ABSTRACT
A striking feature of situations of protracted conflict is the emergence of multiple structures of authority and regulation that operate next to, and sometimes in opposition to, state institutions. Though it is now clear that such ‘institutional multiplicity’ — as it was called in DiJohn (2008) — is pervasive in conflict and conflictive post-conflict (‘no peace, no war’, Richards 2005) settings, studies of the workings of institutional multiplicity are still limited. It is important, however, to get a better understanding of the kinds of dynamics involved in institutional multiplicity and the social effects it produces on the ground. This will further our understanding of how governance works in conflictive spaces and how local societies cope with, and respond to, conditions of conflict. It will also add to the argument, made in the context of the fragile states debate, that we need to move beyond understandings of conflict in terms of institutional breakdown to understand conflict instead as involving complex dynamics of institutional change.
