ABSTRACT
There has been much theorizing about masculinities and their enduring associations with warfare and collective violence. As scholars have rightly noted, it is primarily men who participate in war and dominate the discourses and value systems which lead to war. However, in doing so, the experiences and identities of men who remain civilian have largely been ignored. This chapter, therefore, seeks to address this gap by examining the experiences and identities of civilian men within the North of Ireland and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Utilizing empirical evidence, this chapter examines how, in the North of Ireland, civilian men utilized their bodies in order to construct civilian identities which, although ruggedly masculine in nature, ultimately contributed to informal peacebuilding processes. They did so through the pursuit of a sport popular in the region, namely, boxing. By contrast, within the Occupied Territories, the chapter shows how, despite the oppressiveness of occupation and the Israeli checkpoint regime, participants remained civilian and affirmed their masculinities principally through the utilization of various forms of situated knowledge. They thus navigated the complexities of conflict and civilian identity by drawing upon the cultural capital associated with their minds.
