood, which will be essential to transform the existing racialised and politicised ethnic identities of Rwandan people. / Foundation for Advanced Studies on International Development (FASID)

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning marks the tenth anniversary of the Bradford riot of Saturday 7 to Sunday 8 July 2001. The day began with a peaceful demonstration against a banned Far Right march but ended in one of the most violent examples of unrest in Britain for 20 years. More than 320 police officers were injured as they battled rioters who hurled missiles and petrol bombs, pushed burning cars towards them and torched buildings. Criminal acts of looting characterised the final hours. Riot damages amounted to GBP7.5 million. In the aftermath, nearly 300 arrests took place and nearly 200 were charged with riot leading to prison sentences of four years or more. Images of the riot, and of a smaller disturbance which followed on one of its traditionally 'white' estates, have haunted Bradford ever since. Nine years later, in August 2010, Bradford faced another Far Right provocation. The English Defence League came in force to demonstrate against Bradford's Muslim population. Bradford braced itself. However this time, Asian lads mostly stayed off the streets and the police worked with the council, communities and local activists to keep order against the threat of violence. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning traces Bradford's journey over the decade, beginning with the voices of rioters, police and others interviewed after the 2001 riot and ending with those of former rioters, citizens, police and politicians following the EDL protest. The authors argue that while 2001 reflected a collective failure of Bradford District to address a social legacy of industrial decline in a multicultural context, 2010 revealed how leadership from above combined with leadership from below restored its confidence and opened up possibilities for a new era in Bradford's history and prospects. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning is written by two authors from the University's renowned Department of Peace Studies who balance research with an active commitment to peace, economic regeneration and social justice in Bradford.

In response to the recent surge in migrants entering Italy, the Italian government has implemented several laws since early 2023 to expand the administrative detention system for migrants - mostly males - pending repatriation, commonly known as Centri di Permanenza per il Rimpatr io (CPR). Despite the large body of evidence provided by national humanitarian organizations and academic research concerning their overall detrimental effect - both on national budgets and detainees’ psychophysiological health –, these centers are still deemed as the best way to deal with the migration phenomenon. Nevertheless, the high incidence of self harm episodes recorded within these venues, together with their secrecy and isolation symptomize their problematic nature. Thus, focusing on three different administrative detention facilities located in the Southern Italian regions of Apulia and Sicily, this thesis aims at penetrating these closeted realities in order to raise awareness about the prisoners’ true living conditions and grasp the potential political weight of their self injurious gestures. Moreover, it argues for the need to partially de medicalize the approach toward this specific health issue, as it prevents to acknowledge it as a full fledged expression of rebellion against this specific detention regimeand, simultaneously, to identify the strategies used by authorities to suppress it.

A comparative study on how Swedish media portrayed Syrian refugees in 2015 compared to how the same media portrayed Ukrainian refugees in 2022. This paper presents a thematic analysis of seventynine newspaper articles published in 2015 and 2022 by the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet. The comparison was made to see if the chosen articles portrayed these different groups of refugees differently, and I later engage in a discussion based on the results of the analysis. The thematic analysis showed a difference between the cases in how different themes manifested, as well as what themes were given more space in each case. The discussion later provides a set of different alternative explanations on why these differences exist – engaging with different theories and explanations as to why these cases had such a different impact on and given different portrayals by the Swedish media.

Sweden is a country known for its gender-equal family policies, which prompt fathers toshare childcare responsibilities with their partners. However, lots of immigrants living inSweden might face cultural clashes, if they come from countries where family norms assignfathers the role of breadwinners and mothers that of homemakers. This thesis therefore aimsat studying the experience of fatherhood in Sweden for immigrants from different culturalbackgrounds. It attempts to understand how they relate to the Swedish state's incentives, howthey navigate between their two cultures, and how their social networks influence theirexperience. The findings are presented in the form of a typology of the forms of fatherhoodthat immigrants can develop in a post-migration context. Three types were identified:Modernized-Traditional fathers, Adaptive fathers and Allowed-To-Be-New fathers. Thisresearch thus contributes to the literature on post-migration parenthood and offers insightsinto immigrants’ realities for professionals and policymakers.

My research focuses on the role of historical legacies in shaping conflict dynamics and reinforcing social divisions today. I highlight the importance of equity in creating effective long-term governance and resilient institutions. Using the Philippines southern region of Mindanao as a case study, the three papers in my dissertation come together to provide evidence that the robust relationship between ethnic homogeneity and institutional development may not hold consistently over elongated time frames. I argue that while homogeneous communities are often quicker to organize through informal norms, the slower process of channeling regulations through structured, fixed institutions may sacrifice short term efficiency in favor of long-term durability. Viewing fractionalization as a process, I argue that this institutional trajectory will only unfold when examined through a historical lens and if fractionalization occurs in ways that incentivize collaboration instead of competition between groups. My first paper highlights the importance of a mutual investment in exchange across groups for setting communities on a path towards resiliency to communal conflicts. I argue that communities with histories of religious and ethnolinguistic diversity, alongside intergroup exchange, are more likely to invest in formal processes to resolve disputes, which in time leads to more robust institutions to mediate conflict between groups. I use 1939 census data on local dialects to show that contemporary Peace Zones are more likely to form in areas where members of the majority group invested in learning minority languages historically. The second paper provides evidence that the process of fractionalization, rather than just fractionalization itself, will carry long term consequences for institutional development. I argue that increased ethnic fractionalization during times of low conflict can break down political dynasties, which strengthens long term government responsiveness. Using census and administrative data, I show that where municipalities had higher levels of fractionalization prior to the mass migration and discriminatory laws initiated by US colonial authorities there are higher ratings of local government efficiency today. However, sharper demographic changes during the period of mass migration are associated with decreases in contemporary local government efficiency. The third paper uses original survey data collected on the management of land conflicts to explore where and why some local courts show more bias against minority groups. Survey results show that local government officials are more likely to expect community courts to rule in favor of minority groups in communities that fractionalized prior to mass migration. However, sharper demographic changes during mass migration are associated with a decreased expectation that a member of a minority group will accept the ruling of a local court. I provide evidence that historical institutional arrangements are generating path dependencies by showing that historical fractionalization prior to mass migration is associated with the development of fixed institutions to resolve conflict across multiple time periods historically and today. These papers provide theory and evidence of enhanced institutional resilience and an ability to adapt to new challenges or opportunities in communities with histories of intergroup cooperation. While fractionalization may initially weaken coordination, the institutional arrangements designed to overcome this new barrier can promote long term durability and strengthen a community's ability to effectively manage future conflicts.

This project deals with the experiences of asylum-seeking persons in their struggle to receive protection in different European countries, exploring how the sense of belonging is shaped during fragmented migration journeys. Conducting biographic-narrative interviews with five persons I met while working in a community centre in Greece, the research shifts the gaze from exclusionary citizenship regimes to migrant agency, revealing the distinct tactics, perceptions and performances of belonging on the move. The findings highlight the dynamic nature of belonging, challenging the notion that migration necessarily implies a rupture with significant attachments. Encounters with state and asylum authorities and regulations are experienced as renewed instances of insecurity, hindering belonging, whereas the community centre offers solace and alternative membership. The research partners express a pragmatic sense of “elective belonging” in Germany and Switzerland, based on long-awaited security and existential mobility, despite weakened community ties and the constraints imposed by European migration policies.

The study explored the question of how Kosovar-Albanians living in Sweden identify themselves; whether they felt that they belonged in Sweden, Kosovo or both places, and; the transnational ties they maintain with Kosovo. The study participants included six individuals  with Kosovar-Albanian origins, half of them born in Sweden and the other half who had immigrated to Sweden from Kosovo. The data for the study was collected using semi-structured interviews. The findings of the study suggest that both immigrants born in Sweden to first generation Kosovar immigrants and those born in Kosovo but immigrated to Sweden had fluid and dual identities. Sometimes they identified as Kosovo-Albanians, sometimes they identified as Swedish while at other times they identified as both. Those born in Sweden indicated that they felt that they belonged in Sweden, while those born in Kosovo did not have a clear sense of belonging. The study established that the sense of belonging was determined by the perception of others. Native Swedes did not think the immigrants belonged in Sweden because of their Kosovo-Albanian heritage while those in Kosovo felt that the immigration process had changed the immigrants thus they did not belong in Kosovo. The study established that both the first and second generation immigrants maintained transnational ties with Kosovo.

This thesis explores individual, highly situated, embodied and relational performances of Palestinian-ness based on life history interviews with one Palestinian woman and one LGBTQIA+ Palestinian individual. Based on the concept of performativity and with the help of intersectionality theory, this thesis provides insight into the fluid negotiation of Palestinian-ness through everyday acts and practices. In doing so, this thesis demonstrates the multiple and complex ways in which underrepresented Palestinian profiles navigate their identities at different stages of their life, across time and space. Via employing narrative analysis as a method and as an analytical framework, the participants’ performances of Palestinian-ness were revealed to be articulated in the form of anti-colonial performances, leftist performances, collective performances and performances of multiple Palestinian identities.