Description
This self-reflexive paper attempts to conceptualize whether ethnographic research on everyday co-existence in conflict-affected rural communities has the potential to undermine the dominance of liberal epistemic communities in international peace-building. Truly collaborative action research is not always possible in ethnography with rural communities due to structural constraints, such as lack of resources and, more importantly, systemic prejudices about rural people's agency for social change. Yet, the author argues that there is at least some scope for translating their communal epistemes of peace and co-existence into the actions of peace activists. These actions, informed by the community-centered paradigm, must aim to dismantle “the whole edifice of an epistemic community, founded upon liberal democracy and capitalism” (Richmond 2008) rather than seeking a niche within it, thereby mistakenly believing in the possibility of effecting change from within the system. The critical discussion in this chapter is based on original ethnographic research in Armenian-Azerbaijani rural communities in Georgia, as well as the author’s concurrent personal experience of working with internationally sponsored peace-building in the context of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.
