Oliver Richmond
The ‘Field’ in the Age of Intervention: Power, Legitimacy, and Authority Versus the ‘Local’
Richmond, Oliver; Kappler, Stefanie; Björkdahl, Annika
Abstract
This article highlights the semantic and socio-political meaning of the ‘field’ as it is used in both academic research and policy practices: as a geographic and material space related to forms of intervention in International Relations (IR), and not as a disciplinary space. We argue that the notion of the ‘field’ carries colonial baggage in terms of denoting ‘backwardness’ and conflictual practices, as well as legitimising the need for intervention by peacebuilding, statebuilding, and development actors located outside the field. We also show how academic practices have tended to create a semiotic frame in which the inhabitants of the research and intervention space are kept at a distance from the researcher, and discursively stripped of their agency. Along similar lines, policy-practice has reinforced the notion of the field as being in need of intervention, making it subject to external control. This article suggests that the agency of the inhabitants of the field has to be re-cognised and de-colonised so that political legitimacy can be recovered from ‘intervention’.
Citation
Richmond, O., Kappler, S., & Björkdahl, A. (2015). The ‘Field’ in the Age of Intervention: Power, Legitimacy, and Authority Versus the ‘Local’. Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 44(1), 23-44. https://doi.org/10.1177/0305829815594871
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Jun 16, 2015 |
Online Publication Date | Jul 31, 2015 |
Publication Date | Sep 1, 2015 |
Deposit Date | Sep 23, 2015 |
Publicly Available Date | Oct 12, 2015 |
Journal | Millennium : journal of international studies |
Print ISSN | 0305-8298 |
Electronic ISSN | 1477-9021 |
Publisher | SAGE Publications |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 44 |
Issue | 1 |
Pages | 23-44 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1177/0305829815594871 |
Keywords | Intervention, Research methodology, Semantics, Agency, Power. |
Public URL | https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1422268 |
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Copyright Statement
Richmond, Oliver and Kappler, Stefanie and Björkdahl, Annika (2015) 'The ‘field’ in the age of intervention : power, legitimacy, and authority versus the ‘local’.', Millennium., 44 (1). pp. 23-44. Copyright © The Author(s) 2015. Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications.
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