Journal
CONFLICT SECURITY & DEVELOPMENT
Volume 16, Issue 1, Pages 1-32Publisher
ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
DOI: 10.1080/14678802.2016.1136137
Keywords
Security; justice; SSR; governance; hybridity; Africa; informality; exclusion; state; fragility; authority
Categories
Funding
- International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada
- IDRC
Ask authors/readers for more resources
This article asks whether the concept of 'hybridity' offers a more convincing account of security governance in Africa than the standard state-focused models. It seeks to clarify the complex intersections between formal and informal, state and non-state security actors, and the varied terrains on which hybridity is constructed, instrumentalised and recalibrated over time. Rather than romanticising informal or 'traditional' institutions, it suggests that they too embed their own power hierarchies, become sites of contestation, and do not work equally well for everyone, least of all for the weak, vulnerable and excluded. Thus the focus is placed upon the real governance of security in hybrid systems, and the patterns of inclusion and exclusion (including gender biases) they reinforce. Finally the paper considers how policy-makers and shapers can work with the grain of hybrid security arrangements to create more legitimate, broadly-based and effective African security governance.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available