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Women, peace and security advocacy in the UK: resisting and (re)producing hierarchies of gender, race, and coloniality
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Achilleos-Sarll, Columba-Isabella (2020) Women, peace and security advocacy in the UK: resisting and (re)producing hierarchies of gender, race, and coloniality. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
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Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b3763643~S15
Abstract
This thesis asks: How do Non-Governmental Organisations advocate for the
Women, Peace and Security agenda in the UK, and with what effects? Although
there is a vast scholarship on civil society generally divided between liberal and
critical perspectives, advocacy has been theoretically overlooked. Understood as
a by-product of advocacy efforts, this literature renders advocates devoid of
complexity and corporeality. Instead, by drawing from postcolonial and
poststructural feminism I theorise advocacy as a discursive and embodied
practice that is intersectional and relational. I contend that, by theorising
advocacy in this way, we are much better placed to think about advocacy not
only as a product, but also as an embodied practice. Moreover, distinguishing
between ‘NGOs’/‘civil society actors’ and ‘civil society’ as a sphere of
interaction and field of power relations, the thesis disrupts the purported
separation of state/non-state and co-opted/independent. This enables an
interrogation of the relationship between the UK Government and NGOs and,
more broadly, as it relates to the discursive-embodied nature of advocacy, as well
as the effects thereof.
This thesis draws from a rich body of original material including 65 interviews
with members of the UK Government and NGOs and documentary material. It
demonstrates how gender, race, and coloniality structure the subject positions of
NGOs advocating for WPS. Rather than always holding the UK Government to
account on WPS, most of the NGOs perform the role of ‘critical friend’ thereby
respecting and contributing to the (re)production of global hierarchies, and
constructions, of geopolitical power. Encouraged to conduct advocacy in
particular ways, advocacy is disciplined and self-disciplined. Examining
advocacy around consultations with civil society organisations in conflict zones,
immigration policy, Northern Ireland, and the regulation of arms, I argue WPS
advocacy is an inherently ambivalent practice challenging and reproducing
dominant understandings of gender, race, and coloniality.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
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Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform J Political Science > JZ International relations |
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Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Non-governmental organizations -- Great Britain, Women and peace -- Great Britain, Women -- Political activity -- Great Britain, Women and war, Civil society -- Great Britain, Women's rights, Human rights advocacy -- Great Britain, Women -- Violence against | ||||
Official Date: | December 2020 | ||||
Dates: |
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Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Theses Department: | Department of Politics and International Studies | ||||
Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Pratt, Nicola Christine, Welland, Julia | ||||
Sponsors: | Economic and Social Research Council (Great Britain) | ||||
Extent: | 335 leaves : illustrations. | ||||
Language: | eng |
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