Travelling Models in Conflict Management. A comparative research and network building project in six African countries

The project is based on the observation that conflicts and efforts inconflict management (i.e. processes concerning conflict dynamics, theirprevention and resolution) are embedded in localised processes andparticular social alliances while simultaneously being informed bytranslocally circulating ideas and models. In the form of theoreticallyinformed empirical studies in selected regions in West Africa,Northeast Africa and Southern Africa, the project asks if and howtranslocal organisational, legal and political models influenceconflict prevention, dynamics and resolution. It analyses how suchmodels are translated into the particular context, i.e. merged withtraditional ways of dealing with conflicts or are rejected. Whilebuilding up a research network across language divides in Africa, thisinterdisciplinary project thus aims at understanding the trans/localcharacter of conflict and conflict management in sub-SaharanAfrica and, more generally, how globally circulating models and ideasare employed in structuring and giving meaning to them.