Conflict continuities

Many conflicts in Africa have been studied and described as location and time bound. Yet conflict is rarely confined and contained, and instead reaches across communities, borders, and generations. Conflict and peace are processes grounded in everyday, local as well larger, geopolitical dynamics. In this collaborative research group we foreground contemporary situations of largescale, societal and political conflict, to then shift focus to what happens outside and beyond the conflict core: as its continuities.

We develop research along three axes of continuities, acknowledging that these axes sometimes overlap, coincide, and depend on each other. Namely, continuities in time, in geographical and virtual space, and in the networks of actors involved in conflict and peacemaking. We explore the forces that drive conflict continuities, but also question how over time, space, and actors, continuities may entail disruption and transformation. In this way, we seek to contribute to and bring further critical debates on how to conceptualise and study conflict and crisis. Moreover, we critically engage with the deeper currents and particularities of Africa’s contemporary conflicts, questioning and shedding new light on, among other things, ideas of New Wars, networked conflicts, the blurring boundaries between crime and conflict, competing understandings of ‘peace,’ and how African experiences relate to and shape global conflict and peace dynamics.

Throughout our activities, we foreground questions on the conceptualisation of, and methodological approaches to, ‘grasping’ the inherently fleeting conflict continuities. In doing so, we aim to contribute to developing a toolbox for critical research and a solid foundation of knowledge on conflict continuities at once.

Core activities

As a CRG we organise and participate in the following core activities:

1. Regular public seminars

2. Writing workshops for members

3. Peer review and feedback seminars for members

4. We host Visiting Fellows as part of the ASCL Visiting fellowship programme

In addition, we also happily support research activities initiated by members or colleagues elsewhere working on related themes. As such, we seek to fulfil our ambitions in team spirit.

Top photo: Laissez-passer of Congolese refugee in Rwanda, 2022, copyright LH Berckmoes

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Group photo of the CRG, taken on 4 July 2023.