Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The overall ambition of this research endeavour is to emplace the analysis of peace, peacebuilding and agency in their appropriate spatial and temporal context. The authors' thinking is inspired by three strands of research that can be seen to make up the spatial turn in Peace and Conflict Studies, namely Critical Peace Studies to rethink what peace is, for whom and where it takes place; and Critical Human Geography to focus on the mutual constitution of space and place. Peace and conflict research has traditionally paid more attention to conflict than to peace. When discussing methods of research inquiry, this chapter singles out a number of diagnostic sites of analysis, such as pathways, places of commemoration and of belonging as well as spaces of interaction. This book hence provides a spatial perspective on the complex architecture of peace.