Simultaneously inhabited lifeworlds

A phenomenological approach to understanding peace and conflict

Bibliographic Data

ID8911705
AuthorsRoger Mac Ginty (0000-0002-6411-5507, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume60
Issue2
Pages261-285
Publication date2024-11-09
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCooperation and Conflict (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0010-8367 • E-ISSN: 1460-3691
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/00108367241293639
OpenAlexW4404198881
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited66

This article seeks to show the value of a phenomenological lens in understanding conflict-affected societies. In particular, it uses a phenomenological lens to unpack how individuals and communities simultaneously inhabit a number of lifeworlds as part of navigating through life in conflict-affected contexts. A lifeworlds approach, and its emphasis on the micro-dynamics of everyday life, sheds light on the apparent contradictions experienced and lived in conflict-affected contexts. The article utilises Van Manen’s four-part framework of ‘existentials’: lived space (spatiality), lived body (corporeality), lived time (temporality) and lived human relations (relationality or communality) to show how people construct lifeworlds that hold contradictions. In one reading, these contradictions help perpetuate division. In another reading, this ability to inhabit multiple and often contradictory lifeworlds represents everyday diplomacy or a non-escalatory conflict management that allows society to function, even in a dysfunctional way. The article draws on detailed and highly localised research in Colombia, Lebanon and Northern Ireland

Peacebuilding · Political economy · Political science · Sociology · Peace and Human Rights Education · Peacebuilding and International Security · Political Conflict and Governance · Public Administration

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Open DOIOpen Access