Everyday Lives between Conflict and Peace: Empirical Evidences from the former Soviet Area, 5 cr

The lectures discuss various cases in the former Soviet area, where local diverse communities have managed to establish, maintain and practice their own unique versions of everyday peace following direct and indirect experiences of different forms of violence. In these societies, the deeply engrained traumas and antagonist divisions co-exist with personal affections between members of groups living side by side, care, respect and love towards each other. The course explores from different perspectives the ways in which such communities cope with their traumas and experiences of direct and indirect violence, build and sustain their precarious versions of local peace, demand justice, and strive for the wellbeing. The course also critically evaluates effectiveness of peacebuilding interventions of various state and non-state actors that are often deficient of knowledge and capability to meet local needs and to support the locally established practices of everyday peace. Following the introductory lectures devoted to theoretical aspects of everyday peace, each succeeding lecture presents a case study of a specific conflict-affected environment. The emphasis in class discussion is placed on local peace processes involving various community members and the ways to support them by the appropriate policies of external actors. The lecturers discuss virtues and challenges of peace by analyzing its manifestations through everyday practices of local diverse communities strongly influenced by multidimensional state policies. The main goal of the course is to encourage students to reflect critically on the relation between discourses of conflict and peace and develop an understanding how peace is performed and confronted in different domains of socio-political life. The lectures are delivered by TAPRI members as well as by visiting lecturers who possess profound knowledge about the region, represent different academic disciplines and employ diverse theoretical and methodological approaches.

This course is co-funded by Aleksanteri Institute's Russian and East European Master's School.