Willemijn Verkoren
Biographic Data
| ID | 2290249 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Willemijn Verkoren |
| GIVEN NAMES | Willemijn |
| FAMILY NAME | Verkoren |
| SIGNATURE | VERKOREN W |
| AFFILIATIONS | Radboud University Nijmegen |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 82 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 12 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Hybrid governance in South Sudan: The negotiated state in practice
This article draws on empirical data collected in Yei River County, South Sudan, to contribute to debates on hybrid governance in Africa. Current literature offers a limited understanding of the practical workings of hybridity, and particularly of whether and under what circumstances hybridity may meet the interests and solve the problems of citizens. This article discusses how subsequent historical attempts at state-building have left a complex …
Civil society during war: The case of Yemen
Although important roles in peacebuilding are attributed to civil society (CS), few studies have so far analysed how CS actors fare amid ongoing war. Our empirical analysis of CS organisations in Yemen shows that their potential for peacebuilding is severely restrained not only by the security situation but also by political capture, corruption, and problems associated with foreign support. Our findings have implications for theories on CS and pe…
Organizing against Land Grabbing in Cambodia: Exploring Missing Links
Using a case study of Prey Lang Community Network (PLCN) in Cambodia, this article adds to emerging literature on local responses to land grabbing. While much of this literature has focused on political opportunity structures, this article looks at the agency of local groups organizing in response to land grabbing. Noting that organization and connections have been 'missing links' in the literature, the authors draw on thinking on collective acti…
Peacebuilding and Friction: Global and Local Encounters in Post Conflict-Societies
Introduction: Peacebuilding through the lens of friction, Annika Bjorkdahl, Kristine Hoglund, Gearold Millar, Jair van der Lijn, and Willemijn Verkoren 1. Frictional spaces: Transitional justice between the global and the local, Susanne Buckley Zistel 2. Respecting complexity: Compound friction and unpredictability in peacebuilding, Gearoid Millar 3. Frictional commemoration. Local agency and cosmopolitan politics at memorial sites in Bosnia-Herz…
Civil society in a divided society: Linking legitimacy and ethnicness of civil society organizations in Bosnia-Herzegovina
Civil society (CS) strengthening is central to peacebuilding policies for divided, post-war societies. However, it has been criticized for creating internationalized organizations without local backing, unable to represent citizens' interests. Based on in-depth empirical research in Bosnia-Herzegovina, this article focuses on the legitimacy of CS organizations (CSOs). It explores why legitimacy for donors rarely accompanies legitimacy for local a…
Understanding Power in Hybrid Political Orders: Applying Stakeholder Analysis to Land Conflicts in Cambodia
Current peacebuilding debates centre around the idea that international and local activities need to be better aligned. However, the distinction between ‘local’ and ‘international’ actors and processes obscures both power and interest differentials among actors and the various interconnections between international, national and local actors and discourses. This article proposes stakeholder analysis as a way to help understand power relations amo…
Peacebuilding Plans and Local Reconfigurations: Frictions between Imported Processes and Indigenous Practices
What happens when global meets local? This special issue focuses on the dynamic interaction between externally conceived plans for peacebuilding intervention and local people's own approaches and strategies. The notion of ‘friction’ provides a perspective that acknowledges the unpredictable and unexpected nature of this interaction. The ‘hybrid’ outcomes of such dynamic interactions can vary in extent and success, as peacebuilding plans are rerou…
Civil Society in Peacebuilding: Global Discourse, Local Reality
This article analyses frictions in strengthening civil society (CS) for peacebuilding. It argues that frictions are caused by the fact that policies for CS support in post-conflict settings are rooted in a Western discourse on the role of civic actors in politics and society. Consequently, intervention practices do not match local practices of civil society in non-Western, conflict-affected countries. In trying to locate suitable local counterpar…
State Building in a Rentier State: How Development Policies Fail to Promote Democracy in Afghanistan
State building is considered to be the solution to Afghanistan's ills. State-building efforts largely aim to mirror Afghanistan to a market democracy. However, a market democracy is the outcome of specific historical and geo-graphical circumstances, and cannot be replicated easily. This article explores four models of state formation: the Western, developmental, rentier and predatory state. Afghanistan can be characterized as a weak rentier state…
Complexities and Challenges for Civil Society Building in Post-Conflict Settings
Strengthening or even ‘building’ civil society has become a preoccupation of international development actors working in post-conflict settings. However, how to do so effectively remains a difficult and theoretically underexplored question. This article identifies two core challenges. The first is how to overcome the discrepancy between what international development actors aim to achieve in building civil society – namely the strengthening of th…
Thinking beyond the liberal peace: From utopia to heterotopias
Learning by Southern Peace NGOs
Literature and policies on learning by NGOs focus on internal processes in Northern organisations. This article examines the learning processes of Southern NGOs by studying peacebuilding organisations in several African and Asian countries. These organisations learn mostly in an interactive way, emphasising exchange with other practitioners and beneficiaries. However, these learning strategies are limited by competition and distrust among SNGOs a…
The Owl and the Dove: Knowledge Strategies to Improve the Peacebuilding Practice of Local Non-Governmental Organisations
Local non-governmental organisations in conflict-torn countries find themselves in rapidly changing circumstances. This calls for flexibility and the capacity to learn. Locally appropriate ways to deal with conflict are needed but difficult to find. Peacebuilders (the dove) face various constraints as they develop and share their knowledge (the owl). Based on research carried out mainly in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cambodia, and the Philippines, The…
Postconflict Development: Meeting New Challenges
With the proliferation of civil wars since the end of the Cold War, many developing countries now exist in a "postconflict" environment, posing enormous development challenges for the societies affected, as well as for international actors. Postconflict Development addresses these challenges in a range of vital sectors—security, justice, economic policy, education, the media, agriculture, health, and the environment in countries around the globe.…
Peacebuilding Plans and Local Reconfigurations: Frictions between Imported Processes and Indigenous Practices
What happens when global meets local? This special issue focuses on the dynamic interaction between externally conceived plans for peacebuilding intervention and local people's own approaches and strategies. The notion of ‘friction’ provides a perspective that acknowledges the unpredictable and unexpected nature of this interaction. The ‘hybrid’ outcomes of such dynamic interactions can vary in extent and success, as peacebuilding plans are rerou…
Civil society in a divided society: Linking legitimacy and ethnicness of civil society organizations in Bosnia-Herzegovina
Civil society (CS) strengthening is central to peacebuilding policies for divided, post-war societies. However, it has been criticized for creating internationalized organizations without local backing, unable to represent citizens' interests. Based on in-depth empirical research in Bosnia-Herzegovina, this article focuses on the legitimacy of CS organizations (CSOs). It explores why legitimacy for donors rarely accompanies legitimacy for local a…
Thinking beyond the liberal peace: From utopia to heterotopias
Civil Society in Peacebuilding: Global Discourse, Local Reality
This article analyses frictions in strengthening civil society (CS) for peacebuilding. It argues that frictions are caused by the fact that policies for CS support in post-conflict settings are rooted in a Western discourse on the role of civic actors in politics and society. Consequently, intervention practices do not match local practices of civil society in non-Western, conflict-affected countries. In trying to locate suitable local counterpar…
State Building in a Rentier State: How Development Policies Fail to Promote Democracy in Afghanistan
State building is considered to be the solution to Afghanistan's ills. State-building efforts largely aim to mirror Afghanistan to a market democracy. However, a market democracy is the outcome of specific historical and geo-graphical circumstances, and cannot be replicated easily. This article explores four models of state formation: the Western, developmental, rentier and predatory state. Afghanistan can be characterized as a weak rentier state…
Civil society during war: The case of Yemen
Although important roles in peacebuilding are attributed to civil society (CS), few studies have so far analysed how CS actors fare amid ongoing war. Our empirical analysis of CS organisations in Yemen shows that their potential for peacebuilding is severely restrained not only by the security situation but also by political capture, corruption, and problems associated with foreign support. Our findings have implications for theories on CS and pe…
Understanding Power in Hybrid Political Orders: Applying Stakeholder Analysis to Land Conflicts in Cambodia
Current peacebuilding debates centre around the idea that international and local activities need to be better aligned. However, the distinction between ‘local’ and ‘international’ actors and processes obscures both power and interest differentials among actors and the various interconnections between international, national and local actors and discourses. This article proposes stakeholder analysis as a way to help understand power relations amo…
Complexities and Challenges for Civil Society Building in Post-Conflict Settings
Strengthening or even ‘building’ civil society has become a preoccupation of international development actors working in post-conflict settings. However, how to do so effectively remains a difficult and theoretically underexplored question. This article identifies two core challenges. The first is how to overcome the discrepancy between what international development actors aim to achieve in building civil society – namely the strengthening of th…
Hybrid governance in South Sudan: The negotiated state in practice
This article draws on empirical data collected in Yei River County, South Sudan, to contribute to debates on hybrid governance in Africa. Current literature offers a limited understanding of the practical workings of hybridity, and particularly of whether and under what circumstances hybridity may meet the interests and solve the problems of citizens. This article discusses how subsequent historical attempts at state-building have left a complex …
Organizing against Land Grabbing in Cambodia: Exploring Missing Links
Using a case study of Prey Lang Community Network (PLCN) in Cambodia, this article adds to emerging literature on local responses to land grabbing. While much of this literature has focused on political opportunity structures, this article looks at the agency of local groups organizing in response to land grabbing. Noting that organization and connections have been 'missing links' in the literature, the authors draw on thinking on collective acti…
Postconflict Development: Meeting New Challenges
With the proliferation of civil wars since the end of the Cold War, many developing countries now exist in a "postconflict" environment, posing enormous development challenges for the societies affected, as well as for international actors. Postconflict Development addresses these challenges in a range of vital sectors—security, justice, economic policy, education, the media, agriculture, health, and the environment in countries around the globe.…
The Owl and the Dove: Knowledge Strategies to Improve the Peacebuilding Practice of Local Non-Governmental Organisations
Local non-governmental organisations in conflict-torn countries find themselves in rapidly changing circumstances. This calls for flexibility and the capacity to learn. Locally appropriate ways to deal with conflict are needed but difficult to find. Peacebuilders (the dove) face various constraints as they develop and share their knowledge (the owl). Based on research carried out mainly in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cambodia, and the Philippines, The…
Learning by Southern Peace NGOs
Literature and policies on learning by NGOs focus on internal processes in Northern organisations. This article examines the learning processes of Southern NGOs by studying peacebuilding organisations in several African and Asian countries. These organisations learn mostly in an interactive way, emphasising exchange with other practitioners and beneficiaries. However, these learning strategies are limited by competition and distrust among SNGOs a…
Complexities and Challenges for Civil Society Building in Post-Conflict Settings
Strengthening or even ‘building’ civil society has become a preoccupation of international development actors working in post-conflict settings. However, how to do so effectively remains a difficult and theoretically underexplored question. This article identifies two core challenges. The first is how to overcome the discrepancy between what international development actors aim to achieve in building civil society – namely the strengthening of th…
Thinking beyond the liberal peace: From utopia to heterotopias
Peacebuilding Plans and Local Reconfigurations: Frictions between Imported Processes and Indigenous Practices
What happens when global meets local? This special issue focuses on the dynamic interaction between externally conceived plans for peacebuilding intervention and local people's own approaches and strategies. The notion of ‘friction’ provides a perspective that acknowledges the unpredictable and unexpected nature of this interaction. The ‘hybrid’ outcomes of such dynamic interactions can vary in extent and success, as peacebuilding plans are rerou…
Civil Society in Peacebuilding: Global Discourse, Local Reality
This article analyses frictions in strengthening civil society (CS) for peacebuilding. It argues that frictions are caused by the fact that policies for CS support in post-conflict settings are rooted in a Western discourse on the role of civic actors in politics and society. Consequently, intervention practices do not match local practices of civil society in non-Western, conflict-affected countries. In trying to locate suitable local counterpar…
State Building in a Rentier State: How Development Policies Fail to Promote Democracy in Afghanistan
State building is considered to be the solution to Afghanistan's ills. State-building efforts largely aim to mirror Afghanistan to a market democracy. However, a market democracy is the outcome of specific historical and geo-graphical circumstances, and cannot be replicated easily. This article explores four models of state formation: the Western, developmental, rentier and predatory state. Afghanistan can be characterized as a weak rentier state…
Understanding Power in Hybrid Political Orders: Applying Stakeholder Analysis to Land Conflicts in Cambodia
Current peacebuilding debates centre around the idea that international and local activities need to be better aligned. However, the distinction between ‘local’ and ‘international’ actors and processes obscures both power and interest differentials among actors and the various interconnections between international, national and local actors and discourses. This article proposes stakeholder analysis as a way to help understand power relations amo…
Peacebuilding and Friction: Global and Local Encounters in Post Conflict-Societies
Introduction: Peacebuilding through the lens of friction, Annika Bjorkdahl, Kristine Hoglund, Gearold Millar, Jair van der Lijn, and Willemijn Verkoren 1. Frictional spaces: Transitional justice between the global and the local, Susanne Buckley Zistel 2. Respecting complexity: Compound friction and unpredictability in peacebuilding, Gearoid Millar 3. Frictional commemoration. Local agency and cosmopolitan politics at memorial sites in Bosnia-Herz…
Civil society in a divided society: Linking legitimacy and ethnicness of civil society organizations in Bosnia-Herzegovina
Civil society (CS) strengthening is central to peacebuilding policies for divided, post-war societies. However, it has been criticized for creating internationalized organizations without local backing, unable to represent citizens' interests. Based on in-depth empirical research in Bosnia-Herzegovina, this article focuses on the legitimacy of CS organizations (CSOs). It explores why legitimacy for donors rarely accompanies legitimacy for local a…
Organizing against Land Grabbing in Cambodia: Exploring Missing Links
Using a case study of Prey Lang Community Network (PLCN) in Cambodia, this article adds to emerging literature on local responses to land grabbing. While much of this literature has focused on political opportunity structures, this article looks at the agency of local groups organizing in response to land grabbing. Noting that organization and connections have been 'missing links' in the literature, the authors draw on thinking on collective acti…
Civil society during war: The case of Yemen
Although important roles in peacebuilding are attributed to civil society (CS), few studies have so far analysed how CS actors fare amid ongoing war. Our empirical analysis of CS organisations in Yemen shows that their potential for peacebuilding is severely restrained not only by the security situation but also by political capture, corruption, and problems associated with foreign support. Our findings have implications for theories on CS and pe…
Hybrid governance in South Sudan: The negotiated state in practice
This article draws on empirical data collected in Yei River County, South Sudan, to contribute to debates on hybrid governance in Africa. Current literature offers a limited understanding of the practical workings of hybridity, and particularly of whether and under what circumstances hybridity may meet the interests and solve the problems of citizens. This article discusses how subsequent historical attempts at state-building have left a complex …
Political science (14 works) · Law (11 works) · Peacebuilding and International Security (11 works) · Public Administration (10 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Peacebuilding (8 works) · Politics (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Political economy (7 works) · Political Conflict and Governance (6 works)