Bringing cities in - the urbanization of critical peacebuilding

As major flashpoints of contemporary conflict, contested cities are intensely resistant towards efforts aimed at reconstruction, reintegration and reconciliation. Peacebuilding undertaken in these cities often fails, leaving them on a continuum between war and peace where their frozen internal conflicts become stumbling blocks of statewide peacebuilding. Interestingly enough, limited attention has been paid to these contested cities, leaving critical peacebuilding alarmingly unaware of the urban dimensions of conflict and the specificity of cities in human societies. I argue that an urbanization of critical peacebuilding is needed and by marrying critical peacebuilding with urban studies I subsequently create a theoretical framework that can be used to understand conflict in contested cities. Through adaption this framework is employed in Mostar (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Mitrovica (Kosovo) as I conceptualize contested cities as 1) frontiers in both the urban and larger conflict, 2) actors with autonomous agency, and 3) arenas for political manifestations and spatializations of peace or conflict. Doing so I advance the knowledge on conflict in cities and cities in conflict, illustrate how peacebuilding has been counterproductive in Mostar and Mitrovica, and introduce the urban dimension into the analytical toolbox of critical peacebuilding. The overarching conclusion is that contested cities need to be addressed with an urban logic in mind